On February 8, Zaluzhny was replaced by former head of Ukraine's ground forces Oleksandr Syrsky. Days before, the president said in an interview with an Italian broadcaster that he wanted "a restart and a new beginning" for his country.
"Immediately after the resignation of V. Zaluzhny, trust [in Zelensky] decreased by another 5 percentage points to 60%. Thus, in general, for the period of February 5-10, 64% trust V. Zelensky, but at the end of this period, the indicator is 60%," the institute said in a statement.
In December 2023, 77% of the Ukrainians trusted Zelensky, indicating that the level of trust in the Ukrainian president has dropped by 13 percentage points compared to the period of February 5-10.
"Among the 13 figures on the list, most Ukrainians trust V. Zaluzhny - 94% trust him and only 5% do not trust him (compared to December, the situation has practically not changed)," the survey read.
As for new military commander, Syrsky, the February survey shows that he is trusted by 40% of respondents compared with 33% in December, while another 35% said they do not know him.
There has also been a 6 percentage point drop in trust in the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, (from 33% in December to 27% in February), the survey showed. Meanwhile, trust in ex-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko is up by 4 percentage points (from 27% in December to 31% in February).
An all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus" was conducted by the KIIS from February 5-10, 2024 in the form of phone interviews among 1,202 responders with 874 of them conducted before Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal and 328 - after. The margin of error did not exceed 3.2%.