Among the current military and political leadership of the country, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ambassador of Ukraine to Great Britain Valery Zaluzhny, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov, and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky demonstrate the highest trust rating. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the "Future Research Fund" charity organization.
Points of attention
- Valery Zaluzhny, Kyrylo Budanov, and Volodymyr Zelensky are the most trusted military and political leaders in Ukraine based on a survey by the 'Future Research Fund' charity organization.
- The survey commissioned by the 'Future Research Fund' involved two Ukrainian sociological companies and measured trust levels in key figures like Zaluzhny, Budanov, Zelensky, and others.
- Zaluzhny received the highest trust rating with a +59% balance, followed by Budanov at +33.7% and Zelensky at +4.7%, while other political figures like Poroshenko and Tymoshenko faced significant distrust.
- The Armed Forces of Ukraine rank 18th among the world's strongest armies, as per the Global Firepower portal's analysis, which considers various factors like army size and funding level.
- The positive trust ratings for Zaluzhny, Budanov, and Zelensky contrast with the negative sentiments towards other political figures, reflecting a preference for military leaders among Ukrainians in the current landscape.
Zelensky, Budanov and Zaluzhny are trusted by the most Ukrainians — survey
The charitable organization "Future Research Foundation" has started the implementation of a project on constant monitoring of the level of trust in key persons who influence public opinion. The Foundation commissioned research from two Ukrainian sociological companies that actively study public attitudes: a telephone survey of 1,000 respondents and a combined method (2,000 respondents).
Within both studies, the level of trust in a number of key figures and influential persons was measured. In particular, attention was focused on trust in Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Petro Poroshenko, Serhii Prytula, Yulia Tymoshenko, Valery Zaluzhnyi, Oleksandr Syrskyi and Kirill Budanov.
Valery Zaluzhny expectedly received the most trust among the mentioned persons. 37.8% of respondents fully trust him, and another 37.5% rather trust him. At the same time, only 16.2% of respondents expressed full or partial distrust of him. Thus, the balance of trust and distrust in Zaluzhny is +59%, which is one of the highest indicators not only among modern politicians, but also in the entire history of observations.
Kyrylo Budanov was in second place in terms of trust level. He is fully trusted by 20.8% of respondents, and rather trusted by 36.9%. The total indicator of distrust of Budanov is 24%, the balance of trust and distrust is +33.7%.
President Volodymyr Zelensky also maintains a positive difference between trust and distrust. In general, 49.2% of respondents trust him (including complete and partial trust), while 44.5% do not trust him partially or completely. Thus, the balance of confidence in the president is +4.7%.
Other policies included in the study have negative trust balance indicators:
In Oleksandr Syrsky, the difference between trust and distrust is -6.6%.
Serhiy Prytula has a negative trust balance of -10.9%.
Former President Petro Poroshenko is fully trusted by only 5.4%, partially by 13.9%, and 74.4% partially or completely expressed distrust. So, the balance of trust-distrust in Poroshenko is -55.1%.
Yulia Tymoshenko demonstrated a record level of mistrust: only 11.7% of respondents support her (partially or fully trust her), while as many as 82.7% of respondents expressed mistrust.
Public sentiment is unequivocally on the side of the leaders of the military sphere against the background of a rather restrained or even negative assessment of other political figures. The leadership of Valery Zaluzhny and Kyryll Budanov, as well as the insignificant negativity of Oleksandr Syrsky, despite strong criticism in the information field, clearly testify to this. This creates a contrast with the general distrustful attitude towards political figures, according to sociologists
Zelensky's positive, but not too high, result probably indicates that he is evaluated positively as a person who takes steps to achieve victory, gain international support and actively works in the foreign policy arena. At the same time, there is significant criticism of his policy within the country, which negatively affects the general level of trust in his activities.
What is known about the place of the AFU in the ranking of the strongest armies in the world
According to the rating compiled by analysts of the Global Firepower portal, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are among the twenty strongest armies in the world.
It is noted that in the new rating, its authors took into account more than 60 different parameters, including the size of the armed forces, the level of funding of the army, and the geographical location of the countries.
In the updated rating, the Armed Forces of Ukraine occupy the 18th position, while last year they were 15th.
Australia is on the 16th city, followed by Israel, and after Ukraine — Germany and Spain.
