Zelenskyy topped the distrust rating among foreign leaders in Poland, — poll

Zelenskyy topped the distrust rating among foreign leaders in Poland, — poll

Karol Nawrocki received the highest level of trust among the survey participants, while Donald Trump ranked second in terms of distrust.

Poles are critical of foreign leaders — Vladimir Zelenskyy and Donald Trump arouse the most skepticism. This is evidenced by the results of a fresh United Surveys poll for Wirtualna Polska, reports Rzeczpospolita.

Ukraine’s president topped the anti-rating among all politicians assessed in the survey — 75.8% of Poles do not trust him. Only 12.5% view Zelenskyy positively, while one in ten respondents remained undecided. Donald Trump came second in terms of skepticism: 65.1% of respondents do not trust the U.S. president, while slightly more than one-fifth sympathize with him.

A similar situation applies to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — the level of distrust toward them reaches 61.6% and 59.2%, respectively. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is still being assessed in Poland: although distrust outweighs trust, nearly a third of citizens were unable to evaluate his performance at all.

The only politician with a positive balance of assessments was Polish President Karol Nawrocki. 51.9% of citizens trust him, while 44.8% hold the opposite view. At the same time, the situation is worse for Prime Minister Donald Tusk: the trust balance has gone negative — 43.2% versus 50.3% distrust.

The survey was conducted at the end of June 2026 using a combined methodology among 1,000 Polish residents.

A deterioration in Poles’ attitude toward Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been recorded by several sociological studies. In June, a poll on Zelenskyy’s attitude toward Poland showed that more than half of respondents believe the Ukrainian president has a negative attitude toward their country.

Tensions in Ukrainian-Polish relations also intensified after Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle. As a poll on this decision showed, Polish society is divided in its assessment of its consequences for the country’s international standing. Against the backdrop of these events, Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation Oleksandr Sushko, in the article “Four Tracks of Reconciliation: How to Save Ukrainian-Polish Relations,” proposed separating historical disputes, security cooperation, economic integration, and public dialogue so that conflicts over the past do not destroy the strategic partnership between Kyiv and Warsaw.