Kyiv:
An opinion poll published Friday showed an upswing in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s approval rating of 10 percentage points since US President Donald Trump called him a “dictator”.
The poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found that 67 percent of Ukrainians questioned said they trusted Zelensky — up from 57 percent a month earlier.
The latest poll was conducted between February 14 and March 4, a turbulent period for Zelensky in which a simmering war of words with Trump culminated in a dramatic clash at the White House on February 28.
The findings suggest the effect of US attacks on his leadership has been to consolidate support for the president, researchers said.
“At least for now, we are witnessing a process of unification of society against the backdrop of new challenges facing Ukraine,” the institute’s executive director, Anton Grushetsky, said in an analytical note.
He suggested Ukrainians perceived the rhetoric of Trump’s team not just as a personal attack on Zelensky but “an attack on all of Ukraine and all Ukrainians”.
Results were “quite similar” across the country, the pollsters said, although trust was slightly lower among those in the east at 60 percent.
Nationwide, 29 percent of respondents said they distrusted him.
According to the previous poll by the KIIS, released February 19, 57 percent of Ukrainians trusted Zelensky and 37 percent did not.
Trump on February 18 claimed incorrectly that Zelensky had just a “four percent approval rating” and called for presidential elections, banned under martial law.
A day later he branded Zelensky a “dictator”, while the Ukrainian leader said his US counterpart was living in a Russian “disinformation space”.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance then harangued Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28 and told him to leave, without signing a deal on rare minerals.
Trump further moved against Ukraine on March 3, suspending military aid and prompting Zelensky to call for a truce and say Ukraine was ready to sign the minerals deal.
The researchers behind the poll said the cancellation of military aid — announced as the survey was almost completed — was not fully reflected in the results and would “certainly affect the public mood”.
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