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Despite the US president’s claims of low support, Zelenskyy’s approval rating reached 57% in February — higher than Trump’s own.
ADVERTISEMENTUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s approval rating grew to 57% at the beginning of February, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) — contrary to US President Donald Trump’s claims that Zelenskyy only has minimal support among the population. Speaking at Mar-a-Lago after his US delegation finished talks with Russia, Trump said that Ukraine needs to hold elections because the Ukrainian leader allegedly has a low approval rating.”We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, where the leader in Ukraine, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating,” Trump stated.”I would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say like, ‘You know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election.’ That’s not a Russia thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also,” he continued.”If someone wants to replace me right now, this won’t be possible,” Zelenskyy said, commenting on the poll results released on Wednesday.”The disinformation about 4% support is coming from Russia. We understand this, and we have evidence that these numbers are being discussed between the US and Russia.”“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly … is living in this disinformation space,” he added. President and authorities deemed legitimateThe latest KIIS poll, showing Zelenskyy’s approval rating at 57%, was conducted even before Trump had his first phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, which paved the way for the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Zelenskyy support improved from 52% in December 2024 to 57% in early February.For comparison, the latest CBS News/YouGov poll from early February found that 53% of US citizens approved of Trump’s overall job in office so far.Commenting on the latest ratings, KIIS Deputy Director Anton Hrushetskyi said Zelenskyy retains a fairly high level of trust in society and, even more so, retains legitimacy. “If some international partners and allies are worried about the legitimacy of the President in the context of possible peace negotiations and consider it appropriate to insist on elections, then from the point of view of Ukrainian citizens themselves, there are no problems with this,” Hrushetskyi said. “The current president and the authorities are quite legitimate to conduct complex negotiations, and elections should be held after the war ends and at least Ukraine receives reliable security guarantees,” he added.Ukraine was scheduled to hold a presidential election in March or April 2024, concluding Zelenskyy’s first five-year term. The vote was postponed as the country’s constitution does not permit elections under martial law, which was declared on 24 February 2022, the day when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin repeatedly sought to use the delay to portray Zelenskyy as “illegitimate,” a claim rejected by Kyiv as a distortion of the constitution.ADVERTISEMENTSpeaking the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the Ukrainian president said that he is open to discussing elections in Ukraine, but this is not something that his compatriots want due to concerns that lifting martial law could weaken the country’s defence. “I am focusing on the survival of our country. I’ve been doing this throughout my term,” he said.”I’m ready to speak about elections, but Ukrainians totally do not want to, because they are afraid that otherwise we will lose the martial law, our soldiers will come home, and Putin will occupy all our territory. It will happen. Because now, we’re mobilised. Now we’re one organism, and so, we’re one country,” he concluded.
