Zelenskyy’s approval rating rose following "diesel deal" between U.S. and Russia, - KIIS poll. INFOGRAPHICS
54% of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while 41% do not. Following the "diesel deal" and subsequent pressure on Ukraine, the level of trust in the president has risen.
This is according to data from a KIIS poll, as reported by Censor.NET.
What is known?
Currently, 54% of respondents said they trust the head of state, while 41% said they do not.
Pollsters noted that in late August and early September, the figures were exactly the same. In other words, the level of trust has remained virtually unchanged over the past month.
"Among the 54% who trust Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 22% ‘fully’ trust him, while the remaining 32% ‘somewhat’ trust him." At the same time, for the sake of balance, it is important to understand that among those who do not trust him, there is a division: 24% "do not trust him at all," while 17% "tend not to trust him," the report added.
The impact of the "diesel deal"
KIIS also compared the responses of respondents surveyed on October 8–9 (before the "diesel deal" and the subsequent pressure on Ukraine) and on October 10–16.
"Between October 8 and 9, 43% trusted the President, while 52% did not. By October 10–16, however, 57% trusted him and 39% did not."
Methodology
The survey was conducted from October 8 to 16, 2026. A total of 1,031 respondents were surveyed.
Under normal circumstances, the formal statistical margin of error for such a sample (with a confidence level of 0.95 and accounting for a design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.0% for indicators close to 50%, 3.4% for indicators close to 25%, 2.4% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.7% for indicators close to 5%.
KIIS also compares the results obtained on October 8–9, 2026 (prior to the "diesel deal" and subsequent pressure on Ukraine) with those from October 10–16, 2026 (i.e., after these events). On October 8–9, 274 respondents were surveyed (margin of error 7.7%); on October 10–16, 757 respondents were surveyed (margin of error 4.6%).
US–Russia diesel deal and threats against Ukraine
- On October 9, US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Russian dictator Putin and reached an agreement on Russian diesel supplies to US and global markets.
- According to him, Russia would "immediately" supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to US and global markets, another 500,000 tonnes during November, and a further one million tonnes "immediately after that."
- The US Treasury Department announced that, at Trump’s direction, the Office of Foreign Assets Control was immediately issuing a temporary general license authorizing Russian diesel supplies to the global market.
- In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called permission for Russia to sell petroleum products an "investment in war" and urged the US to hold firm talks with Moscow and impose sanctions under Lindsey Graham’s legislation.
- Axios reported that, during talks in Miami, US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had allegedly warned the Ukrainian side that access to US intelligence could be cut off if Ukraine continued striking Russian oil refineries.
- On October 11, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine would be ready to halt strikes on Russian refineries if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
- That same day, US President Donald Trump announced the start of an energy truce between Ukraine and Russia.
- In comments to Axios, Zelenskyy said US President Donald Trump’s announcement of the start of an "energy truce" had come as a surprise to the Ukrainian side.
- The president later said Ukraine was ready to refrain from striking Russia’s energy sector provided Russia took similar steps.
