Ukrainians' trust in Zelensky decreasing but still high, survey shows
Trust among Ukrainians in President Volodymyr Zelensky has been decreasing since May 2022, but most respondents still trust the head of state, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published on June 7.
Sociologists interviewed 1,002 respondents, aged 18 and older, from all Ukrainian oblasts that are not under Russian occupation.
Some 59% of the respondents trust Zelensky, in contrast to 36% who do not as of May 2024, the survey says.
When Zelensky came to power after the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections, 80% of Ukrainians trusted him, but the number dropped to 37% by February 2022. The level of trust rose again when Russia's full-scale invasion started, skyrocketing to 90%.
As the war goes on, the level of trust is decreasing, according to the survey.
Zelensky retains legitimacy in the eyes of Ukrainian society, and most Ukrainians continue to trust him. Nearly 70-80% of the respondents are against holding elections now, Anton Hrushetskyi, the executive director of the KIIS, said.
Unsuccessful personnel policies, as well as unsuccessful steps in fighting corruption or opposing Russian aggression, were among the top reasons for the criticism of Zelensky.
The respondents mainly focused on the president's team instead of Zelensky himself, but the trend of declining trust indicates that the negative attitude also transfers toward the president, according to Hrushetskyi.
The survey also shows that 55% of Ukrainians assessed the activity of Zelensky's Servant of the People ruling party negatively, while 7% described it as "very good" or "rather good."
One-third of the respondents, 31%, assessed the party's activity "as neither good nor bad."
Kateryna Hodunova
