While Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been ongoing for nearly three years, trust in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky within the country has somewhat declined. This was indicated by a recent survey.
According to data collected by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), as of December 2024, 52% of Ukrainians still trusted Zelensky. 39% expressed distrust, while 9% were undecided. Although trust levels have worsened over the year, the balance of trust and distrust remains positive at +13%, sociologists noted.
The KIIS survey also shows the dynamics of respondents' sentiments. At the end of 2023, 77% of Ukrainians trusted the president. By February 2024, the trust level had decreased to 64%, and by May 2024, it fell to 59%. Meanwhile, the proportion of those who distrust had increased during this period from 22% to 36%.
By October 2024, the figures stabilized, but between October and December of the previous year, trust levels began to decline again. This was more related to a growing uncertainty among respondents about Ukraine's future rather than open distrust of its leadership.
Interestingly, nearly every decline coincided with specific events that could have impacted the situation. According to KIIS, Zelensky's approval rating dropped by about five percentage points after General Valerii Zaluzhnyi left his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in February 2024.
Then in April, just before the May drop in trust, Zelensky signed an unpopular mobilization law that lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25 years and simplified the identification of conscripts across the country.
The autumn decline in trust ratings coincided with a large-scale offensive by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, primarily targeting Pokrovsk and Kurakhovo. Throughout the autumn, Russian forces advanced with a pace and intensity not seen since the early days of the full-scale invasion.
The latest survey was conducted through telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers. A total of 2000 respondents were surveyed across all regions of Ukraine (under the control of the Ukrainian government).
Trust in the president is much more closely related to the level of optimism than to the region of residence. KIIS previously published survey results regarding how optimistically Ukrainians view the future and how they assess unity in society. According to one classification, 50% of Ukrainians can be classified as consistent or mostly consistent optimists, while 23% fall into the category of consistent or mostly consistent pessimists. The remaining 27% have contradictory or uncertain views on the future and the unity of Ukrainians.