General Valery Zaluzhny, the former chief commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces dismissed by Zelensky and currently Kyiv’s envoy in London, would emerge victorious over incumbent President Volodymyr Zelensky if the presidential elections were conducted today in Ukraine, according to a recent poll.
Originally scheduled for March 31, the next elections have been indefinitely postponed due to the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The survey by the Center for Social and Market Research (SOCIS) on behalf of the “censor.net” portal, sheds rare light on the current political mood within Ukraine amid its defense against Russian aggression. The results indicate a clear preference for General Zaluzhny, who would garner 41.4 percent of the votes in the first round, with President Zelensky trailing at 23.7 percent of the respondents’ support.
Such outcomes would set the stage for a second round between Zaluzhny and Zelensky, where the survey suggests that, after excluding undecided and non-participating voters, Zaluzhny would secure a resounding victory with 67.5 percent of the votes.
Similarly, in hypothetical parliamentary elections, a party centered around General Zaluzhny, which currently does not exist, could expect 46.4 percent of the votes, outperforming a potential coalition led by Zelensky, which would receive 21.1 percent. Support for other groups does not exceed 8 percent.
Despite these results, the war has led to a postponement of the elections initially scheduled for March 31, 2024, and it remains unclear when they might take place, with no indications of them occurring in the near future.
This is not the only recent poll in which Zaluzhny outperforms Zelensky. A mid-February survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed a drop of five points in trust for President Zelensky, down to 60 percent, after he dismissed Zaluzhny from his army command position. Meanwhile, Zaluzhny boasted an impressive 94 percent trust rating.
