Poll: Support for assisting Ukraine dips

WASHINGTON — Support among the American public for providing Ukraine weaponry and direct economic assistance has softened as the Russian invasion nears a grim oneyear milestone, according to a new poll from The Associated PRESS-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Forty-eight percent say they favor the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29 percent opposed and 22 percent saying they’re neither in favor nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60 percent of U.S. adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons.

Americans are about evenly divided on sending government funds directly to Ukraine, with 37 percent in favor and 38 percent opposed, with 23 percent saying neither.

“I am sympathetic for Ukraine’s situation and I feel badly for them, but I feel like we need to first take care of priorities here at home,” said Joe Hernandez, 44, of Rocklin, California.

Hernandez, a Republican, added that it’s difficult to support generous U.S. spending on military and economic assistance to Ukraine when many American communities don’t have the resources to deal with the ramifications of migrants crossing into the U.S. at the southern border, a rise in drug overdoses caused by fentanyl and other lab-produced synthetic opioids, and a homelessness crisis in his state.

Biden has repeatedly stated that the United States will help Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel the Russian invasion that began on Feb. 24 of last year. Privately, administration officials have warned Ukrainian officials that there is a limit to the patience of a narrowly divided Congress.

The poll of 1,068 adults was conducted Jan. 26-30 using a sample drawn from NORC’S probability-based Amerispeak Panel. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.