Trump's pressure may have increased Ukrainians' trust in Zelensky - poll

Trust of Ukrainians in President Volodymyr Zelensky differed noticeably at the beginning and end of the October sociological survey. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) suggests that the increase in support for the head of state may have been a reaction of society to US pressure regarding the conditions for ending the war.

This is evidenced by the results of a KIIS survey conducted on October 8-16, 2026.

Overall, 54% of surveyed Ukrainians trust Zelensky, while 41% expressed distrust. The balance of trust and distrust is plus 13 percentage points.

Sociologists recorded the same indicators in late August and early September. Thus, according to the results of full waves of surveys, the level of trust in the president has hardly changed over the past month.

At the same time, KIIS separately compared the responses of respondents surveyed before and after the escalation of relations between Ukraine and the US.

During October 8-9, 43% trusted Zelensky, while 52% did not. In contrast, during interviews on October 10-16, trust in the president was expressed by already 57%, and distrust by 39%.

Thus, between the two periods of the fieldwork phase, the share of those who trust Zelensky differed by 14 percentage points, and the share of those who distrust - by 13 points.

Sociologists link this change in sentiment to events after October 9, in particular the agreement between Washington and Moscow on the supply of Russian diesel fuel and the subsequent intensification of American pressure on Ukraine.

KIIS Executive Director Anton Hrushetskyi suggests that this is a "rally around the flag" effect, when part of the citizenry increases support for the state leadership in response to external pressure.

At the same time, researchers caution against unequivocal conclusions. In previous surveys, they also observed a somewhat lower level of trust in the president in the first days of data collection. Therefore, part of the current difference may be explained by methodological features of the study.

KIIS emphasizes that it is not yet known how long the current rallying effect may last. According to sociologists, further dynamics of trust will depend both on the actions of Western partners and on the domestic policy of the Ukrainian authorities.

Detailed results also show that 22% of respondents completely trust Zelensky, and 32% rather trust. Among those who expressed distrust, 24% completely do not trust the president, and another 17% rather do not trust.

The survey was conducted by telephone interviews among 1031 adult citizens of Ukraine living in government-controlled territory. The sample did not include residents of temporarily occupied territories and citizens who went abroad after February 24, 2022.

The overall statistical margin of error for indicators close to 50% does not exceed 4%. At the same time, for individual periods of the study it is higher: 7.7% for October 8-9 and 4.6% for October 10-16.

Based on materials from: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology