Poll shows majority of Ukrainians oppose Zaluzhnyi's dismissal – infographic

The majority of Ukrainians (72%) would view the resignation of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, negatively. Source: survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on 4-10 December Details: A total of 43% of Ukrainians believe that there may be some disagreements or friction between President Zelenskyy and General Zaluzhnyi, with 8% believing that the situation is very serious, and the remaining 35% believing that these misunderstandings are not very serious.

The poll found that 39% respondents did not believe that there was any conflict at all, while 18% were undecided.

The presence of disagreements, friction, misunderstandings between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi in the regional dimensioninfographic: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

The majority of respondents (72%) would view Zaluzhnyi's resignation negatively, while only 2% would see it in a positive light. Another 21% were neutral on this issue, and 5% were undecided.

If the decision of Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dismiss Valerii Zaluzhnyi and replace the Commander-in-Chief with another general was made, how would you react to this??infographic: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Earlier this week, KIIS shared the results of a survey that showed the overwhelming majority of respondents had absolute trust in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (96%, the same number as in December 2022). When asked about the credibility of Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhnyi, 88% said they trusted him.

In another part of the survey (using another sample of respondents), an additional question was asked: "To what extent do you trust or distrust the following Ukrainian public figures? If you don't know him or her, please say so." The scale used in this question was slightly different from the one used to explore people's trust in institutions. The list of names included Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Defence Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov and Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but did not include descriptions of their positions or activities, only their first and last names.

All three of these military commanders are highly trusted by the respondents, and the difference in the levels of trust between them is largely a result of different levels of awareness of who they are. The results showed that 92% of respondents trust Zaluzhnyi, 60% trust Budanov (but 18% do not know who he is), and 33% trust Syrskyi (but 48% do not know who he is). Among those who know these commanders, 94% trust Zaluzhnyi, 73% trust Budanov, and 63% trust Syrskyi, with 5% distrusting Zaluzhnyi, 24% Budanov, and 29% Syrskyi.

Previously: During an end-of-year press conference on 19 December, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he has a working relationship with Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and plans to go on working with him. For reference: KIIS conducted Omnibus, an all-Ukrainian public opinion poll that included questions about trust in military commanders and Valerii Zaluzhnyi's possible resignation, from 4 to 10 December 2023. A total of 1,200 respondents living in all oblasts of Ukraine (except the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were interviewed using computer-assisted telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile numbers.

The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 years and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived on the territory of Ukraine within the limits controlled by the Ukrainian authorities until 24 February 2022. Residents of the occupied territories that the Ukrainian government did not control prior to 24 February 2022 (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, and some areas in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) were not included in the sample, and the survey was not conducted with citizens abroad. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 3.2% for indicators close to 50%, 2.7% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.4% for indicators close to 5%.

In times of war, a certain systematic deviation is added in addition to the specified formal error. However, sociologists are convinced that the results obtained retain high representativeness and allow for a fairly reliable analysis of public sentiment. KIIS believes that the results remain highly representative of the Ukrainian population living on Ukraine-controlled territory, and can be used to offer a reliable analysis of public opinion.

Background:

In an interview with The Economist, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said he believed that the situation at the front has reached a stalemate, when neither side can advance because they are technologically equipped at the same level.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he did not think the situation on the front in Ukraine had reached a stalemate.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told British tabloid The Sun that military personnel who are going to enter politics should not "deal with war".
On 29 November, The Economist wrote that, alongside the grim reality of a trench war, the "political battleground" in Kyiv is becoming increasingly tense, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeing a rival in Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and political infighting damaging Ukraine.

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