The early morning of February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin announced to the world the beginning of a “special military operation” aimed at the “demilitarization and disqualification of Ukraine.” A few days after the invasion, the Russian president declared that everything was going “according to the schedule.” Four years later, it seems that is not the case.
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenskifaces its fifth year of war at a time when its popularity has once again fallen to minimum levels, while Valeri Zaluzhniycurrent ambassador to the United Kingdom, reaches the maximum acceptance by Ukrainians.
Last January, the kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), an independent body that works in collaboration with the kyiv National Universitypublished the results of the latest wave of the survey on the trust of Ukrainians in their politicians.
President Zelensky obtained 62%, far from 90% achieved after the first months of the war, and significantly below the 74% achieved in May 2025.
The public figure with the highest trust rating at the moment is Zaluzhniy, at 72%. The two are old acquaintances: the ambassador was appointed head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by Zelensky himself in July 2021.
Who is Zaluzhniy?
Valeri Zaluzhniy (Zviáhel, Ukraine, 1973) is a soldier with a brilliant career: at only 44 years old he reached the rank of general. In 2020 he graduated in International Relations from the Ostroh Academy, in the Zhytomyr Oblast, northwest of Ukraine.
It was he who designed the containment strategy around kyiv, stopping the advance of Russian troops just 30 kilometers from the capital. The attrition of this operation was decisive for the success of the Kharkiv counteroffensive and in two weeks it expelled the Russians from much of the oblast. Military analysts considered it a “tactical masterstroke.”
However, the relationship between the president of Ukraine and his head of the Armed forces was tense following an incident that has not been known until now. After an intense discussion with Zelensky and his cabinet about the defense plan, the general found himself upon returning home with a registration by the SBUthe security service of Ukraine.
According to intelligence officials, the search had occurred due to an error in the internal communication of the management that should be investigated. The incident was closed without further consequences, but the relationship of trust between Zelensky and the head of the Armed Forces was damaged forever.
The main breaking point was the failure of the counteroffensive in 2023. In an interview given to Associated Press On February 19, the general acknowledged that his plan had been to concentrate the troops in “a single fist” to break the front in Zaporizhzhia, but it failed because Zelensky and his cabinet, always according to the media, did not want to commit the resources that the general required.
In a column he signed last November in the Ukrainian media Liga.netZaluzhniy declared that “It does not matter that the military command tries to create a strategy if there is no political will to implement it.” “It was a very hard year. My cabinet and I did not understand why things were going from bad to worse,” he added.
In that same medium, the ambassador maintained that the most likely outcome is a “freezing” of the front lines and that the war could lead to a form of “prolonged frozen conflict“.
That same feeling seems to reach the population. A recent KIIS survey shows the pessimistic drift of public opinion: in October 2025, a third of the population believed that the war would end soon, at the latest in the first quarter of 2026. Three months later, only 20% believed so.
Survey conducted by the International Institute of Sociology of kyiv University in January 2025.
The Zelensky’s popularity stagnates and Ukrainians are increasingly distrustful that the long-awaited end of the war is approaching. Meanwhile, Ambassador Zaluzhniy appears as a serious candidate who overshadows the president’s figure in a hypothetical scenario of upcoming elections.
He prefers not to talk about political ambitions because he believes that the most important thing as Ukraine defends itself from the Russian invasion is that the country remains united. “Until the war is over or martial law is lifted, I’m not going to talk about this and I haven’t done anything about it,” he said.
But the truth is that advisors, party figures and political experts have approached him offering to help him design a campaign. There has not been missing, among them, an old acquaintance of Trump, campaign manager in the 2016 presidential elections and recognized pro-Kremlin. “I thanked him for noticing me, but I told him I didn’t need his services,” Zaluzhnyi said.
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