Survey: 65 Percent of US Citizens Agree That Arms Aid to Ukraine Is Needed to Drive Russia Out
A majority of Americans support arms shipments to Ukraine to defend against Russia and believe that such assistance demonstrates to China and other US rivals a desire to protect US interests and allies, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The two-day poll that ended on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, charted a sharp increase in support for arms aid to Ukraine, with 65% of respondents agreeing to the delivery compared to 46% in the May poll.
Eighty-one percent of Democrats, 56% of Republicans, and 57% of independents support the US arms supply to Ukraine, according to the latest poll released Wednesday.
The survey came just days after Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner's private mercenary force, launched and then quashed the mutiny over what he accused of mishandling the war in Ukraine by the Russian defense ministry.
The findings appear to lend stronger support to US President Joe Biden's policy of doing "whatever it takes" to help Ukraine retake territory Russia captured in its initial offensive in 2014 and its full-scale invasion 16 months ago.
"This definitely reinforces Biden's decision to fully engage in this," said William Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine who is now with the US Peace Institute.
"Republican House and Senate leadership will also take heart from this," Taylor said.
Some right-wing Republican lawmakers oppose continuing US military support for Ukraine.
The Biden administration has approved 41 arms packages for Ukraine totaling more than $40 billion since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called "special military operations" in February 2022.
The online Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted nationwide, gathering responses from 1,004 adults, including 400 Democrats and 383 Republicans.
It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points in both directions.
The poll found that 76% of Americans believe that providing aid to Ukraine shows China and other rivals that the United States has the "will and ability to protect our interests, those of our allies, and ourselves."
In other findings, the survey said an overwhelming majority of Americans (67% and 73% alike) are more likely to support a candidate in next year's US presidential election who will continue military aid to Ukraine and one who supports the NATO alliance.
