Americans increasingly perceive Ukraine as a burden

A growing share of US voters say their country spends too much on Kiev, polls have shown

Americans are increasingly turning against funding Ukraine’s war against Russia, two recent opinion polls have shown. Partisan divisions have a serious impact on attitudes to aid spending in the US.

In a survey conducted by The Financial Times and the Michigan Ross business school, 48% of Americans said they believed their nation was spending too much in military and financial aid to Kiev. That was compared to 27%, who said the amount was right, and 11%, who believed the US was not spending enough. The British newspaper reported the results on Sunday.

Republicans were the most likely to say the US assistance to Ukraine was oversized, with 65% of GOP supporters giving that answer, compared to 52% of independents and 32% of Democrats.

The shifting attitudes were also reflected in a Pew survey on the same issue, the results of which the pollster released last Friday. In that study, 31% of respondents said the US was spending too much, compared to 29%, who supported the current level, 18%, who considered it not sufficient, and 22%, who said they were not sure.

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Last week, Republican opposition in Congress blocked a White House request for over $110 billion in additional foreign security spending, of which more than $60 billion were meant for Ukraine.

The administration of President Joe Biden has argued that if the US stopped funding Ukraine, American soldiers will have to fight the Russians directly. Moscow would attack NATO after beating Ukraine, senior officials have claimed.

Just 33% of Americans in the Pew poll said Russia was a major threat to the US, while 34% called it a minor threat, and 10% said it posed no threat at all. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to perceive Russia as a major threat, with a 40% to 27% gap.

Republican Senator JD Vance made the case for the skeptical position on bankrolling Ukraine that some lawmakers in his party hold at CNN’s State of the Union program on Sunday. 

“The idea that Ukraine was going to throw Russia back to the 1991 borders was preposterous. Nobody actually believed it,” he told host Jack Tapper. Opponents want Biden to explain “what $61 billion is going to accomplish that a hundred billion dollars hasn’t.”

READ MORE: What’s really behind Biden’s threat to send Americans to fight Russia?

Both surveys were conducted online, between December 5 and 6 and between November 27 and December 3 respectively. The FT-Michigan Ross poll reflects the opinions of 1,004 registered voters, and has a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points. The Pew survey involved 5,203 people, and has a margin of error of ±1.8 percentage points.