As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky approaches the end of his first year in office, a majority of Ukrainians say they are satisfied with his job performance.
According to a new poll by the Rating sociological group published on May 18, 37% of Ukrainians rate Zelensky’s first year on the job as “satisfactory,” 27% as “good” and 4% as “excellent” — for a total of 68%. Just 19% and 12% rate his performance as “unsatisfactory” and “terrible,” respectively.
The poll was conducted on May 12-13, in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as Zelensky faces the biggest crisis of his presidency and one of the most serious in the history of independent Ukraine.
The Rating group surveyed 3,000 adult respondents in all oblasts of Ukraine except the territories of Crimea and Donbas occupied by Russia using computer-assisted telephone interviews.
Zelensky received better ratings for his performance from young adults under 30 and people from Ukraine’s western and southern oblasts. Ukrainians from eastern oblasts, adults over 49 and residents of cities rated his performance as worse.
Supporters of the former President Petro Poroshenko and pro-Russian former presidential candidate Yuriy Boyko also tended to rate Zelensky’s work less favorably. Poroshenko now leads the 27-member European Solidarity faction and Boyko leads the 44-member Opposition Platform – For Life faction in the parliament.
Respondents rated Zelensky’s performance best in two areas: the freeing of prisoners and hostages and the fight against the novel coronavirus.
According to the poll, 35% of responders believe that the situation with the coronavirus in Ukraine is improving, and just as many think that it’s not changing. Only 17% think that the situation is getting worse, a figure that dropped from 44% in two weeks.
Zelensky received average ratings on the unification of the country, international politics, strengthening defense, social protection, updating government personnel and education reform.
Ukrainians rated Zelensky’s performance worst on decreasing the influence of the oligarchs on Ukrainian politics, land and medical reform, the fight against corruption, economic development and reaching a ceasefire in the Donbas. In all but the last of these areas, the president received unfavorable ratings even from at least a third of his supporters.
Generally, 32% of Ukrainian believe that Ukraine is moving in the right direction, while 51% think it is heading in the wrong direction. Another 17% could not answer. Young respondents and Zelensky’s supporters are more positive about the country’s outlook.
If Ukraine were to hold presidential elections in the near future with the same candidates as in 2019, 39.3% of respondents who would vote and have decided on a candidate would cast their ballots for Zelensky.
By contrast, 13.9% of respondents said they would vote for Boyko; 13.3% for Poroshenko; 8.6% for Yulia Tymoshenko, who leads the 24-member Batkivshchyna faction in parliament; and 5.9% for Igor Smeshko, the former head of Ukraine’s Security Service, whose party Strength and Honor did not make it into parliament.
In the first round of the actual 2019 presidential election, 30.24% of Ukrainians voted for Zelensky, 15.95% for Poroshenko, 13.4% for Tymoshenko, 11.67% for Boyko and 6.04% for Smeshko. Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the leader of the Civic Position party who came fifth in 2019 with 6.91% of the vote, would now receive 3.6% support, according to the poll.
Zelensky was also the respondents’ most trusted politician: 57% said that they trusted him and 37% said they did not. According to the poll, 25% of respondents trust Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov and 33% distrust him, while 14% trust Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and 39% distrust him. Over a third of respondents could not rate their level of trust in Razumkov and Shmyhal.
Zelensky is the only politician whom more respondents trust than distrust. By comparison, 25% trust and 57% distrust Boyko; 24% trust and 61% distrust Svyatoslav Vakarshuk, a rockstar and member of the Golos party; 22% trust and 72% distrust Tymoshenko and 20% trust and 76% distrust Poroshenko.
Zelensky’s party also leads in popularity. If parliamentary elections were to take place soon, 34% of respondents would vote for his Servant of the People party, 15.1% for Opposition Platform – For Life, 14% for European Solidarity and 9.2% for Batkivshchyna. Other parties, including Strength and Honor and Holos, would get less than the minimum 5% support required to enter parliament.
However, there is one rating where Zelensky doesn’t take first place: best Ukrainian president since the country’s independence. According to the poll, Ukraine’s second president, Leonid Kuchma, is in first place with 20% of respondents’ votes. Zelensky takes second with 16%, followed by the first Ukrainian president, Leonid Kravchuk, with 13%. Poroshenko has 12%, followed by deposed President Viktor Yanukovych with 9% and Viktor Yushchenko with 6%.
