Washington
UJ
—
Former President Donald Trump’s erroneous statement on Tuesday that Ukraine “initiated” the conflict with Russia grabbed significant attention. However, he also made another misleading claim regarding Ukraine during his statements to the press at Mar-a-Lago, asserting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has a mere 4% approval rating.
Trump was advocating for Ukraine to conduct its first presidential election since Zelensky took office in 2019. However, the Ukrainian constitution prohibits national elections during martial law; since the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine has been under martial law and subsequently canceled the presidential election scheduled for 2024.
When queried on whether the US would support a supposed Russian demand to “force Ukraine to hold new elections to finalize any peace agreement,” Trump replied, “We find ourselves in a situation where we’ve had no elections in Ukraine; it’s essentially martial law there; the leader of Ukraine, I hate to point this out, is at a 4% approval rating.”
Facts First: The assertion made by Trump is grossly inaccurate. In reality, Zelensky’s approval rating is significantly higher than 4%. Recent major surveys indicate it has consistently been above 50%.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Zelensky characterized Trump’s “4%” assertion as Russian disinformation. The origin of the number remains unclear, as the White House did not respond to UJ’s request for clarification—it is clearly unfounded.
Keith Darden, a professor at American University with expertise in Ukrainian affairs, informed UJ that a recent poll from what he termed the “most reliable survey organization in Ukraine,” the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, revealed that 57% of Ukrainians expressed trust in Zelensky. Darden explained, “They do not specifically inquire about ‘approval’ but rather focus on ‘trust’ in leadership, a concept analogous to approval in this context, reflecting a belief in their effectiveness in the role.”
This new survey was released after Trump’s “4%” claim, but an earlier poll from December found that 52% of Ukrainians had trust in Zelensky, representing the lowest trust level discovered by this organization since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Olga Onuch, a professor at the University of Manchester engaged in public opinion research in Ukraine with fellow experts, mentioned to UJ on Tuesday that their latest poll, conducted from November 22 of last year through January 7 of this year, indicated that “63% of Ukrainians either fully approve or tend to approve of Zelensky’s leadership actions.” This survey was also carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and former economic minister in Ukraine from 2019 to 2020, stated to UJ on Tuesday, “We have never encountered anything resembling a 4% approval rating for Zelensky.” He highlighted that Zelensky’s lowest approval ratings occurred in 2021, and even then, they were considerably higher than 4%. He referenced one late-2021 survey that placed Zelensky’s approval at about 26%.
Zelensky’s popularity soared during the early stages of the war in 2022, with polls indicating that 90% of Ukrainians expressed trust in him. Although his approval has since decreased, Trump did not just state that Zelensky’s rating is lower than it once was.
