Trust in Zelenskyy remains largely unchanged despite protests – survey

Trust in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy among Ukrainians has fallen from 58% to 55% between April and early August, according to a survey.

Source: the survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted on 20 July – 3 August

Details: KIIS said the survey found that 55% of respondents currently trust Zelenskyy, while 40% do not, resulting in a net trust balance of +15%.

In May, 61% of Ukrainians trusted the president, while 34% did not (net trust rating: +27%).

However, the sociologists said it is more appropriate to compare the latest findings with April, when 58% of respondents trusted the president and 36% did not, for a net trust rating of +22%.

"Compared with April, we have recorded a decline in trust in Volodymyr Zelenskyy. However, at least for now, we are not seeing the collapse in public trust that some politicians, experts and commentators have expected following the high-profile personnel changes," KIIS said.

Quote: "However, we may be slightly underestimating the impact of the personnel changes and the protests on the decline in trust. Trust may have risen somewhat in June and the first half of July, for example against the backdrop of strikes on Russian logistics. Had a survey been conducted in early July and shown higher trust than in the spring, the subsequent decline would have appeared more pronounced. In addition, the drop in trust was likely softened by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's partial acceptance of the protesters' demands and by his successful meetings with Donald Trump. Trump's comments questioning the outcome of those meetings came only in the final days of the survey period."

Details: KIIS also noted that the figures should be viewed in context: of the 55% who trust Zelenskyy, 20% said they trust him "completely", while 34% said they "rather" trust him. "However, it is important to note that those who do not trust him are similarly divided: 19% said they do not trust him 'at all', while 20% said they 'rather' do not trust him," KIIS said.

For reference: The KIIS survey was conducted between 20 July and 3 August using telephone interviews across all government-controlled regions of Ukraine. A total of 974 respondents took part. The survey covered Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and over who were residing in government-controlled areas of the country at the time of the poll. It did not include residents of territories temporarily occupied by Russia, although some respondents were internally displaced people who had relocated from those areas. Ukrainians who left the country after 24 February 2022 were also excluded from the survey.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the margin of error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added.

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