The majority of Ukrainians (94%) trust Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, and 73% trust military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, according to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
Some 63% of respondents trust Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyy. The figures represent the interviewees who know who these commanders are.
"At the same time, the level of distrust among those who know them is 5% for V. Zaluzhnyy, 24% for K. Budanov, and 29% for O. Syrskyy," the survey says.
In all regions, the situation is quite similar and in all regions the military commanders enjoy a fairly high level of trust.
"The majority of respondents - 72% - would have a negative attitude to the resignation of V. Zaluzhnyy. Only 2% of respondents would welcome it. Another 21% have a neutral perception of this, and 5% could not formulate their opinion," the KIIS noted.
Among respondents who trust Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 71% would have a negative attitude to the decision to dismiss Zaluzhnyy (and only 3% would have a positive attitude).
Some 43% of Ukrainians believe that there may be some disagreements or friction between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyy. However, only 8% of them believe that the situation is very serious, and the remaining 35% believe that these misunderstandings are not very serious. In general, 39% do not believe that there is a certain conflict, while 18% could not make up their mind.
Yesterday, during the president's press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked several times about Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, with whom the Western media believe he may have a conflict. Zelensky said that he had a working relationship with the commander-in-chief and added that "we need results every day in every position." He also evasively answered the question of whether he had plans to replace Zaluzhnyy, and when asked about the "attacks" on the general by his party's MP Maryana Bezuhla, Zelenskyy said that "Maryanas and Valeras like to comment on Facebook".
The survey was conducted on 4-10 December via computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). A total of 1,200 adult respondents in the non-occupied territories were interviewed. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample did not exceed 3.2% for indicators close to 50%, 2.7% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.4% for indicators close to 5%.