Support for US aid to Ukraine divided among party lines: poll

Most Americans continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to fight off Russian forces and reclaim its territory, but many Republicans think Washington is providing too much assistance to Kyiv as the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion nears, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of US adults would rather see the US keep boosting Ukraine’s efforts against its larger adversary, while 31% said they’d prefer the US helped to end the war quickly, even if it meant Russia held onto Ukrainian territory.

Democrats were far more supportive of efforts to aid Ukraine than Republicans or Independents, with 81% of members of the liberal party saying they wanted the US to offer prolonged support to Kyiv, compared to 53% of GOP voters and 59% of Independent voters, the poll found.

Among Republicans, 41% wanted the US to help end the war quickly, even if it meant Ukraine lost territory, compared to 38% of Independents and 16% of Democrats.

Almost half of all GOPers — 47% — said the US was offering too much aid to Ukraine, while just 10% of Democrats thought the same.

Respondents were split on the level of American assistance, with 28% thinking the US is doing too much, 30% believing it is not doing enough and 39% saying the Biden administration is providing the right amount of support.

Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed thought the US was doing too much to assist the invaded nation, while 30% believed it had not done enough. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said the current level of US support was just right.

The online poll was conducted Jan. 3-22, just before President Biden announced that the US would send Ukraine 31 M1 Abrams tanks to help beat back what an expected Russian offensive in Ukraine’s east later this spring.

The US has sent some $27 billion in military aid to Ukraine, and supplied tens of billions more in economic and humanitarian relief, since Russia invaded the former Soviet territory on Feb. 24, 2022.

In October, Russia illegally annexed four regions of eastern Ukraine after holding sham elections, but continued to face resistance from Kyiv’s upstart military and had yet to fully control any of the four territories.

Despite having significantly more resources than Ukraine, Russian forces have failed to capture any of its objectives in the country, and morale among its hundreds of thousands of minimally trained conscripts is reportedly low.

Heavily motivated Ukraine forces, on the other hand, have driven back the invaders in the first few months of the war, with the help of military support from Western allies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had waged the largest combat mission on the European continent since World War II in the hopes of reclaiming the former Soviet territory and halting its flirtation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, composed of Russian adversaries in Europe and North America.

Ukraine claimed last week that it had killed 117,000 Russian troops, which is more than the number of Americans that perished in World War I, or in the Vietnam and Korea conflicts combined over the course of 25 years.

US officials had estimated that a staggering 180,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the invasion began last week, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Kremlin’s last stated death toll was less than 6,000 troops, in September.

In November, the US estimated that 100,000 Ukrainians soldiers had been killed. Kyiv denied the report the next month, claiming to have only lost 13,000 of its fighters.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had verified more than 7,100 civilian casualties — including 438 children — in Ukraine Monday, but warned the true number could be far higher.

Norway’s Chief of Defense, General Eirik Kristoffersen, estimated last month that some 30,000 civilians had been killed, the Journal said.

With AP wires