{"id":42842,"date":"2026-07-11T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=42842"},"modified":"2026-07-13T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T23:30:00","slug":"we-asked-ukrainians-what-they-think-of-trump-more-view-him-as-an-enemy-than-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/we-asked-ukrainians-what-they-think-of-trump-more-view-him-as-an-enemy-than-a-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"We asked Ukrainians what they think of Trump \u2013 more view him as an enemy than a friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gerard Toal<\/a>, Virginia Tech<\/a><\/em>; John O\u2019Loughlin<\/a>, University of Colorado Boulder<\/a><\/em>, and Sarah Wilson Sokhey<\/a>, University of Colorado Boulder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. President Donald Trump lauded the \u201cvery good relationship<\/a>\u201d he has developed with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the NATO summit in Turkey on July 8, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a meeting of the pair that lacked the acrimony of earlier encounters, Trump added that Ukraine has \u201csuch great people<\/a>,\u201d too. He has expressed different views<\/a> privately in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what do everyday Ukrainians think of Trump?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than a decade, we have organized and conducted public opinion polls in Ukraine. While polling has become more difficult<\/a> since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in 2022, our surveys have provided a window into Ukrainian public opinion in the territories not occupied by Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our latest survey, we drilled down on how Ukrainians felt toward Trump and his administration\u2019s diplomatic efforts, and toward Americans more generally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fielded by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology<\/a>, we arranged for a computer-aided telephone survey of 1,801 Ukrainians across government-controlled Ukraine from June 9-26, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what we learned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump is seen as more enemy than friend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump has openly expressed his admiration<\/a> of Russian President Vladimir Putin on many occasions. When he returned to office, Trump initiated a sharp break from the policies<\/a> of his predecessor Joe Biden. The U.S. now sends less military aid to Ukraine<\/a>, although U.S.-made arms continue to flow to the country thanks to European funding. A promised US$400 million military aid package<\/a> has not yet been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump famously chastised Zelenskyy in a 2025 Oval Office meeting and has pressured the Ukrainian president to give up land<\/a> to satisfy Putin\u2019s territorial desire for all of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Washington continues to provide Ukraine with intelligence, which is used by Kyiv for targeting its middle- and long-range drone strikes inside Russia. Washington also still enforces significant sanctions against Russia, including Moscow\u2019s oil exports, although it has granted specific waivers of late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand what Ukrainians make of all this, we asked them a direct question about Trump: Is he a friend or an enemy of their country, or a bit of both?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results showed that only 17% of Ukrainians surveyed consider Trump a friend. More than double that consider him an enemy of Ukraine. Almost a quarter say he\u2019s a bit of both, with a similar percentage responding \u201cdon\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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