According to a sociological study commissioned by the Foundation for Future Studies, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Kyrylo Budanov, and Volodymyr Zelenskyi have the highest level of trust among Ukraine’s military and political leadership.
According to a survey conducted by two sociological companies, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi has the highest balance of trust and distrust, which is +59%. He is fully trusted by 37.8% of respondents, and rather trusted by 37.5%. At the same time, only 16.2% of respondents expressed full or partial distrust.
The second place is taken by the head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, with a balance of +33.7%. Full confidence in him was expressed by 20.8% of respondents, and partial confidence – by 36.9%. The total indicator of distrust of Budanov is 24%.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy maintains a positive balance of trust at +4.7%. In general, 49.2% of respondents trust him, while 44.5% partially or completely distrust him.
The rest of the politicians included in the study have negative scores:
- Oleksandr Syrskyi: -6.6% (35.4% trust, 42% distrust)
- Serhiy Prytula: -10.9% (39% trust, 49.9% distrust)
- Petro Poroshenko: -55.1% (5.4% fully trust, 13.9% partially trust, 74.4% distrust)
- Yulia Tymoshenko: -71.1% (11.7% trust, 82.7% distrust)
The research was conducted by Info Sapiens (telephone survey, 1000 respondents) and Active Group (combined survey via the SunFlower online panel and phone calls, 2000 respondents). Both studies showed similar results within the statistical margin of error.
“Public sentiment is clearly on the side of the military leaders, against the backdrop of a rather restrained or even negative assessment of other political figures. In general, we see that a number of personalities are highly trusted by Ukrainians – this is a good trend for Ukraine and a signal that society is not desperate,” the authors of the study state.
Experts note that the high level of trust in the military leadership against the backdrop of low trust in politicians may indicate a public demand for changes in the political landscape of the countries.