National resilience in Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine created major challenges for this country. As yet however few studies have examined perceptions of national resilience during a period of conflict. We collected online data from across Ukraine during April 2022 (N = 2000) assessing key demographics, national resilience, interpersonal trust, subjective trauma, income change, loss of relatives and coping with health risk. Findings suggested that national resilience could be assessed in this setting using a unifactorial scale. National resilience was high, particularly amongst the young, those with high levels of interpersonal trust, lived in Ukrainian-speaking areas, were not displaced, and felt able to ‘bounce back’ from health threats or hardships. Policy makers need to encourage interpersonal trust and provide appropriate support to older and less mobile populations and those in Russian-speaking areas to ensure continued resilience at a time of national threat.