KIIS: Trust rating for Zelenskyy dropped to 65%

KIIS: Trust rating for Zelenskyy dropped to 65%

The trust level in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dropped to 65%.

This is shown by a KIIS survey.

Sociologists note that the trust level in the head of state had been steadily increasing since December 2024 and reached 74% at the beginning of May 2025 (22% did not trust).

However, in the second half of May and early June 2025, a decrease in trust is observed, although current indicators remain higher than before the tension in relations with the new US leadership.

"Thus, according to the current survey results, 65% of Ukrainians trust V. Zelenskyy, and 30% do not trust him. Accordingly, the trust-distrust balance is +35%. These figures are lower than those at the beginning of May 2025 (74% trusted, and the trust-distrust balance was +52%), but remain higher than they were at the beginning of February 2025 (then 57% trusted, and the trust-distrust balance was +20%)," the statement says.

Why Zelenskyy’s trust rating decreased

"We lack additional information about the specific reasons for the decline in trust. For this, it is necessary to conduct panel studies when we survey the same people over a certain period and can find out why their opinion changed compared to the previous survey," sociologists explained.

However, KIIS highlighted several factors:

• the weakening of the rally around the flag effect - since February 2025, against the backdrop of strained relations with the new US leadership, there was a significant increase in trust and unity;
• short-term impact of the signing of the Fossil Resources Agreement - the previous survey (which recorded an increase in trust to 74%) was conducted at the beginning of May 2025 immediately after the signing of the Agreement. This may have temporarily sparked optimism and hope among some people, reflecting the high trust in the president;
• lack of progress in ending the war - some people may have had inflated expectations about the quick end to the war, especially due to various negotiations that took place throughout May 2025;
• survey context and question order - in the survey at the beginning of May 2025, sociologists asked about trust in 10 politicians. Different respondents were told the names of politicians in different orders. Analysis shows that the later "Volodymyr Zelenskyy" was mentioned, the higher the trust was.

The survey was conducted from May 15 to June 3, 2025, among 1,011 respondents.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and considering the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.