Claims circulating online that a majority of Ukrainians are demanding Volodymyr Zelensky’s immediate resignation are a manipulation and distortion of sociological survey data.
Kremlin-aligned outlets are reporting that, according to a recent KIIS poll, 67% of Ukrainian citizens want Volodymyr Zelensky to leave office immediately — citing a link to a genuine sociological study as evidence. Propagandists claim that after four years of full-scale war, public dissatisfaction with the authorities has reached a breaking point and that Ukrainian society allegedly needs a leadership “reset” right now.
In reality, propagandists have crudely distorted both the substance and context of the KIIS survey conducted in May–June 2026. Respondents were asked about the need to renew government institutions exclusively after the end of the war — not during it. The KIIS press release is explicit on this point: “We were talking about the period after the war. KIIS surveys consistently show that the majority of Ukrainians are against holding elections until the war is over.” Earlier polling also shows 61% of Ukrainians trust Zelensky, with 34% expressing no trust, and for an overwhelming majority he remains a fully legitimate head of state for the duration of martial law.
KIIS Executive Director Anton Grushetskyi clarified that the 67% figure reflects a natural public appetite for broad renewal of the political elite in peacetime — not a demand for immediate change. Ukrainians, he said, are prepared to rally around the presidency in pursuit of victory in an existential war, deferring political disagreements and elections to the post-war period. Nor is the desire for change directed at the president alone: 83% of respondents called for a reset of the Verkhovna Rada after the war, and 74% favored a change of government. Propagandists deliberately stripped the key qualifier — “after the war ends” — from the finding, transforming a democratic aspiration for future peacetime elections into a mythical “spontaneous revolt” against the current authorities.
StopFake previously debunked the fake claim that 70% of Ukrainians are ready to end the war to save human lives without serious security guarantees from Ukraine’s Western partners.
