President Biden is seven times as popular as former President Trump among Ukrainians, according to a poll released Tuesday.
In the first-ever poll conducted by The Counteroffensive/Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 46.7 percent of Ukrainians said Biden would be a better U.S. president for Ukraine’s war effort, while 6.5 percent said the same about Trump.
Another 17.6 percent said “neither candidate would be good,” 6.7 percent said “either candidate is fine,” and 20.2 percent said they don’t know.
The question informed respondents that Biden and Trump “are campaigning to be the next president of the United States” and asked them to select the candidate they think would be better for Ukraine’s war effort, if elected.
Trump and Biden are clearly divided in their positions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Biden pressing on the need for the U.S. to support Ukraine, and Trump criticizing the administration’s handling of the war.
Trump has embraced a philosophy that U.S. aid should come at a price — criticizing some NATO members for falling short of their defense spending targets and attacking the continued U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
Trump has also said that, if elected, he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours — a prospect refuted by Russia’s U.N. ambassador at a news conference Monday. Asked about Trump’s claim, the ambassador said, “The Ukrainian crisis cannot be solved in one day.”
Biden has committed to continuing military and economic aid for the war-torn country and has touted his role in unifying Western countries behind Ukraine. He and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bilateral security agreement between the two countries at the Group of Seven summit last month.
The survey was conduct May 16-28 and included 2,002 respondents, using cell phones throughout the country. The margin of error is 2.4 percentage points.