A California resident walks with the American and Ukrainian flags at a rally in support of Ukraine in Sacramento, Calif., on March 6, 2022. About 65% of Americans have a positive view of Ukraine and are confident in the leadership of its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a recent Pew poll found. (Amanda Johnson/U.S. Army)
A majority of Americans still have a favorable view of Ukraine, but there also are signs that a growing number want less U.S. involvement in international problems, according to a new poll that comes as the U.S. continues to pump billions of dollars into Kyiv’s war effort.
With the war in Ukraine in its 15th month, Americans have distinct views on the combatants in the conflict as well as NATO’s role in defending allies from potential aggression, a Pew survey released Wednesday said.
About 65% of Americans have a positive view of Ukraine and are confident in the leadership of its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was rated favorably by 56% of respondents.
Meanwhile, 91% of Americans have negative views of Russia, with roughly the same percentage lacking confidence in its leader, Vladimir Putin.
Still, while the polling clearly indicates that Americans side with Ukraine in the war, the survey also found a growing reluctance for U.S. engagement overseas.
“This increase reflects a rise in the share of those who believe the U.S. should take a more isolationist approach to dealing with major international issues over the past several years,” Pew said.
The poll, conducted in March with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, involved a sample of 3,576 respondents.
Pollsters found that 55% of people believe that the U.S. should concentrate on issues at home rather than abroad, up 4 percentage points from May 2022.
Republicans and young people are less inclined to favor overseas involvement than Democrats, the poll said.
While the polling question on American engagement abroad wasn’t focused specifically on whether the U.S. should continue to arm Ukraine, signs of increasing isolationism are in line with other polling that has shown U.S. support for Kyiv softening.
More than $35 billion in U.S. security assistance has been provided to Ukraine since the start of the war.
In an earlier poll released in January, Pew found that the share of Americans who say the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine was on the rise.
At the time, 26% considered it excessive, up 6 percentage points from September and 19 points higher than shortly after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
Meanwhile, 62% of Americans hold positive views of NATO, compared with 35% who have a negative opinion of the alliance, the poll found.
Following recent partisan trends, Democrats tend to be stronger supporters of the organization than Republicans. Historically, Republicans were bullish on NATO, particularly during the Cold War.
But those traditional views began to fracture during the tenure of former President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of NATO.
