Public trust in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has jumped to 65%, up from 57% in January, after US President Donald Trump claimed that his popularity was only 4% and called him a “dictator” without legitimacy in a war of words that broke out last week.

Trump’s verbal assault has triggered an outpouring of support for Ukraine’s heroic wartime leader, however, Zelenskiy's popularity has been falling in recent months as the situation on the battlefield continues to deteriorate and the government’s conscription campaign to shore up the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) becomes more aggressive.

According to a new survey by the Rating sociological group, trust in Zelenskiy jumped after Trump’s verbal attack, but he remains behind  former commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who Zelenskiy sacked last year and is currently Ukraine’s ambassador in London. The general remains the most trusted public figure in the country, with 76% of respondents expressing confidence in him.

The survey, conducted on February 20-21, found that 34% of Ukrainians do not trust Zelenskiy, while 16% expressed distrust towards Zaluzhnyi. Other prominent political figures received lower levels of public confidence. Serhii Prytula, a politician and philanthropist, was trusted by 34% of respondents, while 51% did not trust him, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

Former President Petro Poroshenko had a trust rating of 22%, with 76% of respondents expressing distrust. Former Speaker of Parliament Dmytro Razumkov was trusted by 19%, while 41% did not trust him. The lowest level of public confidence was recorded for Yuliia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna party, with only 11% of respondents expressing trust, compared to 86% who did not trust her.

The survey sampled 1,200 Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and older across all oblasts, excluding the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas, as well as areas where mobile networks were unavailable at the time of polling. The study was conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviews, with a margin of error not exceeding 2.8% at a 95% confidence level.

As the second stage of a US three-stage ceasefire plan, US President Donald Trump is insisting Ukraine hold delayed presidential elections before the concrete work on agreeing on the ceasefire terms are settled, with the apparent goal of removing Zelenskiy from the negotiating process.