For the first time, Vladimir Zelensky's rating went below 50%. These are the data of opinion polls conducted at the end of January by the Social Monitoring Center and the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research named after A. Yaremenko. 20.5% of respondents do not trust the President of Ukraine at all, rather 18.8% do not trust. Another 28.7% of respondents rather trust the head of state, and 20.7% fully trust. 11.3% of respondents found it difficult to answer. Zelensky is still a politician with a positive balance of trust. However, 39.3% of citizens do not trust him, and only 10% trust him more - 49.4%.

In autumn, the rating of the Ukrainian leader dipped by 20%: from 72% to 53%. The reasons for the current fall remain the same. Peace in the Donbass, whose supporters basically ensured Zelensky’s victory in the elections, remains an unattainable dream. Representatives of the past government are at large, although during the election campaign Zelensky called himself a sentence to his predecessor. Many expected that with the corrupt officials from the departed team, the current government will deal quickly and without any regrets. And finally, in November, Ukrainian citizens received payments for heating. Prices have risen, and no one is going to raise patches and pensions.

Among other things, in rhetoric, ideology, and social policy, the new government continues the course pursued by Petro Poroshenko. In some ways Zelensky even managed to get around him, for example, in the absurd assertion that the USSR contributed to the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. So far Peter Alekseevich did not go. In general, the ruling team failed to curb the nationalists, who continue to largely determine the political agenda of Ukraine, or to make relations with Russia less conflicting, although this was what the voters expected from them.

After meeting in the Norman format in Paris on December 9, Zelensky’s rating won back 10%, freezing at 62%. The divorce of forces and means between the two settlements, the new agreements reached at the summit, returned to people hope for peace in the Donbass. However, the process has stalled, and recently an exacerbation has again occurred on the contact line. It became apparent that Zelensky was either unable to influence the situation and the tone on the fronts was set by supporters of a forceful solution to the conflict, or did not have a clear plan for a peaceful settlement.

The current rollback of the support rating is far from the limit. Sociological data eloquently testifies to this, fixing the popularity of the cabinet of ministers, the prime minister and parliament, which has sunk to extremely low values, where the power is held by the simple majority of the presidential party “Servant of the People”.

23.5% of respondents trust Aleksey Goncharuk, and 65.5% do not trust. The same confidence indicators (with a difference of a few percent) of the Verkhovna Rada and the government as a whole.

The fall was caused by two scandals. The history of salaries of 200-300-500 thousand hryvnias to ministers and their deputies, as follows from the polls, caused an extremely negative reaction among voters. People believe that the wages of officials can exceed the average in Ukraine by two to three times, and not as it is now - by 10-20 times.

The second scandal, which removed Goncharuk’s part of the rating, is the audio recordings from the meeting in the Cabinet that have been merged into the network. The prime minister calls himself a layman in economics and says that Zelensky also has little sense in this area.

Weak, weak-willed power, fearful of a handful of right-wing radicals who lost the parliamentary elections, forgot about all their election promises, in the aggregate of all sociological indicators, begins to cause growing irritation among Ukrainians. Given the fact that no prospects for a correction in the political course are visible, it can be confidently stated that the rating of the president, government, parliament, and the Party of the Servant of the People party will continue to sag. The lack of electoral support will increase the incapacity of the authorities, as society will increasingly ignore, and even sabotage, the management system as a whole.

The troubled times in Ukraine do not end there.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.