Most Americans support US arming Ukraine: Reuters/Ipsos survey

Solid majorities of Americans support providing weaponry to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia and believe that such aid demonstrates to China and other US rivals a will to protect US interests and allies, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey.

The two-day poll that was concluded on Tuesday charted a sharp rise in backing for arming Ukraine, with 65 percent of the respondents approving of the shipments compared with 46 percent in a May poll.

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Eighty-one percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of independents favor supplying US weapons to Ukraine, according to the latest poll.

The survey was conducted just days after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private Wagner mercenary company, launched and then called off a mutiny over what he charged was the Russian defense ministry’s mishandling of the war in Ukraine.

The findings appeared to provide firmer 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 assault 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 now with the US Institute of Peace.

“The Republican leadership of the House and Senate will also take heart from this,” Taylor said. Some right-wing Republican lawmakers have opposed continuing US military support for Ukraine.

The Biden administration has approved 41 weapons packages for Ukraine totaling more than $40 billion since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls “a special military operation” in February 2022.

The online Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted nationwide, collecting responses from 1,004 adults, including 400 Democrats and 383 Republicans. It had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points in either direction.

The poll found that 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.”

In other findings, the survey said large majorities of Americans – 67 percent and 73 percent – are more likely to support a candidate in next year’s US presidential election who will continue military aid to Ukraine and one who backs the NATO alliance.

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