Donald Trump on Tuesday falsely claimed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy currently has a 4% approval rating in his country. But the most recent poll, conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) earlier this month, showed that 57% of Ukrainians say they approve of President Zelenskyy.
Pres. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Ukrainian Pres. Zelenskyy’s public approval rating was “down to 4%,” failing to provide a source for the figure.
Read more: https://t.co/tG7QYI4Gwc pic.twitter.com/ZLgKpVMMCi — ABC News (@ABC) February 19, 2025
More from ABC News:
Zelenskyy’s level of support is diminished from the extraordinary highs of earlier in the war. He scored 77% trust in a KIIS poll from December 2023 and 90% in May 2022, around three months after Russia’s invasion. The February poll did show a 5% bump in trust from December 2024.
Aides in Kyiv were quick to point out on Wednesday that Zelenskyy’s recent score of 57% in the KIIS poll was higher than Trump’s backing in recent U.S. surveys — for example, 46.6% with 538, 47% with YouGov/The Economist and 48% with Gallup.
NEW: Pres. Trump called Ukrainian Pres. Zelenskyy a “Dictator without Elections,” writing on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.” https://t.co/Xyyw62ogIp pic.twitter.com/k2GNNwSZvt
— ABC News (@ABC) February 19, 2025
It’s worth noting that Trump has never called Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator. Zelenskyy pushed back on Wednesday, saying Trump is living in a “disinformation space” created by the Kremlin. “If we are talking about 4% then we have seen this disinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “And we have evidence.” “As for President Trump, with all due respect to him as a leader of the American people, who we deeply respect and are thankful for all his support, but President Trump, unfortunately, is living in this disinformation space,” Zelenskyy added.
JUST IN: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy hit back at President Trump’s call for the country to hold fresh presidential elections following Tuesday’s historic Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia, describing Trump’s assertions as Russian “disinformation.”
abcnews.go.com/Internationa… [image or embed] — ABC News (@abcnewsgo.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Trump has insulted every hero he has heard of, including John McCain, gold star families, our men and women in uniform, military generals … Why wouldn’t he insult Zelenskyy, the guy who took on the Russian military? Trump has sunk so low he’s not visible any more. apnews.com/article/trum…
[image or embed] — Piyush Mittal (@piyushmittal.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Trump also claimed that Zelenskyy started the ongoing war with Russia, when in truth it was Russia that launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 — committing a crime of aggression. As in many cases, Trump’s statement doesn’t even makes sense – Ukraine invaded itself??? Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has responded publicly to Trump’s false claims.
Former Vice Pres. Mike Pence is speaking out against Pres. Donald Trump’s stance on Ukraine.
“Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war … The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth,” Pence posted on X. https://t.co/5aBF8Kwf9v — ABC News (@ABC) February 19, 2025
Plus – the Donald seemed to indicate that Zelenskyy was somehow an illegitimate president because “he refuses to have elections.” Zelenskyy is the democratically elected President of Ukraine. A scheduled 2024 election was scraped as the Ukrainian constitution does not allow national elections to be held while martial law is in effect (which it has been since the Russian invasion). Additionally, Trump falsely alleged that Zelenskyy “talked the U.S. into spending $350 billion” in support of Urkaine during the Russian conflict when the total military & non-military assistance from the U.S. to Ukraine to date is $118 billion.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz publicly expresses his full support for Zelenskyy after Trump’s “remarks”. It’s simply wrong & dangerous to deny Zelenskyy’s democratic legitimacy. He is the elected head of state and, according to the Ukrainian constitution, there should be no elections… https://t.co/cqWtq7aCen pic.twitter.com/Uf6Vj4XYPE
— German Aid to Ukraine (@deaidua) February 19, 2025
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