United States President Donald Trump has said Ukraine should get a new president, a remark that signals Washington’s wish to see Volodymyr Zelenskyy leave office. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Trump claimed that Zelenskyy’s months-long strikes on Russian refineries had hurt global diesel supplies.
Trump’s view does not decide the matter in Kyiv. Zelenskyy’s five-year presidential term expired in 2024, but Ukraine’s constitution and martial law give him a wartime extension. Many Ukrainians want the political establishment renewed, yet they are reluctant to see a presidential vote before the four-and-a-half-year war ends. In response to Trump’s remarks, Zelenskyy proposed holding a vote if Russian President Vladimir Putin guaranteed a 60-day ceasefire.
Zaluzhnyi emerges as the strongest potential challenger
Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevych told that if elections are held quickly, one of the former military commanders would be Zelenskyy’s most probable rival. He said older political heavyweights do not stand a chance. Those named were former President Viktor Poroshenko, who lost the 2019 presidential vote to Zelenskyy, and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is being investigated for corruption.
Ukraine’s former top general and current ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tops the lists of possible challengers. Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, described him as the most probable alternative to Zelenskyy and the rival most able to defeat him at the ballot box. According to an October 8 poll by the Rating Group, a Kyiv-based pollster, 64 percent of Ukrainians trust him, while 25 percent distrust him.
That trust is rooted in his military record in 2022. After defending Kyiv in the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zaluzhnyi led counteroffensives that returned 40 percent of Russian-controlled territory to Ukraine. He was fired in 2023, after a long-anticipated summer counteroffensive produced no results.
Zaluzhnyi, 53, remains an enigma on the most pressing postwar issues. He is deliberately taciturn, leaving the public guessing about his views on economic recovery, the country’s demographic crisis and its push to join the European Union. He does not take part in talk shows and barely speaks to journalists, though he occasionally publishes opinion pieces on war-related problems and on securing lasting peace and security guarantees from Ukraine’s Western partners.
Zelenskyy’s strengths and weaknesses ahead of any vote
Zelenskyy, a former comedian, was elected in 2019 with 73 percent of the vote, the highest result in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history. Despite a string of corruption scandals in his inner circle, he is still considered popular enough to seek another term. According to the Rating Group’s poll, 53 percent of Ukrainians trust him, while 40 percent do not.
The source notes that Trump’s renewed hostility could again work in Zelenskyy’s favour. After his February 2025 row with Trump in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy’s approval ratings reached a wartime high of 67 percent. However, Tyshkevych suggested Zelenskyy may have damaged his own prospects through his appointments. He said Zelenskyy came to power promising to reset the system and to pick the most competent ministers and advisers rather than the most trusted ones.
Budanov and Fedorov rank high among possible rivals
Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov is described as the second most popular and charismatic military leader with a chance of becoming president. The 40-year-old former top military intelligence officer was appointed head of Zelenskyy’s administration in January. He led daring operations against Russia, including a 2016 raid on Russian-annexed Crimea to plant explosives at a military airfield. In 2020, Zelenskyy appointed him head of the defence ministry’s intelligence directorate, known as the GUR, which the source describes as an aggressive, tech-driven special forces service. Its sea drone attacks damaged Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and forced it to retreat from Crimea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. The Rating Group’s poll found 53 percent of Ukrainians trust Budanov and 31 percent mistrust him.
At 35, Fedorov is the youngest person on the list of potential presidents. He rose to prominence after Zelenskyy made him minister of digital transformation in 2019, where he radically simplified bureaucratic procedures. His ministry launched Diia, a smartphone app that gives users access to more than 100 government services online. In January, Zelenskyy appointed Fedorov, who had no military background, as defence minister. He was given responsibility for logistics, budgets, reforms, anticorruption measures and deals to secure multibillion-dollar Western aid or loans.
According to the source, Fedorov made procurement of weaponry, food and medical supplies more transparent and sharply increased the number of drones used against Russian supply routes, arms and fuel depots, refineries and air defence systems. He also expanded the use of ground robots to deliver food and ammunition and to rescue wounded soldiers. The reforms reportedly angered Oleksandr Syrsky, the actual commander-in-chief, who pushed for Fedorov’s dismissal in July. Fedorov’s supporters rallied across Ukraine for weeks, and his approval rating rose from 35 percent in June to 65 percent in July, according to the Rating Group. In August, he made an unpopular move by saying Ukraine should hold a presidential vote, and his current approval stands at 38 percent.
Khmara, Sybiha and Poroshenko complete the ranking
The list ends with Yevhenii Khmara, a general who replaced Fedorov as defence minister. He was a relative unknown until his appointment in July and has a career in intelligence with a low public profile. According to the survey, 29 percent of Ukrainians trust him, 16 percent distrust him, and another 43 percent did not know who he was.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, a career diplomat credited with securing crucial support from Turkiye and Poland, and former president Poroshenko are ranked sixth and seventh. Both are trusted by 24 percent of Ukrainians. Poroshenko came to power in 2014 on an anti-corruption ticket but later became involved in a graft scandal over overpriced spare parts for military equipment. Seventy percent of those polled distrust him, giving him one of the lowest popularity ratings on the list.
