Most Ukrainians want post-war government reset, 67% expect Zelenskyy to be replaced – poll

An overwhelming majority of Ukrainians – 88% – expect a reset of the country's central government after the war. In comparison, the share of those expecting a change in the president has risen to 67%, according to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Source: the survey conducted between 7 May and 3 June

Details: KIIS stressed that the findings relate specifically to the post-war period. They noted that KIIS polling has consistently shown that most Ukrainians oppose elections being held before the war ends.

According to the survey, 88% of respondents now expect at least one level of central government to be reset after the war, up from 73% three years ago.

The share of respondents expecting a post-war reset of parliament increased from 69% to 83%, while expectations for changes in the government rose from 47% to 74%. In the case of the presidency, the figure increased from 23% to 67%.

In your opinion, after the end of the war, is it necessary or not to reboot and replace the central government – the President, the Government, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) – to rebuild the country? Choose all that apply.

The poll also examined people's opinions about whether the president should be replaced after the war, based on levels of trust in the incumbent. Among those who completely trust the president, only a minority (33%) believe the presidency should be reset after the war, while the majority oppose such a change.

Expediency of the reboot of the central government at the level of the President after the war in terms of trust in the President % think it's worth a reboot

However, among those who rather trust the president, a majority (68%) support a post-war reset at the presidential level. Among respondents who rather distrust or completely distrust the president, almost all expect a change.

"These results are fully consistent with findings from another question in its April survey on how Ukrainians view Volodymyr Zelenskyy's future after the war. Among those who fully trusted him, 70% said they would like him to remain president after the war, compared with 28% among those who tended to trust him, and 1-2% among those who did not trust him," KIIS said.

Commenting on the survey results, Anton Hrushetskyi, Executive Director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), said that, on the one hand, the majority of Ukrainians continue to trust President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who remains the country's legitimate head of state, while also opposing elections being held before the war ends. Although narratives questioning his legitimacy due to the absence of elections are shared by a segment of the population, meaning information security risks persist, this group remains a minority.

On the other hand, Hrushetskyi noted that a significant proportion of those who trust the president are what he described as state-oriented Ukrainians, for whom rallying around the presidency during the existential war with Russia is important.

"They see grounds to criticise the president – and are more sensitive, for example, to any hypothetical breaches of the separation of powers – but they avoid an uncompromising confrontation with him, because the priority is survival during the war. At the same time, after the war, in peacetime, these same people would like to see someone from a new generation of leaders as president," Hrushetskyi said.

For reference: The KIIS survey was conducted between 7 May and 3 June 2026 using telephone interviews across all government-controlled regions of Ukraine. A total of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and over, all Ukrainian citizens residing in government-controlled territory at the time of the survey, were interviewed.

Under normal circumstances, the statistical margin of error for the sample (with a 95% confidence level and a design effect of 1.3) does not exceed 4.1 percentage points for indicators close to 50%, 3.5 percentage points for indicators around 25%, 2.5 percentage points for indicators around 10%, and 1.8 percentage points for indicators around 5%.

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