The press release was prepared by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

From May 16 to 22, 2024, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus", to which, by order of the public organization Center for Strategic Communications "Forum", questions were added about the 5th anniversary of President V. Zelenskyi. Bythemethodofcomputer-assistedtelephoneinterview, (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting), 1,002 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (territory under the control of the Government of Ukraine) were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived on the territory of Ukraine, which was controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories that are temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine (at the same time, out of 1,002 respondents 26 before February  24, 2022, lived in the territories that are now occupied), 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 1.1) did not exceed 3.4% for indicators close to 50%, 3.0% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% - for indicators close to 10%, 1.5% - for indicators close to 5%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. Factors that can affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions were cited by KIIS earlier.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

Each election campaign is accompanied by "competitions" between candidates in their promises to the population. From the winner, of course, the voters expect compliance with what was promised. In May 2024, it will be 5 years since V. Zelenskyi became the President, and that is why we asked the question in the survey, how many, according to respondents, President V. Zelenskyi fulfilled his promises.

As can be seen in graph 1, 18% of respondents answered that V. Zelenskyi fulfilled most or all of his promises (5% of them say that all promises were fulfilled). Almost as many believe that he has fulfilled about half of the promises, while 50% believe that he has fulfilled few or none of the promises (of them 25% believe that he has fulfilled none of the promises).

Graph 1. On May 21, it will be five years since Volodymyr Zelenskyi became the President. In your opinion, to what extent he fulfilled his pre-election promises or not?

However, it is important to understand the reasons (from the point of view of ordinary Ukrainians) for the non-fulfillment of promises, since a full-scale invasion occurred during the presidency of V. Zelenskyi (as well as other, external factors could have caused the non-fulfillment of promises).

Among those who believe that V. Zelenskyi did not fulfill all his promises, the largest number of respondents (50%) explain the non-fulfillment of promises by the presence of dishonest, corrupt people in the President's team.

Next, with approximately the same result (26-32%), there are such explanations as the lack of competent people in his team, a full-scale invasion, his own inexperience, the influence of oligarchs.

Fewer respondents (9-14%) talked about personal corruption, influence of other countries, destabilization of the situation by the opposition, unrealistic promises.

Graph 2. And for what reasons, in your opinion, did Volodymyr Zelensky fail to fulfill his promises? Choose up to 3 most important reasons.

% among respondents who believe that V. Zelenskyi did not fulfill all his promises

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

In additional open-ended questions, respondents most often recalled such promises as ending the war in Donbas, fighting corruption, and improving the welfare of the population (and, obviously, these dimensions played an important role when respondents evaluated the President's fulfillment of pre-election promises). At the same time, among the main successes of the President in his position, Ukrainians talk about stability in repelling Russian aggression and international activity aimed at strengthening support for Ukraine in the war.

 It is important to note that Ukrainians mostly focus not on the President himself (on his personal qualities), but on his entourage/team. So, to an additional open question about the President's failures, the most people talked about a full-scale invasion and about personnel policy (the top 3 also include problems with the fight against corruption).

Given that the President is highly trusted in society, relevant and transparent (for the public) personnel decisions will allow maintaining social legitimacy in this difficult period.

Annex 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire and results in the regional dimension

On May 21, it will be five years since Volodymyr Zelenskyi became the President. In your opinion, to what extent he fulfilled his pre-election promises or not?

And for what reasons, in your opinion, did Volodymyr Zelenskyi fail to fulfill his promises? Choose up to 3 most important reasons.

% among those who do not believe that V. Zelenskyi fulfilled all his promises