Last summer, our American public opinion poll showed that Americans supported Ukraine over Russia by a wide margin: 62% to 2%. Taken a week after the fateful White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and a few days after the White House announced it was suspending aid to Ukraine, our latest poll shows roughly the same results: 59% of Americans say they sympathize more with Ukraine while 2% say they sympathize more with Russia. And only a little more than a third (35%) say they support Trump’s decision to suspend aid to Ukraine. These are among the findings of the latest round of the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll. The survey was fielded by SSRS on its Opinion Panel Omnibus platform from March 7-9, 2025, among a sample of 1,004 respondents. The margin of error is +/-3.7% at the 95% confidence level. The data were weighted to represent the target population of U.S. adults ages 18 or older.
Here are five key takeaways
First, the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, Trump’s suspension of aid to Ukraine, and the White House’s friendly tone toward Russian President Vladimir Putin have failed to make a dent in the strong American public sympathy with Ukraine.
Starting with the baseline tracking question at the top of our Ukraine-Russa set of questions, we asked: In the Russia-Ukraine war, how would you describe your sympathies?
The last time we asked that question was in August 2024, during the heat of the presidential campaign. The overall results were practically the same this time (within the poll’s 3% margin of error): In August, 62% of Americans said they sympathized more with Ukraine, compared to 59% this round; two percent said they sympathized more with Russia, the same as this round.
There were some partisan differences. The number of Democrats expressing sympathy with Ukraine increased from 76% last August to 82% now, while it dropped among Republicans from 58% to 45%. However, it’s notable that the drop among Republicans did not translate into a gain for Russia: Republican sympathy for Russia remained low at 5%, compared with 4% last August, with much of the drop going toward sympathy with both sides or neither side.
Second, only about a third (35%) of Americans say they support Trump’s decision to suspend aid for Ukraine, while 48% oppose it and 17% say they don’t know. The partisan divide was notable: 67% of Republicans backed the suspension while 21% opposed it, compared to 7% of Democrats who supported it and 81% who opposed it.
Among those who didn’t support the suspension (roughly two-thirds of all respondents), a majority, 62% said the United States should support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” while 18% said “less than a year,” 14% said “1-2 years,” 5% said “3-5 years,” and fewer than 1% said “6-10 years.
We could not make a direct comparison with the August poll because the question in this round had to be preceded by the new question about Trump’s aid suspension; thus, the question about the duration of support was asked to only those who didn’t back the suspension. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that the August poll found that 48% of all Americans wanted the United States to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” In the latest poll, if one were to calculate the percentage of those saying the United States should stay the course among all respondents (including those who said they supported the suspension) that works out to about 40%.
Third, Americans rate Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s behavior during their public White House meeting as more “inappropriate” than “appropriate.” In contrast, they rate Zelenskyy’s behavior as more appropriate than inappropriate.
Thirty-five percent say Trump’s behavior was appropriate, including 68% of Republicans and 11% of Democrats; while 53% said it was inappropriate, including 25% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats.
Overall, 33% say Vance’s behavior was appropriate, including 66% of Republicans and 7% of Democrats; while 50% said it was inappropriate, including 23% of Republicans and 82% of Democrats.
In comparison, 46% say Zelenskyy’s behavior was appropriate, including 19% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats; while 38% say it was inappropriate, including 69% of Republicans and 13% of Democrats.
Fourth, Americans rank all three leaders as being more ineffective than effective in advancing the interests of their respective countries:
Forty-one percent say Trump was effective, including 74% of Republicans and 13% of Democrats; while 45% say he was ineffective, including 14% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats.
About 36% said Vance was effective, including 70% of Republicans and 9% of Democrats; while 45% said he was ineffective, including 19% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats.
Thirty-one percent said Zelenskyy was effective, including 17% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats; while 50% said he was ineffective, including 70% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats.
Fifth, more Americans say that the public White House meeting with the Ukrainian president made them more sympathetic to Ukraine (31%, including 11% of Republicans and 57% of Democrats) than less sympathetic (19%, including 42% of Republicans and 2% of Democrats). Thirty-three percent say the meeting did not impact their attitudes (including 33% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats).
Conclusion
Despite Trump’s decidedly critical tone toward Ukraine and its president and warm gestures toward Russia, the level of overall American public sympathy with Ukraine and the lack of sympathy for Russia have not changed since the summer of 2024. If the intent of the public spat with Zelenskyy was to sour the American mood toward Ukraine, the latest poll indicates that it was a failure, not only in the continued high level of sympathy with Ukraine but also in that more people rated Trump’s performance as inappropriate than said the same about the Ukrainian president’s performance in that unprecedented meeting.
With only about one-third of Americans supporting his decision to suspend aid to Ukraine, Trump may have helped himself by quickly renewing the provision of aid and getting Ukraine to reportedly agree to a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia.
As one might expect, the president has had some impact on his core Republican constituency. But the drop in Republican sympathy with Ukraine from 58% last summer to 45% now is modest if one considers that the Republican president is still in his early honeymoon period.
Trump received more support from Republicans for his aid suspension, with about two-thirds supporting the decision, and 21% opposing it. But while favoring Trump, one might expect more support for a president from his own party on a top and high-profile policy issue this early in his term.
Of course, a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war could impact public attitudes moving forward, especially at a time when polls show more Americans favor a quick end to the war. For now, though, the bottom line is that the American public appears to have made up its mind on Ukraine and Russia and Trump is cutting against the grain.
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