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-assistedtelephoneinterviews(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 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 previously cited by KIIS.

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.

One of the most important indicators-markers of the activity of political subjects is trends and the level of trust. The graph below shows the dynamics of trust in President V. Zelensky since 2019.

As can be seen, after the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections, 80% of Ukrainians trusted V. Zelenskyi. However, by February 2022, the level of trust gradually decreased to 37% (and on the eve of the invasion, there were already more people who did not trust him).

After the invasion, the trust level increased to 90%. By the end of December 2023, the level of trust decreased to 77%, and by February 2024 - to 64%. As of May 2024, 59% trust V. Zelenskyi, 36% do not trust.

Graph 1. Dynamics of trust in V. Zelenskyi during 2019-2024

In addition to the activities of the President himself, it is important to understand the perception of his party, which has the majority in the parliament. As can be seen in graph 2, 7% rate the activities of the "Sluha Narodu" party rather or very well. A third of respondents (31%) rate the activity as neither good nor bad. Simultaneously 55% of respondents rather or very poorly evaluate the activities of the "Sluha Narodu" party.

Graph2. In 2019, in addition to the presidential elections, there were also elections to the Verkhovna Rada. According to their results, Volodymyr Zelenskyi's party "Sluha Narodu" won the majority, which single-handedly formed the parliamentary majority. How would you rate its activity?

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

Separate general comments on the 5th anniversary of the presidency of V. Zelenskyi were presented in a joint post with V. Paniotto for Ukrainska Pravda (https://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2024/05/22/7456829/).

At the same time, we would like to point out once again that currently V. Zelenskyi retains legitimacy in the eyes of Ukrainian society and the majority of Ukrainians continue to trust him (and 70-80% oppose the holding of elections now). However, the tendency to decrease trust continues and, as can be seen from the results, the main reasons for criticism from ordinary Ukrainians are not always successful personnel policy and decisions and questions of justice (in particular, in the form of fighting corruption and the fair burden of war for all). Currently, it can be observed that Ukrainians focus more on criticizing the "team" and not the President himself (in particular, as you can see, if the President himself has a fairly high level of trust, his party does not). However, the trend of decreasing trust indicates that there is already a "transfer of negativity" to the President himself.

Perhaps, to a large extent, it is a matter of communication (and then it is important to review the approaches to communication and conveying information). At the same time, obviously, not everything (especially in the current psychologically complex and electrified atmosphere) can be reduced and even more so solved by "better communication". A new generation of leaders is being formed in the crucible of brutal war. Many people in responsible positions had the opportunity to demonstrate their best qualities under stressful conditions. Therefore, it is obvious that the request from ordinary Ukrainians is for more and more competent, decent people to hold the most important government positions.

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

To what extent do you trust or not trust the following Ukrainian public figures?

Volodymyr Zelenskyi

In 2019, in addition to the presidential elections, there were also elections to the Verkhovna Rada. According to their results, Volodymyr Zelenskyi's party "Sluha Narodu" won the majority, which single-handedly formed the parliamentary majority. How would you rate its activity?