Presidential poll. Volodymyr Zelensky would lose the election

If presidential elections were held today in Ukraine, former Chief Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhny would defeat Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the latest poll. According to the constitution, the next elections should have been held on March 31. However, due to Russian aggression, their date has been postponed to an unspecified time.

Due to the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, there is not much publicly available data on the current political sentiments in the country. However, some data on this matter was provided by the Center for Social and Market Research "SOCIS" survey commissioned by the censor.net portal.

The results of this study are clear - if Ukrainians went to the polls today, the new president would be General Valeriy Zaluzhny, former Chief Commander of the Armed Forces and current envoy of Kyiv in London.

The military officer could count on the support of 41.4 percent of voters in the first round. On the other hand, 23.7 percent of respondents declared their willingness to vote for the current leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine. Parliamentary poll: Zelensky would also lose first place

These results mean that Zaluzhny and Zelensky would meet in the second round. The poll also indicates that in the repeat voting - after subtracting undecided and unwilling participants - Zaluzhny would win, receiving 67.5 percent.

The results are similar in the case of parliamentary elections. Here, the results may not be representative because among the options, respondents had a party associated with Zaluzhny, which currently does not exist. However, if it were to be formed, it could count on 46.4 percent of votes.

Second place would be taken by a potential coalition led by Zelensky with a result of 21.1 percent. Support for other groups does not exceed 8 percent.

Ukraine is fighting against Russia. Elections will not happen for now

The results do not mean that there will be a change of power in Ukraine soon. Due to the war, elections originally scheduled for March 31, 2024, have been postponed. It is currently unknown when they would take place. There is no indication that this would happen in the coming months.

This is not the only recent poll where Zaluzhny has a better result than Zelensky. In mid-February, in a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, trust in the President of Ukraine was 60 percent and dropped by five percentage points after he dismissed Zaluzhny from his position as army commander. Meanwhile, the military officer could boast a 94 percent trust rating.

The presidential and parliamentary poll was conducted in the last week of February using the CATI method (computer-assisted telephone interview) on a group of 3,000 respondents.