March 7, 2024 (EIRNS)—Ukraine’s SOCIS poll shows President Volodymyr Zelensky losing in a head-to-head with Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, were a presidential election to be allowed. The poll, carried out from February 22 to March 1, on a representative sample of 3,000 adult Ukrainians, shows Zaluzhny with 67.5% and Zelensky in the distance with 32.5%. (The poll first considered a first round, where Zelensky had 23.7% with Zaluzhny at 41%—and other candidates getting less than 10% apiece. Then it set the two top candidates against each other.) The poll had a margin of error of 2.1%.
Both of them had above 90% approval ratings prior to the counteroffensive. As of a December poll, Zaluznhy’s ratings were still at 88%, while Zelensky’s had fallen all the way to the mid-to-lower 60’s. Then in February, Zelensky fired the more popular Zaluzhny from his post as Commander-in-Chief.
