Public support for dispatching aid to Ukraine is continuing to drop in the United States, with a new Gallup poll published on November 2 indicating that many Americans are becoming fatigued with Washington sending billions of dollars in financial aid to the Kyiv regime.
Based on figures from the survey, 41 percent of respondents stated that they thought the U.S. government was doing “too much” to help Ukraine, signifying a rise of 12 points in the sentiment since a previous poll was done in June.
Moreover, the number of people who felt the United States was doing “the right amount” witnessed a decline, from 43 percent in June to only 33 percent in the latest survey. Only a quarter of respondents said Washington’s present level of support for Ukraine was “not enough.”
When asked whether the United States should provide financial aid to Ukraine for “as long as Ukraine requests it” or if there should be a time restriction on such aid, a total of 61 percent of respondents said they thought U.S. aid to Kyiv should be limited.
The Gallup poll discovered that support for Ukraine was more or less divided along party lines, with Republicans and Independents being less likely to back continued support for Kyiv.
Last month, another survey conducted by Reuters-Ipsos also found that a rising number of Americans objected to providing additional military aid to Ukraine, with even Democratic support witnessing a steep fall in the past several months.
The poll found that only 41 percent of respondents felt Washington should continue to supply arms to Ukraine. In June, that number was 65 percent. Among Democrats, support for military aid stood at 52 percent in the October poll, compared to 81 percent in June when Ukrainian troops began their much-touted counteroffensive that was anticipated to defeat Russia.
As Kyiv eventually failed to make any considerable battlefield gains in the several-months-long campaign, suffering enormous casualties instead, backing for continued U.S. aid for Ukraine has also faltered among lawmakers.
In early October, Republican senators even threatened a total government shutdown unless billions in aid for Ukraine was excluded from a government spending bill.
Joe Biden has since been trying to work his way around the topic to persuade GOP lawmakers to approve a $105 billion spending package meant to address the security needs of Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, comparing the Ukraine conflict to the Second World War and contending that “patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.”
Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared that, despite continued provisions of arms from Western countries, “the Kyiv regime is losing,” suffering huge battlefield losses and decreasing morale among its troops.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump also proclaimed on November 2 that things were “going badly” for the United States in Ukraine, which he claimed was proven by the fact that the media has stopped featuring the Russia-Ukraine conflict extensively.
Addressing his audience at a rally in Houston, Trump stated that the “fake news media” generally did not enjoy covering issues that were not in Washington’s favor, citing the case study of Afghanistan amid the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from that country in 2021.
“Nobody talks about Afghanistan. Have you noticed? They don’t talk about Ukraine either anymore. Because things aren’t going well, and they don’t talk about the things that aren’t going well,” Trump contended.
“It’s what they don’t talk about, the fake news media, that’s almost as bad and sometimes worse than what they do talk about,” he continued, asserting that “things are going badly, because they’re not talking about Ukraine anymore. I don’t see it. And it’s not just because of the catastrophe in Israel.”
On October 30, in an effort to push for $44 billion more in military and other aid to the Kyiv regime, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee that should the United States cease funding Ukraine, Russia would emerge triumphant in the ongoing conflict between the two countries.
“I can guarantee that, without our support, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will be successful,” Austin told the senators. “If we pull the rug out from under them now, Putin will only get stronger and he will be successful in doing what he wants to do.”
Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were asking lawmakers to authorize Biden’s $105 billion supplemental funding request, which has linked the Ukraine funding with aid to Israel and Taiwan, among other issues.
Of the suggested $44.4 billion for Ukraine, $12 billion would be set aside for purchasing arms while $18 billion would be spent on replacing weapons the United States has already sent to Kyiv.
Cybersecurity, “intelligence support,” and “enhanced presence” of U.S. troops in Europe would require another $10.7 billion, while $3.7 billion would be spent to “expand production capacity in our industrial base,” based on Austin’s opening testimony.
Austin’s statements mirrored comments made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to congressional Democrats last month, a report published in Time magazine on October 30 posited. If the United States fails to send Ukraine more aid, “we will lose,” Zelensky reportedly admitted.
The same Time article added that even if the United States and its allies could somehow provide Kyiv with all the arms the country needs, Ukraine has run out of men to utilize them.
Meanwhile, on November 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the country’s Civic Chamber that his country had no choice but to conduct its military operation against Ukraine in February 2022, insisting that the move was the right one, despite the challenges resulting from it.
“We had no other choice,” Putin replied when asked if he would make the same decision again.
“Why? Because we had already been attacked,” the Russian leader stated, without providing more details.
Putin has consistently explained the reasons for Moscow’s military campaign by citing Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and the impending prospect of the U.S.-led military bloc expanding even closer to Russia’s borders as key causes of worry.
