Context: On Wednesday, June 17, 2026, a bus carrying children from Belarus was attacked by drones in the Bryansk Region of Russia. Ukraine denied the allegations of its involvement, stating that it was not conducting any operations in the Bryansk Region at the time. Aleksandr Lukashenko claimed that the drone was Ukrainian. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Volfovich, the State Secretary of the Security Council, viewed the incident as an attempt to “provoke some kind of unpleasant situation” and pit Belarus against Ukraine. They both stated that Belarus would not be drawn into the war. In response, Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Belarus is already involved in the war because it has deployed relay stations in two regions within its borders that increase the range and targeting accuracy of Russian strike drones attacking Ukrainian cities. He said that if Lukashenko does not remove them within a week, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will remove them themselves.
During the This Is Different show on the First News Channel* on June 16, 2026, host Ksenia Lebedzeva stated that the Ukrainian government had lost credibility with the public and was therefore shifting its focus from domestic problems to external threats.
“Why are Ukrainian media outlets, officials on Bankova Street [the Office of the President of Ukraine is located on Bankova Street in Kyiv — ed. note], and opinion leaders such as the military commander Magyar [Robert Brovdi, call sign Magyar, a Ukrainian serviceman, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, and head of the "Magyar's Birds" unit — ed. note] persistently fueling fear? The answer is a crisis of trust. Look at this graph from an Edelman survey. Trust in public officials and journalists in Ukraine is constantly declining. Minus seven, minus five. These figures are catastrophic,” Lebedzeva said.
In fact, the graph shown on the broadcast has nothing to do with Ukraine. Lebedzeva sourced it from the 2022 Ukrainian anthology, Strategic Communications for Law Enforcement Agencies and Government Institutions. Page 19 summarizes the findings of the 2021 Trust Barometer survey conducted by the consultancy firm Edelman. The survey was conducted in 28 countries worldwide during the global COVID-19 pandemic and amid the spread of misinformation.
Source: Collection titled Strategic Communications for Law Enforcement Agencies and Government Institutions. The graph presented in the program This Is Different.
In this survey, sociologists indeed documented a decline in trust in politicians, the media, and the church. They also noted an increase in trust in local authority figures. The graph from the report was simply translated into Ukrainian. In the original Edelman report, the same graph is published in English. It shows the average results for 28 countries worldwide. The report’s methodology section lists the countries in which surveys were conducted. These countries include China, the United States, and Russia, but not Ukraine. In other words, the graph does not include responses from Ukrainians. Therefore, it cannot be used to prove that trust in Ukrainian government officials or the Ukrainian media is declining.
The actual data on Ukrainians’ trust in public institutions paint a different picture. A survey conducted from November to December of 2025 found that Ukrainians trust the Armed Forces of Ukraine, volunteers, the president, and the Security Service of Ukraine the most. The percentage of people who trust the President of Ukraine increased from 45% in December 2024 to 57% in December 2025. Trust in the Verkhovna Rada remained low at 12%, while trust in the government increased from 20% to 23%.
Source: KMIS
Ksenia Lebedzeva tried to convince viewers that the Ukrainian government is talking about external threats due to an internal trust crisis. However, she did not cite Ukrainian sociological research as evidence. Instead, she used a graph from a global study that had been translated into Ukrainian but had not been conducted in Ukraine.
* The First News Channel is another name for News.by, a news outlet owned by Belteleradiocompany.
