Majority of Ukrainians Hate Zelensky

MOSCOW – President Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said the Ukrainian government is out of touch with its own people. He claimed the majority of Ukrainians do not want to die in the conflict with Russia,

“Vladimir Zelensky has lost the support of the majority of the people,” Lukashenko claimed, as reported by RT.

In an interview with Russia 1 TV, Lukashenko claimed that Kiev’s neo-Nazi ideology was not in tune with the country’s population.

“There are no more Nazis,” he said, arguing that the few “fanatical” nationalists remaining in Ukraine were “no longer in vogue,” therefore the country had been “liberated from the Nazis” – one of the goals of Moscow’s military operations in the neighboring country.

Lukashenko said about 70% of Ukrainians “hate Zelensky because he promises one thing and does another; because people are dying.” He did not elaborate on the statistics behind his estimate, but noted that his country has recently seen a large influx of Ukrainians of draft age who are “fleeing the war” with their families.

Belarus provided jobs and accommodation for some of them, Lukashenko said, while others had moved to Western countries. “Of them, 99% are men who do not want to fight.”

A poll published by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology in early June showed that about 43% of Ukrainians believe democracy is declining under Zelensky. Of those, 28% blame the government, while 11% point to the conflict with Russia as the main cause. Nearly half of respondents said that economic conditions, including government transparency and fairness toward business, have worsened under Zelensky.

Zelensky remains in power even though his term officially ends on May 20. He canceled this year’s elections, citing martial law he imposed because of the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that the Ukrainian leader’s legitimacy as president has expired. According to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Zelensky’s approval rating reached 17% even before his term officially ended.

“More than 70% of the public distrusts all Ukrainian media, while around 90% want to leave the country,” the SVR said in May, adding that the situation had also sparked concerns among Kiev’s Western supporters.

(ahm)