Do we like Volodymyr Zelensky?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record on the right side of the harm question and real good done, held back by corruption scandals in his inner circle and a messy home front.
Zelensky was a showman before he was a wartime leader, and he won the 2019 election in what some analysts read as a rejection of the old elite. Trust in him sat around 80% in 2019, sank to 37% by February 2022, then rocketed to 90% when the full-scale invasion began. Time named him its 2022 Person of the Year, and that is the version of him most of the world carries around.
The mess is closer to home. In November 2025 the anti-corruption agencies searched the home of his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in the Energoatom kickback investigation, and Zelensky accepted his resignation, promising a reset of the President's Office. By May 2026 Yermak had reportedly been charged in a money-laundering probe and briefly held in custody, and fresh tapes allege his security chief Rustem Umerov discussed deals with a businessman close to Zelensky, Timur Mindich. Umerov, who has not been charged, calls claims against him unverified. Anti-corruption agencies have said Zelensky himself is not implicated in a separate probe.
The July 2025 stoush showed another side. Zelensky signed a law that put the anti-corruption bureau NABU and its prosecutors under the political appointee who is prosecutor general, and thousands protested in the middle of a war. Within days he backed a bill to restore their independence. Credit for listening, though plenty will ask why he signed it in the first place.
On the harm test, we found nothing nasty from him about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet. In June 2026 he said everything should be discussed openly with society and added “We are modern people”, after a veteran from an LGBTQ+ NGO asked him about it. Ukraine still has no civil partnerships; he has said he would sign such a law, but the draft has stalled in parliament. The record on climate and other topics in 2026 was thin in what we could verify, so call this a pass on what we found.
The Trump feud is the fresh part. Euronews reported that Trump said on 10 October that Ukraine needs a new leader who can make a deal, a day after he struck a diesel purchase deal with Putin, and blamed Zelensky for high US fuel prices. Zelensky answered that it is up to Ukrainians to choose and said Russia alone is responsible for the war. Earlier fact-checks by PolitiFact found Vance's claim that he had never said thank you to be inaccurate, as was Trump's 350 billion dollar figure for US aid.
At home it is rougher. Analysts say his domestic governance is weaker than his foreign policy, with conscription (mobilisation) the biggest headache, and critics have pointed to his staffing choices and silence on high-profile incidents. His trust rating was 58% in April per KIIS, down from the post-invasion peak but still solid, and one December poll had him losing a runoff to former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.