Ukraine: President Zelenskyy's popularity took a dip in 2024, poll shows

Ukraine: President Zelenskyy's popularity took a dip in 2024, poll shows
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy © Belga

Most Ukrainians still support President Volodymyr Zelensky after almost three years of Russian invasion, although his approval rating appears to have fallen in 2024, according to the results of a survey published on Tuesday by a specialist institute in Kyiv.

The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a telephone survey of 2,000 people living in Ukrainian-controlled territory between 2 and 17 December, around a month after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, which reignited speculation about possible peace talks with Moscow.

According to the results, at the end of 2024, 52% of Ukrainians polled said they ‘trusted’ Volodymyr Zelensky, a sharp drop from the end of 2023 (77%).

This reflects a loss of support for the Ukrainian president after almost three years of high-intensity warfare.

Current support for the Ukrainian head of state, in office since 2019, is more marked in the West (60%) and the Centre (52%), regions relatively spared by the war, than in the East (only 42%) and the South (46%), where most of the fighting is taking place.

According to the poll, almost 4 out of 10 Ukrainians (39%) now say they ‘do not trust’ Zelensky, almost double the figure for December 2023 (22%).

In recent weeks, the debate on possible peace negotiations with Moscow has intensified, against a backdrop of rapid Russian advances in the eastern Donbass region and the impending return of Donald Trump to the White House - on 20 January.

The Ukrainian president was elected in April 2019, promising in particular to fight for peace with Russia. His popularity rating then declined, before soaring to almost 90% after the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022.


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