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Most Ukrainians have no confidence in the U.S. team negotiating with Russia to end the war, and more than half view President Donald Trump, to some degree, as “an enemy,” according to new research from CU �Ǹ�Թ� and Virginia Tech.

“Our results show that the Trump administration has generally not made a great impression on Ukrainians,” said Sarah Wilson Sokhey, associate professor of political science at CU �Ǹ�Թ�.

Sarah Sokhey

The representative survey of Ukrainians is the latest of dozens of polls—including tens of thousands of Ukrainians collectively over the years—that CU researchers have organized and conducted in Ukraine since 2000.��

Nearly five years into the Russia-Ukraine war, it offers insight into how people on the ground feel about their own president, government corruption, the draft, Americans and more.

“If there is going to be any stable peace, Ukrainians have to be on board,” said Sokhey, who studies Central and Eastern European politics and last visited the country in summer 2025. “What they think matters, and we should be paying attention.”

For the most recent survey, Sokhey, CU �Ǹ�Թ� Geography Professor John O'Loughlin and Virginia Tech Professor Gerard Toal worked with Kyiv International Institute of Sociology to conduct a telephone survey of 1,801 Ukrainians from June 9 to June 26, 2026. For safety reasons, they did not survey individuals in regions occupied by Russia.

How Ukraine feels about the U.S.

Sokhey notes that, over the years, Trump has frequently Russian President Vladimir Putin as “smart” and “a strong leader.” In 2025, Trump made global headlines when he publicly chastised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in the Oval Office.��

While aid to Ukraine has been significant—making it the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid with the war began in 2022—no significant aid package has been passed since April of 2024. A promised $400 million military aid package has been delayed.

To determine how all this has shaped Ukrainian’s impressions of the U.S., the survey asked: Is Trump a friend or an enemy of Ukraine?

Thirty-six percent of respondents chose “enemy,” while 17% chose friend and 24% chose “a bit of both.” Sixty-seven percent said they had no trust at all in Trump.

When asked about their confidence in U.S. negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, 57% said they had “no confidence,” while 32% said they had some, and 3% had high confidence.

Still, 74% said they viewed Americans as friends, and only 4% viewed them as enemies.

“In a way this is not surprising,” said O’Loughlin, who has been doing surveys in Ukraine for nearly 26 years. “If you look at worldwide surveys across many countries, people tend to make a distinction between the American government and its foreign policy actions that they don’t like, and Americans.”

John O'Loughlin

O’Loughlin notes that Ukrainians have shifted their views on who the country’s most vital foreign partner is.��

When asked about the U.S. role in world affairs, 26% said they had negative feelings, 62% had mixed feelings and 8% felt positively.

“They are looking more to Europe now, especially France and Britain, as their most reliable supporters,” said O’Loughlin.

How Ukrainians feel about their own government����

While has held steady over the past year, not everyone trusts him either. The new survey found that 14% of respondents have no trust at all in him, 47% trust him a little and 37% trust him a lot.��

Surprisingly, when Ukrainians were asked what they worry most about, more than a third ranked government corruption as the nation’s top challenge. Half chose Russian aggression and 14% said they were equally concerned about both.

Zelenskyy ran on an anti-corruption platform but has struggled to rein it in, leading to protests.

“Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world when it comes to things like government contracts and military sources. It’s endemic,” said O’Loughlin.��

Resisting the draft

In April 2024, the Ukrainian government lowered the draft age from 27 to 25. Since then military authorities have reportedly used a violent method known as “busificaton” to forcefully detain young men and haul them away in minivans to serve on the battlefield.

The new survey asked Ukrainians specifically: “Is it time to draft all young Ukrainian men into military service?”

Fifty-six percent disagreed and only 8% fully agreed.

This resistance to the draft played out on the streets of Ukraine earlier this month, as young protesters turned out in record numbers to oppose the firing of Mykhailo Federov as defense minister. Federov has led the charge to use unmanned drones over on-the-ground soldiers to fight the war.

On July 23, Zelenskyy reversed his decision and promised Federov a return to a “prominent position” in the military.

“Ukraine, even before the war started, had an aging and shrinking population. Then you add war to that, with 8 million people leaving the country and hundreds of thousands of soldiers being killed,” said Sokhey. “Our survey suggests that they are realizing they won’t have anyone left to run the country if they send all their younger people off to war. They are running out of people to fight.”