As the war in Ukraine intensifies, nearly half of Americans (47%) say either that the United States is providing the right amount of aid (31%) or not enough assistance (16%) to Ukraine, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. That compares with 28% who say the U.S. is giving too much support to Ukraine.
Pew Research Center conducted this study to track Americans’ views of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,115 U.S. adults from June 5 to 11, 2023. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
Yet the share of Americans who say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine has steadily increased since the start of the war, largely driven by a shift among Republicans.
Currently, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the U.S. is giving too much aid to Ukraine, up modestly since January (40%) and the highest level since shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
Just 14% of Democrats and Democratic leaners view the current level of U.S. aid as excessive, little changed in recent months.
In March of last year, Republicans were only 4 percentage points more likely than Democrats to say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine (9% vs. 5%). Today, Republicans are 30 points more likely to say so.
Public attention to the Russia-Ukraine conflict is little changed in recent months. Around six-in-ten Americans (59%) – including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats – say they follow news about the invasion at least somewhat closely.
How much of a threat to the U.S. is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
Roughly a third of Americans (32%) say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major threat to U.S. interests. An identical share say it is a minor threat, while 11% say it is not a threat.
These views have changed only modestly since January. But in March 2022, half of Americans said Russia’s invasion posed a major threat to U.S. interests.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say Russia’s invasion is a major threat (38% vs. 28%), but this view has declined among members of both parties since March of last year.
Views of the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s invasion
Around four-in-ten U.S. adults (39%) say they approve of the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while about a third (35%) disapprove, according to the new survey. A quarter say they are not sure.
A majority of Democrats (59%) approve of the administration’s response, while just 16% disapprove. In contrast, 57% of Republicans disapprove of the administration’s response, while 23% approve.
Views of the Biden administration’s response have changed little since January, the last time this question was asked.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published Jan. 31, 2023. Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
