Support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is falling in Ukraine, and far more people are abandoning the defense chief in the country, several opinion polls show.
As many as 84 percent of those questioned said in December last year that they had confidence in Zelenskyj, but the proportion has now fallen to 62 percent, according to a poll published in the newspaper The Kyiv Independent.
The proportion who answer that they do not have confidence in the president has at the same time increased from 5 per cent to 18 per cent, shows the measurement which is conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
Ukraine’s defense chief Valery Zaluzhny, on the other hand, enjoys the trust of a whopping 88 percent of those questioned, the survey shows.
Difficult relationship
Zelensky and Zaluzhny have long had a strained relationship, which worsened after the chief of defense in a interview with The Economist described the war against Russian forces as deadlocked.
A few days earlier, Zelenskyj maintained in an interview with Time Magazine that he had good faith in victory in the war.
Ukrainian media have since speculated whether Zelensky would fire Zaluzhny, but if so it would be a very unpopular decision, shows a new poll published by KIIS on Wednesday.
Only 2 per cent of those questioned say they would support such a decision, while 72 per cent say they would look negatively on a possible removal of the chief of defence.
Not direct criticism
The latest survey gives Zaluzhny a support of a whopping 92 percent, while Zelenskyy receives support from 77 percent of those questioned.
Zelensky has been careful not to criticize Zaluzhny directly and denied at a press conference on Tuesday that there is a conflict between the two.
However, the Ukrainian president did not give the defense chief his full support, but called for concrete results from the country’s military leadership.
2023-12-20 21:59:05
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