81% US citizens believe Ukraine is an ally and Russia is the real enemy: YouGov poll

A year ago, one-third of the US citizens couldn't decide if Ukraine is an ally or enemy to the United States. However, it is worth noting that, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, an overwhelming majority of Americans now regard the former Soviet nation as a friendly country. According to a new YouGov poll, 81% of Americans consider Ukraine to be either friendly or an ally, a percentage that approaches or even surpasses that of numerous long-standing US friends such as France and Japan.

Only the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia had higher approval ratings from voters. Since 2017, YouGov, an online polling business, has been tracking the American public's opinions on dozens of countries. More than any other country, American perceptions about Ukraine have altered in recent years. When the poll was conducted in September 2019, 36% of registered voters in the United States were unsure if Ukraine was friendly or not.

That's a higher percentage than nearly any of the other thousands of times YouGov polled respondents on their opinions of a country in the last five years. Only 41% rated the country as friendly or an ally. Only 10% of people are unsure whether Ukraine is friendly, which is a lower percentage than practically any other country. On the other side, Russia is now viewed as an enemy by about 70% of Americans, more than any other country in the poll, including North Korea and Iran. 

The US passed a $13.6 billion budget plan to back the Ukrainian war effort

The US has been rushing to back the Ukrainian war effort, with a $13.6 billion budget plan passed by the House almost unanimously this week. The public's fervent support for Ukraine, however, has its limits. Except for Turkey, only 29% of respondents considered Ukraine to be an ally, a figure that is significantly lower than that found in the study for every other ally with whom the US has a formal treaty. It's more like the 26% who stated the same thing about Taiwan (in late 2021), which has a purposefully unclear relationship with the US.

Because of the potential of a confrontation with Russia, the Biden administration has stated that it is unwilling to intervene military directly. Direct military intervention is also opposed by a large majority of citizens, according to polls. It's unclear whether the public's perception of Ukraine as a friendly but non-allied country stems from public scepticism of intervention or from the administration's explicit statements about the limits of the US commitment to Ukraine's defence.

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