The assessment of drought tolerance of winter soft wheat samples by a direct and an indirect method The article presents the results of assessment of drought tolerance of winter soft wheat samples under stress conditions ‘zasushnik’, as well as the results of study of wheat drought resistance according to the degree of seed germination on osmotic solutions. As a result of the studies, there were identified the samples with the highest degree of resistance to drought. According to drought resistance, the most significant values were found in the samples ‘Asket’ (79.3%), ‘1377/06’ (78.7%), ‘Kazachka’ (77.6%), ‘Krasa Dona’ (75.3%), ‘Shef’ (73.5% %), ‘Bonus’ (73.2%), ‘1232/13’ (73.2%), ‘352/11’ (71.6%), ‘Luchezar’ (71.3%), ‘1237/13’ (70.4%). The highest values of the index of complex stability were established in the samples ‘1377/06’ (255.4 per-unit), ‘Asket’ (253.4 per-unit) ‘Kazachka’ (252.1 per-unit), ‘1232/13’ (245.4 per-unit), ‘Shef’ (245,0 per-unit), ‘Krasa Dona’ (244,3 per-unit), ‘Bonus’ (236,9 per-unit), ‘Luchezar’ (236.2 per-unit), ‘352/11’ (240.0 per-unit). One of the indirect methods is the method of determining the level of resistance to complex drought; the samples ‘Asket’ (43%), ‘1237/13’ (40%), ‘Krasa Dona’ (33.0%), ‘260/09’ (31.0%), ‘Kazachka’ (31.0%), ‘1377/06’ (31.0%) showed the highest degree of resistance. In the conditions of model drought in comparison with the optimal conditions, all the studied samples showed a decrease of the trait ‘1000-kernel weight’. One of the reactions to lack of moisture is the reduction of productive stems from 1 m2. The reduction of productive stems in the experiment in relation to the control variety ranged from 4 to 45%. The kernel weight per main head decreased from 36 to 65% was observed in all studied samples. The varieties ‘Asket’ (226.2 g), ‘Krasa Dona’ (191.8) and ‘Lydia’ (190.4 g) produced high grain yields in strongly arid conditions.