The level of Ukrainians' trust in President Volodymyr Zelensky continued to grow in the second half of October. According to the results of a new survey, 62% of respondents trust the head of state, while in the previous study this figure was 54%.

This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on October 16-25, 2026.

According to sociologists, 62% of respondents trust Zelensky, 35% do not. The balance of trust and distrust is plus 27 percentage points.

In the previous study, conducted on October 8-16, 54% of respondents expressed trust in the president, and 41% - distrust. Thus, between the two waves, the share of those who trust Zelensky increased by 8 percentage points.

KIIS also compared the results of separate periods of October. During October 8-9, 43% of respondents trusted the president, 52% did not. In the period October 10-16, these figures were 57% and 39%, respectively, and during the last study - 62% and 35%.

Sociologists assume that the growth of trust may be related to external pressure on Ukraine, in particular from the United States.

As previously reported by "Kurs Ukrainy", on October 20, KIIS already drew attention to the possible influence of US President Donald Trump's policy on public sentiment in Ukraine.

Then KIIS executive director Anton Hrushetskyi assumed that after Washington and Moscow's agreements on diesel fuel and the strengthening of American pressure on Kyiv, the "rally around the flag" effect could have occurred. Under such circumstances, part of the citizens increase trust in the state leadership in response to external threats.

At the same time, researchers warn against unambiguous conclusions. Some differences between the results of separate periods may be explained by methodological features of the survey.

Hrushetskyi also noted that the current level of trust remains lower than some indicators of 2025. According to his assessment, further dynamics will depend not only on the foreign policy situation, but also on the actions of the Ukrainian authorities.

The survey was conducted by telephone interviews among 828 adult citizens in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine. It did not cover residents of temporarily occupied territories and Ukrainians who went abroad after February 24, 2022. The maximum formal error for indicators close to 50% is 4.4%.

According to materials: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, October 28, 2026