Poll: Zelenskyy maintains approval rating, but support for former commander-in-chief Zaluzhnyi has dropped by 9% over the year
An opinion poll conducted by the Rating Group has found that if a presidential election were held next Sunday, 32% of Ukrainians would vote for current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the first round, 16% for Valerii Zaluzhnyi, former commander-in-chief and current ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom, and 11% for Kyrylo Budanov, former head of Defence Intelligence and current head of the President's Office.
Source: the results of a poll conducted by the Rating Group on 30 May-3 June 2026
Details: Zelenskyy's approval rating has hardly changed at all since July 2025, rising slightly from 31% to 32%.
However, Zaluzhnyi's rating has fallen from 25% to 16%, widening the gap between him and Zelenskyy from 6 to 16 percentage points.
The largest gain over the year was achieved by Kyrylo Budanov, whose approval rating has risen from 5% to 11%. He ranks third among the potential candidates.
According to the poll, the remainder of the ranking is as follows:
- Petro Poroshenko – 6%
- Oleksandr Usyk – 4%
- Dmytro Razumkov – 4%
- Oleksii Honcharenko – 2%
- Andrii Biletskyi – 2%
- Yuliia Tymoshenko – 2%
- Serhii Prytula – 2%
- Yurii Boiko – 1%.
Another 10% of respondents said they were undecided, 4% said they would not vote, and 1% said they would spoil their ballot paper.
Among the respondents who had decided who to vote for and intended to vote, Zelenskyy would receive 34% of the vote, Zaluzhnyi 16%, and Budanov 12%.
Zelenskyy leads in every region of the country, with 27% in the west, 34% in the centre, 36% in the south, and 29% in the east. In the west, Zaluzhnyi comes in second with 21%, while in the east he is overtaken by Budanov, who has 12% support compared to Zaluzhnyi's 11%.
The poll also showed that Zelenskyy has the highest support among respondents aged 51 and over (36%), while support for Budanov is evenly distributed across all age groups (11–12%). Zaluzhnyi is most popular among older voters, with 20% support in that group.
The poll was conducted by the Rating Group on behalf of the Center for Insights in Survey Research at the International Republican Institute (IRI).
Fieldwork dates: 30 May-3 June 2026. Methodology: CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviews). Sample size: 2,404 respondents aged 18 and over.
The survey covered all oblasts of Ukraine except temporarily occupied territories and areas without Ukrainian mobile coverage at the time of the poll.
The margin of error does not exceed 2%.
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