Poll: 80% of Ukrainians have negative view of China's leader, 99% of Russia's ruler

The majority of Ukrainians have a negative attitude towards China's leader Xi Jinping and Russia's leader Vladimir Putin, according to a survey by the Rating polling organisation conducted as part of Gallup International's End of Year Survey.

Source: Rating

Details: The study found that 80% of respondents view the Chinese leader negatively, with 40% very negatively and another 40% somewhat negatively. Ten per cent expressed a positive opinion, while the remaining 10% were undecided.

Attitudes towards Putin are almost unanimously negative: 99% of Ukrainians reported a negative assessment.

On the international stage, Putin is also largely viewed negatively. The survey has discovered that around two-thirds of respondents in 58 countries gave him a negative rating, with the highest levels of disapproval recorded in the Nordic countries, Estonia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Japan and Spain.

Meanwhile, respondents in Serbia, India, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Thailand, Armenia, Kenya, Mexico, Malaysia and Ecuador view Russia's leader relatively more positively.

For reference: The survey in Ukraine was conducted on 11-14 November 2025 using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). The sample consisted of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and over across all oblasts of Ukraine, excluding the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas, as well as territories without Ukrainian mobile coverage at the time of the survey.

The sample was formed through random dialling of mobile phone numbers, and the results were weighted using up-to-date data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. It is representative by age, gender and type of settlement. The theoretical margin of error does not exceed 3.1% with a confidence level of 0.95.

The international End of Year Survey on world political leaders covers 58 countries, with a total of 57,864 respondents.

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