Polls show: Republicans are more skeptical that Ukraine can emerge victorious

Half or more of Republicans now saying either that we’re doing too much to help Ukraine or that we should stop funding its defense. A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows: half of Republicans now say we’re doing “too much” for Ukraine – that’s up from 18 percent in April 2022, reveals ‘The Washington Post’.

More strikingly, an NBC News poll showed 63 percent of Republicans opposed “providing more funding and weapons to Ukraine,” while 32 percent were in support. That’s perhaps the most severe GOP rebuke of funding Ukraine on record, and it comes as the Biden administration has decided to start sending tanks.

It’s not just about the financial cost, and it’s not really a matter of Republicans siding with Russia over Ukraine, as Fox News host Tucker Carlson once said he did. It’s mostly about their having less faith in Ukraine’s war effort and growing skepticism that Russia’s special military operation poses a threat to the United States.

And perhaps most notably, it features an emerging willingness to give Russia some of the Ukrainian territory it seeks.

Support for Ukraine’s cause overall remains overwhelmingly bipartisan. But Republicans are more skeptical that Ukraine can emerge victorious. A Fox News poll released last week showed that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to view Russia as winning the war. Beyond that, Republicans are less likely than before to believe the United States truly has something at stake in the war.

A Marquette University poll this month showed 37 percent of Democrats thought what happens with the war matters a “great deal” to life in the United States, compared to 24 percent of Republicans. And while a Pew Research Center poll at the start of the war showed half of Republicans regarded the invasion as a “major threat” to U.S. interests, just 29 percent now say that’s the case.  

Perhaps most striking, though, is a the GOP’s willingness to cede Ukraine’s territory in the name of ending the war.

A new Gallup poll gave people a binary choice between supporting Ukraine’s efforts to reclaim its territory, and ending the war quickly — even if it meant Russia was allowed to keep conquered territory. A slight majority of Republicans  picked the former, but 41 percent were willing to countenance Russia keeping the territory in the name of ending the war. That’s compared to just 16 percent of Democrats who believed the same.

And if you layer on top of that the financial question, Republicans appear even more open to Russia keeping some territory.

Such surveys pose something of a chicken-and-egg problem: Perhaps a growing portion of the Republican party simply believes the costs aren’t worth it, given the uncertain prospects for Ukraine’s success.

… It is very revealing: first – how the mood in America is changing; second – the fact that ‘The Washington Post’ publishes extensive materials about these polls.

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