As the United States ramps up military aid to Ukraine, the share of Americans who say the U.S. is providing too much support has grown. About a quarter (26%) now say the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine, while 31% say it is giving the right amount and 20% would like to see the U.S. give Ukraine additional assistance.
The share of adults who say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine has increased 6 percentage points since last September and 19 points since shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 18-24 among 5,152 U.S. adults.
This shift in opinion is mostly attributable to the growing share of Republicans who say the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine. Today, 40% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents hold this view, up from 32% in the fall and much higher than the 9% who held this view in March of last year.
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There has also been an increase in the share of Democrats who say the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine. Still, only 15% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents currently say this, up from 5% last March. About six-in-ten Democrats either say the U.S. is providing about the right amount of support to Ukraine (40%) or that the U.S. is not providing enough support (23%).
Public attention to the Russia-Ukraine conflict is little changed in recent months, with about two-thirds of Americans (65%) – including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats – saying they follow news about the invasion at least somewhat closely.
But there is a wide partisan gap over whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine poses a major threat to U.S. interests or not, a shift from the early days of the conflict. Last March, Republicans and Democrats were about equally likely to say that the invasion posed a major threat to U.S. interests (51% of Republicans said this, as did 50% of Democrats). The share of Americans who see the conflict as a major threat to U.S. interests has declined in both parties since March 2022. Today, Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to say this (29% vs. 43%).
More Americans approve than disapprove of Biden administration’s approach to Russian invasion of Ukraine
In the Center’s new survey, about four-in-ten U.S. adults (43%) say they approve of the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while about a third (34%) disapprove. About two-in-ten (22%) say they are not sure. Views of the Biden administration’s response have changed little since May 2022, the last time this question was asked.
Public ratings of the administration’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine remain more positive than President Joe Biden’s overall job approval rating. Today, 38% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance, while six-in-ten disapprove.
Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans (61% vs. 27%) to approve of the Biden administration’s response to the Russia invasion. Republicans, for their part, are considerably more likely to approve of the administration’s response to the invasion than to approve of Biden’s overall job performance (27% vs. 6%).
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
