By Talia Mullin / Original to ScheerPost
On Aug. 4, 2023, CNN released a poll, conducted with Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS), which found that most Americans oppose Congress authorizing additional aid to Ukraine in their war with Russia. While previous coverage highlighted a divide between Democrats and Republicans concerning the United States’ role in Ukraine, the recent poll results reveal a split public opinion on whether the U.S. has sufficiently supported Ukraine.
The poll was conducted by SSRS, an independent research company, in July with a random national sample of 1,279 adults who completed the survey by telephone or online after being initially contacted by mail.
According to the poll, 55% of respondents say that Congress should not authorize further funding to support Ukraine, and an additional 51% believe the U.S. has already done enough to help Ukrainian forces. This contrasts a poll conducted in Feb. 2022 which found that 62% of people felt that the U.S. could have been doing more to aid Ukraine.
Furthermore, among those advocating for increased U.S. backing of the Kiev government, 68% are in favor of further funding, while 23% of those convinced ofWashington’s efforts are still in support of further funding. When asked about what kind of assistance should be given, only 17% of respondents showed support for sending U.S. troops to participate in combat operations, and 43% were in favor of providing more weapons. Much broader support was observed for military training (53%) and help with intelligence gathering (63%).
Among those who say that the U.S. has done enough in supporting Ukraine, a majority favor only providing aid with intelligence gathering (52%). However, for those who say the U.S. should be doing more, assistance in intelligence gathering (75%), military training (68%), and weaponry (60%), all earned majorities.
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The poll also showed that a majority of Americans are concerned that Russia’s war in Ukraine could threaten the U.S.’ security (56%), but this number has dropped considerably from polling done in Feb. 2022 which found that 72% of Americans were worried about the possible security threat at the onset of the conflict.
“A bigger worry across partisan lines in the new poll is that the war will continue without a resolution for a long time,” Agiesta said. “Nearly 8 in 10 are worried about that, including 82% of Democrats, 75% of independents and 73% of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds overall are concerned that the war in Ukraine will lead to increased threats to democracy elsewhere (65%) or lead to Russian attacks elsewhere (64%), and about 6 in 10 are worried it could lead to a broader war in Europe (59%),” she continued.
This survey finds broad ideological and partisan divides with Republicans mainly saying that Congress should not authorize further funding (71%), and that the US has fulfilled its obligations (59%). In contrast, Democratic sentiment finds 62% in favor of further funding and 61% viewing the US should intensify its support aid to Ukraine.
“Within both parties, there are splits by ideology. On providing additional funding, liberal Democrats are far and away the most supportive, 74% back it compared with 51% of moderate or conservative Democrats. Among Republicans, about three-quarters of conservatives oppose new funding (76%) compared with 61% of moderate or liberal Republicans. Independents mostly say the US has done enough to help Ukraine (56%) and that they oppose additional funding (55%).”
When it comes to opinions on President Biden and his handling of the crisis in Ukraine, 45% of Americans approve of his decisions, and 43% approve of his methods of dealing with his relationship to Russia throughout the conflict. Only 19% of Republicans, however, support how Biden has dealt with the situation in Ukraine, a higher metric compared to his overall rating with Republicans, which stands at 7%.
CNN Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta notes, “Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.”
Talia Mullin
Talia Mullin a student at the University of Southern California studying Communication, Spanish, and International Relations. She is a staff writer for Scheer Post.