The highest trust rating among public figures among Ukrainians is held by Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (2021–2024) Valeriy Zaluzhny, who is trusted by 66% of citizens, 24% do not trust him, and the balance of trust is thus +42%, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on July 16–31.
At the same time, a trust rating comparable to Zaluzhny’s is held by former Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov (63% trust, 16% do not trust, balance +46%) and Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov (61% trust, 22% do not trust, balance +39%).
Incumbent President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trusted by 56% of respondents, 38% do not trust him, balance +18%. The head of state ranks fourth and closes the list of public figures trusted by more than half of Ukrainians.
Further down the trust rating are Mayor of Kharkiv, Head of the Association of Frontline Cities and Communities of Ukraine Ihor Terekhov (47% trust, 19% do not trust, balance +29%) and Commander of the 3rd Army Corps of Operational Command "East" of the Ground Forces of the AFU Andriy Biletsky (37% trust, 13% do not trust, balance +24%). In both cases, it turned out that many of the respondents do not know them (23% for Terekhov, and 40% for Biletsky).
The remaining figures have a negative balance of trust, meaning more people distrust them than trust them.
Executive Director of KIIS Anton Hrushetsky notes that the results of the study demonstrate a demand for new leaders.
"Currently, there is a consensus that holding elections right now is impossible and elections should take place after the war ends. However, the analysis of trust in public figures shows high trust (and, most likely, high expectations) toward such new leaders as Fedorov, Zaluzhny, and Budanov. In addition to them, Terekhov and Biletsky have high indicators. Zelenskyy also retains high trust indicators, but our other polls show that the majority wish for someone else to take the post of president after the war," he indicated.
According to Hrushetsky, Zelenskyy currently has sufficient trust to remain a head of state legitimate to the Ukrainian public, but this does not cancel out the desire for a renewal of political elites in the peacetime period.
The poll was carried out using a mixed mode: half of the respondents were surveyed via computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI), half via face-to-face interviews using tablets. The polls were conducted only in Ukraine-controlled territory among respondents aged 18 and older. Additional quotas were not applied, and the final sample was statistically weighted. In total, 1,808 interviews were conducted within the study, of which 905 were telephone interviews (including 305 with those currently residing in Kyiv), and 903 were face-to-face interviews (including 302 with those currently residing in Kyiv).
Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical sampling error (with a probability of 0.95, a design effect of 1.3, and taking into account the sample structure with additional interviews in Kyiv) does not exceed 3.5% for a sample size of 1,808 respondents (full sample) and 4.9% for a sample size of about 900 respondents (separately for telephone interviews and separate face-to-face interviews). Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added, but the obtained results still retain high representativeness.
