According to the latest opinion poll, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Kyrylo Budanov, and Volodymyr Zelenskyi are the leaders of trust among Ukrainians. At the same time, there is a demand in society for new politicians, whom citizens see primarily in the military. The attitude of Ukrainians toward “old” political figures is mostly negative, as a result of their previous activities. This was stated by Ihor Reiterovych, Head of Political and Legal Programs at the Ukrainian Center for Social Development, at a press conference on the results of the survey “Socio-Political Attitudes of Ukrainians (December 2024)” held on December 10 at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi (70.9%) and Kyrylo Budanov (63.3%) have the highest trust rating in Ukrainian society. Compared to the survey conducted in October, trust in Zaluzhnyi has decreased by almost 5% (from 75.9% to 71.0%). At the same time, trust in Budanov has actually remained at the same level: in October, it was 64.0%, and in December, it was 63.3%. Thus, the difference in public trust between Zaluzhnyi and Budanov is 7.6%.

The current President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi is in third place in the trust rating (44.8%).

Only Valeriy Zaluzhnyi (51%) and Kyrylo Budanov (39.9%) have a significant positive difference between their trust and distrust scores. For Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it is almost zero (0.2%). As for figures with a long political history, they have very high anti-ratings and, accordingly, a negative balance of trust and distrust. In particular, it is -66.6% for Yulia Tymoshenko, -50.3% for Petro Poroshenko, and -34.7% for Vitali Klitschko.

“Many Ukrainians have high hopes for Trump as an arbiter and partner who will help our country defend itself. However, contradictory statements by some representatives of the Republican Party and Trump himself have largely undermined this hope - people expect a reduction in US aid. At the same time, most citizens believe that Ukraine does not have a clear plan in case of a reduction in US aid, which indicates a low assessment of the effectiveness of our government. However, Ukrainian society still retains a certain amount of moral fortitude and is generally not ready to give up the country's territory to the aggressor,” says Svitlana Kushnir, editor of the InterVizor media platform.

To the question “Have you heard about the results of the US presidential election?” 96.8% of respondents answered in the affirmative. Opinions are divided on the impact of Donald Trump's election on the Russian-Ukrainian war: 30.0% of respondents hope that Trump will help Ukraine in general; 18.4% believe that Trump will help Russia. Positive changes in relations between Ukraine and the United States are expected by 43.8% of respondents, while negative changes are expected by 19.3%.

The vast majority of respondents (60.9%) believe that under Trump's presidency, American aid to Ukraine will decrease. At the same time, only 4.7% of respondents believe that Ukraine has a clear plan for this case.

Forty-five.8% of respondents disagree with the freezing of the war on the active frontline, while 39.1% agree.

According to the experts, the consistency of respondents' opinions on Ukraine's most pressing problems indicates the lack of effectiveness of state institutions in addressing them. Also, the demand for a legal change of government is clearly growing in Ukrainian society, and military figures are increasingly being named as politicians of the future. This is a consequence of the difficult military, political, and socioeconomic circumstances in which Ukraine has found itself in recent years. At the same time, Ukrainians demonstrate an unwillingness to give up territory and rely on the United States for help.

The research was conducted by Active Group on behalf of the Foundation for Future Studies using the SunFlower Sociology online panel. 2000 respondents were interviewed in all regions of Ukraine (excluding the temporarily occupied territories). The press conference was attended by the founder of the sociological company Active Group Andriy Yeremenko, director of the Foundation for Future Studies Roman Yaroshenko, head of political and legal programs at the Ukrainian Center for Social Development Ihor Reiterovych, editor of the InterVizor media platform Svitlana Kushnir and executive director of the InfoLight.UA research and analytical group Yuriy Goncharenko.