American Support for Sending Arms to Ukraine Climbs

Ukraine’s June offensive has seen a sharp rise in the number of Americans who support arming Ukraine.

A two-day poll of Americans carried out this week by Reuters/IPSOS, as Ukraine’s summer offensive made inroads into Russian-occupied territory, “charted a sharp rise in backing for arming Ukraine, with 65 percent of the respondents approving of arms shipments compared with 46 percent in a May poll.”

81 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of independents sampled were in favor of supplying US weapons to Ukraine, the poll established.

76 percent of Americans believe that providing aid to Ukraine demonstrates to China and other rivals that the United States has "the will and capability to protect our interests, our allies and ourselves", according to the survey.

A large majority of Americans - 67 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of Democrats - are more likely to support a candidate in next year's US presidential election who will continue military aid to Ukraine and who backs the NATO alliance, it was also found.

Ukraine’s future membership of NATO will be considered at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania in July.

In addition to being conducted during Ukraine’s slow but steady advances to recapture lost territory, the survey was concluded days after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary company, launched and then called off his mutiny against the Kremlin.

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According to Reuters, the findings provide backing for US President Joe Biden's policy of doing "whatever it takes" to assist Ukraine in recapturing territory that Russia seized in an initial takeover in 2014 and its full-scale invasion 16 months ago.

"This definitely reinforces Biden's decision to be all-in on this," said William Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine.

"The Republican leadership of the House and Senate will also take heart from this," Taylor said.

Some right-wing or so-called MAGA Republican lawmakers have favored an isolationist approach and are opposed to continuing US military support for Ukraine.

The Biden administration has provided aid totaling more than $40 billion since the full-scale invasion started in February 2022. The US is by far the leading international donor to Ukraine, giving six times the amount that the UK, in second place, has given; but then again it has a GDP more than eight times that of its ally.

The latest American package of $500 million, which largely consists of a resupply of ammunition for the missile systems previously delivered, was announced earlier this week.

The online Reuters/IPSOS poll was conducted nationwide, collecting responses from 1,004 adults, including 400 Democrats and 383 Republicans. It had an assessed credibility interval, a measure of its precision, of about four percentage points in either direction.