Opinion Polls: US Voter Support for Ukraine Is Solid, for White House Foreign Policy – Not So Much

A public argument between US President Donald J. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a high pressure White House campaign for Kyiv to make concessions to Russia has done little to dent solid US public support for Ukraine, and by some metrics actually may have increased it, results of national US public opinion polls made public in mid-March showed.

“Three years into the [full-scale invasion phase of the] Russo-Ukrainian War, 46 percent of Americans believe the US is not doing enough to help Ukraine in the conflict, marking a 16-percentage-point increase since December to a new high,” the major US survey company Gallup said in a March 18 statement.

Although precise percentages and wording of pollster questions asked varied from survey to survey, across the board, public support for Ukraine was found to be held by a clear majority of Americans. Polls reviewed by Kyiv Post for this article were by: Gallup, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs-Ipsos, NBC, CNN and Fox News.

Notwithstanding an open Trump administration shift towards better relations with Russia, at Ukraine’s expense if necessary, US public support for Ukraine is stable, anti-Kremlin and overall runs counter to the White House, all five polls showed.

The Gallup poll conducted March 3 to 11 found that a contentious Feb. 28 meeting in the Oval Office between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, followed by a White House order to halt all arms deliveries and military intelligence transfers for Ukraine, triggered a 31-point spike in support for Ukraine among Democrats, to 79 percent a new record since 2022.

The fracas played out on live television with Vance shouting at Zelensky and accusing him and Ukraine of being ungrateful for US assistance cut Republican support for Ukraine 28 points, but simultaneously, delivered a 14-point jump for Ukraine among American independent voters, likewise the highest ever for that demographic, Gallup found.

Averaged across the entire US electorate, five percent more Americans (53 percent) said they favored continued US support for Ukraine in reclaiming its territory, even if that requires prolonged assistance, than in December, survey results said.

An overwhelming majority of Democrats (95 percent) and even a powerful majority of Republicans (69 percent) said they were concerned Russia would violate the terms of any agreement, Gallup found.

Poll results published by Chicago Council on Global Affairs-Ipsos (CCGAI) on Mar. 20 pointed to a sharp split between a minority of Republic voters and majority of Democratic and independent voters.

“While down slightly from last year, more than half [of US voters] support continuing military and economic assistance to Kyiv. But the results are highly partisan,” a statement from the group said.

Nationwide, Americans overwhelmingly blame Russian President Vladimir Putin (86 percent) rather than Zelensky for the Russo-Ukraine War, and majority of all US voters (53 percent) feel that Trump favors Russia over Ukraine,  the CCGAI poll found.

In results closely matched by Gallup, the CCGA survey found 55 percent of Americans favor of continued US economic assistance for Ukraine, and 52 percent support arms shipments. Respondents 55 percent of the time said they believed Trump was taking Russia’s side in peace negotiations.

A red line Kremlin condition for peace – absolute exclusion of Ukraine from NATO or any other security alliance – though openly supported by the Trump administration is not popular among US voters.

The CCGAI poll found that only 38 percent of Americans support the idea of prohibiting Ukraine’s membership in NATO in exchange for peace (Republicans – 49 percent, Independents – 42 percent, Democrats – 24 percent).

“It may be the case that the current US administration only cares about the view of its Republican base, which seems fairly aligned with its decisions to decrease funding for Ukraine. But majorities of Americans, and a sizable portion of Republican Party supporters, believe the United States should grant some kind of military assurance that it will come to Kyiv’s assistance if Russia breaks the ceasefire,” the CCGAI poll concluded.

Fox News led Mar. 20 reporting on a national survey headlined “ Approval of Zelensky down 20 points since start of war”, but even that pro-White House outlet found that a clear majority of US voters favor of continued military and financial support for Ukraine. The Fox poll found that 56 percent of US voters favor continued financial aid for Ukraine, a figure unchanged since 2024.

Russia and Ukraine are, according to that poll, among Trump’s most criticized areas of job performance. Trump’s job ratings were found to be “underwater,” a term meaning voters criticizing performance compared to voters praising performance,  across the board on foreign policy: Israel (5 percent), China (7 percent), Mexico (8 percent), Ukraine (10 percent) and Russia (16). Trump’s worst foreign policy performance in the view of US voters has been on Canada (23 percent), the Fox poll found.

Results of a national poll released by NBC on Mar. 17 found solid US public support for Ukraine, outright hostility towards Russia, and strong inclination towards the proposition Trump is Kremlin-biased.

Per that survey, 61 percent of registered US voters said they support Ukraine more than Russia, while 35 percent said they were neutral and just 2 percent said they liked Moscow. Asked where they see Trump’s sympathies, 49 percent answered “Russia,” 40 percent said “neither side” and only 8 percent said Ukraine. Trump has claimed he is neutral and supports US national interest.

The poll report cited Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates: “I cannot recall a moment in history when American public opinion and voters’ views of a president, as to which country they are more aligned with, have been more in conflict with each other.”

Support for Ukraine among Democrats and Independents crossed most demographic cross-sections including gender, age and race, excepting Hispanic voters who were evenly divided between Ukraine and “neither side, the poll found.” The majority of Republicans and conservative-leaning voters (57 percent) said their sympathies lie with neither nation, but, 53 percent college-educated Republicans said their sympathies lie more with Ukraine, while 62 percent of Republicans without a college degree say their sympathies lie with neither country.

Results of a CNN Poll made public on March 14 found that Americans are skeptical that President Trump’s peacemaking efforts would deliver peace between Russia and Ukraine, that a majority of Americans view his handling of the conflict negatively, and that exactly half of US voters (50 percent) believe the Trump administration’s foreign policy is harmful for the United States.

A solid 59 percent of Americans think it’s not too likely or not at all likely that Trump’s approach will bring long-term peace between Russia and Ukraine, and the same figure disapproves of Trump’s handling of the US relationship with Russia, that poll found.

Only 29 percent of voters surveyed saw White House policy towards Russia and Ukraine as in the US national interest, a view held by sizable minority (15 percent) of Republicans. More than half of Americans (54 percent) said they believe Trump’s foreign policy decisions have hurt America’s standing in the world, CNN found.

Survey results pointed to a broad belief among US voters that Ukraine is a friend or ally (72 percent) and that Russia is unfriendly or an enemy to the US (81 percent). The share of Americans believng  Ukraine to be an ally has climbed 7 points since 2014, while the number of Americans seeing Russia as a friend of the US fell 25 percent over the same period, the poll found.

CNN headlined the report: “Most Americans disapprove of Trump’s approach for Ukraine war, doubt it will yield peace.”