53 per cent of Ukrainians believe that Zelenskyy should not stand for second presidential term, - poll. PHOTO
More than half of Ukrainians surveyed – 53 per cent – believe that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should limit himself to his current presidential term and not stand as a candidate in the next election. At the same time, 42 per cent of respondents support his standing for re-election.
According to Censor.NET, this is indicated by the results of a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
According to the KIIS, the proportion of those in favour of Zelenskyy serving only one presidential term has risen compared with December 2025 – when 46 per cent of those surveyed held this view.
At the same time, the proportion of those in favour of Zelenskyy standing in the next presidential election has fallen from 45 per cent in December 2025 to 42 per cent now. A further 5 per cent of respondents were undecided.
Pollsters also noted a clear link between the level of trust in Zelenskyy and attitudes towards his possible participation in the next election.
Among respondents who fully trust Zelenskyy, 85 per cent support his re-election bid. Among those who tend to trust him, the figure is 53 per cent.
By contrast, among those surveyed who tend not to trust Zelenskyy, 20 per cent support his participation in the next presidential election. Among those who do not trust him at all, the figure is 7 per cent.
The survey was conducted by KIIS between 12 and 21 September 2026 via telephone interviews. It involved 1,002 adult citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, were residing in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.
During the survey, respondents were also asked how they currently feel about the current government. We read respondents a list of 12 feelings/emotions and asked them to select up to three answers (or to provide their own). We had previously asked this question in December 2025, so we can track how attitudes have changed over the past year.
"The largest number of respondents cited disappointment (44% of all respondents, up from 36% in December 2025) and shame (33%, up from 20%). This was followed by responses such as hope (23%, unchanged from before), anger (20%, up from 14%), sympathy (16%, unchanged), hatred (14%, up from 11%), and indifference (12%, up from 7%). Relatively few respondents mentioned sympathy (4%, unchanged), laughter (4%, unchanged), and pride (7%, unchanged)," the study states.
Residents of temporarily occupied territories were excluded from the sample; however, the respondents included internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had left the occupied areas. The survey also did not cover Ukrainian citizens who had left the country after 24 February 2022.
For figures close to 50 per cent, the formal statistical margin of error for the sample does not, under normal circumstances, exceed 4.1 per cent. KIIS notes that, in wartime conditions, a certain systematic deviation may be added to this.
