Most Americans oppose giving U.S. military aid to Ukraine, according to a poll conducted days after President Joe Biden reportedly authorized Ukraine’s use of American Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles inside Russia.
The CBS News/YouGov poll finds that 51 percent of Americans do not support providing military aid and weapons to Ukraine, while 49 percent do.
There is a noticeable gap in age demographics. Those under 65 are more inclined to oppose sending aid and weapons, while a majority of those 65 and older support helping Ukraine.
Of those under 30, 53 percent are against military aid, as are 54 percent of those in the 30-44 and 45-64 demographics. Meanwhile, six in ten Americans 65 and older favor weapons shipments and military aid.
There is also a divide along party lines, with 72 percent of Democrats supporting aid, while 64 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents oppose it.
The poll sampled 2,232 U.S. adults November 19-22, and the margin of error is ± 2.2 percentage points.
The survey was conducted days after Biden reportedly greenlit the use of ATACMS missiles, reports of which surfaced on November 17.
Russia responded by updating its nuclear doctrine, “stating that in some circumstances attacks against it with conventional weapons will be considered sufficiently threatening to launch a nuclear retaliation,” as Breitbart News London bureau chief Oliver JJ Lane reported.
Tensions continued to escalate last Tuesday; Russia claimed that American-made ATACMS missiles struck a military depot. Russia retaliated with a strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro Thursday, which initial reports suggested was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICMB).
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a new weapon was debuted in the attack, as Lane noted:
Now Russia’s President Putin has given his own version of events, saying the strike was not by ICBM — weapons which travel into space before plunging back to earth, with ranges of thousands of miles — but rather by a never-before-seen nuclear-capable Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM). Putin identified it as the ‘Oreshnik’ (‘Hazel’) type which he claimed in a televised speech on Thursday night is totally impervious to Western countermeasures.
The escalation comes just a short time after Biden promised President-elect Donald Trump–who has long vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war–a smooth transition as he finishes his term.