Russian claims that Ukrainians would like a president like Vladimir Putin are false. After Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in Donbas in 2014, Putin’s standing among Ukrainians plummeted and reached a minimum after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
During a recent interview with Russia’s government funded state-controlled international news television network RT, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Ukrainians would like to see Russian leader Vladimir Putin as their leader, and secretly, admire him greatly.
“They [Ukrainians] hate, outwardly hate and are very aggressive towards Putin precisely because they would like Putin to be their president. That’s what they need – an open, decisive, knowledgeable, capable of speaking, as you say, not from a piece of paper that Washington sent him, but speaking knowledgeably, because he knows what he is talking about,” Zakharova said.
She then resorted to repeating one of the pillars of Kremlin disinformation about Ukraine, that instead of having such a wonderful leader like Putin, Ukrainians only get the president that “the West gives them.”
Statements such as this pronouncement by Zakharova are part and parcel of a larger Russian propaganda narrative claiming that Ukrainians do not really support their government, are in solidarity with Russians and Russia’s politicians, and that the West completely controls and rules the Ukrainian state.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is known for her outrageous pronouncements and enthusiasm for disseminating disinformation. Buzzfeed has called her Russia’s Troll-In-Chief. Zakharova has been sanctioned by the European Union as a central figure of government propaganda, followed by sanctions imposed by Japan, US, Australia New Zealand and the UK.
In the real world, there is absolutely no evidence that Ukrainians admire Putin in any way and would like such a president for themselves and for Ukraine.
In the spring of 2023, two eminent Ukrainian think tanks and pollsters, Democratic Initiatives and the Razumkov Center, conducted a survey focusing on “Symbols, events and personalities that form the national memory of the war with Russia.” One of the survey questions was about Ukrainians’ attitude towards the Russian leader. Survey participants were asked the following question “Do you agree with the statement that Putin is Hitler today?” 82.2% answered they completely agree, 11.8% said they rather agree than disagree, and 1.4% rather disagree than agree. Only 1.1% of the respondents completely disagreed with this statement.
Vladimir Putin was not popular among Ukrainians even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and after Russia occupied and annexed Crimea and fomented hostilities in the Donbas in 2014, his ratings only declined further. According to a 2022 poll by the Rating sociological group, 98% of Ukrainians said they had a negative attitude towards Vladimir Putin.
Internationally conducted surveys show a similar tendency, the ratings of Putin and the Russian leadership have decreased significantly. For example, an American Gallup Institute survey conducted in 137 countries showed that the majority of countries (81 out of 137) do not support Russian leaders, with disapproval of Russian leadership hitting a record high 57% worldwide in 2022.
“High-income, Western-aligned democracies tended to give the highest disapproval ratings, with figures exceeding 90% in the U.S. (93%), Canada (91%) and 10 European countries — including Poland, one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in Europe, where 95% disapproved. In Ukraine itself, 96% disapproved” Gallup sums up.
Furthermore, according to a study by one of Ukraine’s most eminent polling companies, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted in May-June 2023, only 23% of Ukrainian respondents said they would like to change the president after Ukraine’s victory, 69% want a new parliament and 47% want to change the government. The institute explained the results of the survey as follows: “At the same time, this does not remove the existing desire of Ukrainians for the renewal of power, for the arrival of more honest and competent managers at various levels. In addition to President V. Zelensky, the request for renewal of the Parliament and the Government is palpable. Ukrainians rallied to repel the enemy, but this does not mean “turning a blind eye” to the abuse or incompetence of certain politicians or government officials.”
Previously, StopFake has debunked similar Russian fakes distorting and manipulating survey results, such as the fake claim that the majority of countries are siding with Putin regarding Ukraine.
