59% of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy, 37% do not: survey results

Infographics of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

The level of trust in the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has remained unchanged since May 2024. Currently, 59% of Ukrainians trust the head of state, while 37% do not.

This is evidenced by the results of a study conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from September 20 to October 3.

Sociologists note that after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, the level of trust in the president increased to 90%. However, by the end of 2023, it dropped to 77%, and by May 2024 to 59%.

According to the survey, the highest level of mistrust is recorded in the east of Ukraine, where 51% of respondents trust the president, and 45% do not. In other regions, trust indicators vary between 58-62% against 35-38% who do not trust.

Infographics of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

In addition, among those who believe that the West wants a just peace for Ukraine, trust in the president is higher: 69% trust Zelenskyy, while 29% do not.

Infographics of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Sociologists emphasize that the level of trust in the president is an indicator not only of his activities, but also of the general domestic political situation in wartime conditions.

About the methodology:

From September 20 to October 3, 2024, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey «Omnibus», to which, on its own initiative, it added a question about V. Zelenskyy's trust. 2,004 respondents aged 18 and older, who at the time of the survey lived in the territory of Ukraine controlled by the government of Ukraine, were interviewed by the method of telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile numbers. The sample did not include residents of territories that are temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine (at the same time, part of the respondents are IDPs who moved from the occupied territories), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who went abroad after February 24, 2022.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 2.9% for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% for indicators close to 25%, 1.7% — for indicators close to 10%, 1.3% — for indicators close to 5%.

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Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. However, sociologists believe that, despite this, the obtained results still retain high representativeness and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public mood of the population.

It was previously reported that according to the results of the survey, 38% of Ukrainians believe that the West is getting tired of providing aid to Ukraine, but 54% of Ukrainians believe that the West supports the desire to end the war on terms that will be acceptable to Ukraine.

In addition, NikVesti informed that, according to the survey, Ukrainians have different forecasts regarding the duration of the war. 57% think that the conflict will continue for a long time, and 14% hope for its end within 6-12 months.

We will remind you that the data of the study also show that the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to have high trust among citizens and occupy the first place in the corresponding rating. They are trusted by almost all residents of the country.

Survey of residents of Mykolaiv in 2024

An analytical survey in 2024 showed that 18% of Mykolaiv residents do not know whether they will leave the city in the event of another Russian offensive to the south, and 43% of Mykolaiv residents believe that things in the city are going in the wrong direction.

Also, the approval rating of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration decreased from 73% in 2023 to 48% in 2024. And 36% of locals approve of the activities of the Mykolaiv mayor.

After that, the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reacted to the results of the annual municipal survey. He declared the responsibility of the media for the formation of negative «moods» among the population.

65% of Mykolaiv residents answered that they are interested in information about how much money the local government received for reconstruction and how it was spent. At the same time, the citizens rated the quality of the provided services as average : the state of medicine, protective shelters, the work of the police, hospitals and educational institutions.

Almost half of Mykolaiv residents believe that the economic situation in Ukraine will worsen in the next 12 months.