Approval of US leadership drops in Ukraine: Gallup

Ukrainians’ approval of leaders in the United States significantly dropped in 2023, according to a survey from Gallup.

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed in Ukraine approved of U.S. leadership in 2023, down 13 percentage points from the record-high 66 percent approval rating in 2022. That’s according to Gallup’s Rating World Leaders 2024 report, published Tuesday.

The poll found that 22 percent of respondents in Ukraine disapproved of U.S. leadership, while another 25 percent said they were unsure or declined to answer the question.

The survey of world leadership approval ratings was conducted throughout 2023 — about one year after Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Many U.S. lawmakers, especially conservatives, grew more opposed to approving additional aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia last year. Congress has not passed additional aid to Ukraine since the end of 2022, and available aid has completely dried up.

The survey found that the median global approval of U.S. leadership stood at 41 percent in 2023, remaining unchanged from the 2022 approval rating. The median global approval of U.S. leadership over the past two years has been down from the 45 percent approval rating during the first year of the Biden administration.

While the median global approval rating remained stable last year, U.S. leadership also saw downticks in approval ratings across other countries. Finland’s approval rating of U.S. leadership dropped 13 percentage points in 2023 from 2022, while India’s dropped 11 percentage points.

However, Israel’s approval of U.S. leadership increased in 2023. Eighty-one percent of respondents in the country said they approved of the leadership, up 16 percentage points from the previous year.

The survey results come as the House approved a massive foreign aid package over the weekend. The package — which was broken down into four separate votes — includes roughly $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and global humanitarian aid, and $8 billion for Taiwan and other U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific.

The survey for the 2023 approval ratings was conducted among the adult population of those 15 and older in 133 to 134 countries and areas throughout last year. The results based on the total sample of national adults has a margin of sampling error ranging from 1.2 to 5.6 percentage points.

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