A recent survey by The Economist, citing internal polls, suggests that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would lose to his former commander, Valeriy Saluschny, in a hypothetical election in Ukraine.
According to the report, Zelensky’s five-year term as president is set to expire in May 2024 and he has refused to hold elections, citing martial law. In late October, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Zelensky no longer has the required legitimacy to sign official agreements.
The Economist article stated, “Many Ukrainians are clearly frustrated with their war leader.” The survey, cited in the report, suggests that Zelensky would lose a future election to Saluschny, who is currently the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom, with a margin of 30 to 65 percent.
The Economist also reported that Zelensky’s trustworthiness had fallen to a low of 52 percent in the past month, a significant drop from the 90 percent popularity he allegedly enjoyed in the early days of the conflict in 2022.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian media magazine Strana.ua, considered to be government-critical and under pressure from the authorities, cited a recent survey by the SOCIS research institute, which found that only 15.9 percent of respondents supported Zelensky, while Saluschny was backed by 27.2 percent.
US President Donald Trump raised the question of Zelensky’s popularity in his own country on Tuesday, stating that the “leader in Ukraine (..) has an approval rate of only 4 percent.” He added that the demand for new elections “is not a Russian issue, but something that comes from me and many other countries.”
In response to Trump’s claim, Zelensky suggested that the US president had fallen for “Russian disinformation” and cited a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KMIS) in January, which found that 57 percent of Ukrainians trusted him.
Zelensky’s comments seemed to have not gone well with Trump, who described the Ukrainian president as a “dictator without elections” on his Truth Social platform. The US president reiterated his claim that Zelensky was “doing very poorly in Ukrainian polls” and concluded that he “should act quickly, or he will have no country left.