One Year After the Invasion, How Concerned Are Americans About the Russia-Ukraine War?

This Friday will mark one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to warfare locked in a perpetual state of stalemate and tens of thousands of casualties. President Biden recently made a surprise visit to Kyiv and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, ahead of the U.S. pledging further sanctions against Russian elites and funding for the Ukrainian military efforts.

CivicScience has been tracking American sentiment toward the Russia-Ukraine war since the earliest days of the invasion, spanning general concern, support for military aid, and the story’s ongoing salience to the public. Compared to the first week of data following the invasion (week ending March 3, 2022), the share of U.S. adults who claim to be ‘very concerned’ about the war has fallen 44% (70% to 39% as of the most recent data). The first weeks post-invasion also saw a dramatic decline in the CivicScience Well-Being Index, which rebounded in the coming months.

A look at monthly averages shows the highest level of concern bottomed out at 37% last September, but has since hovered around the 40% mark for much of the past five months. Americans 55-and-older are drastically more likely to be ‘very concerned’ about the war than Gen Z adults aged 18-24 (55% compared to 26%, respectively) through the month of February thus far.

Americans are currently following news about the Russia-Ukraine war much less closely than they were one year ago, when 61% of U.S. adults claimed to follow it ‘very closely’ (and 93% at least ‘somewhat closely’). This week, just 32% claim to follow it ‘very closely’ – while the figure who aren’t following it closely at all has tripled. Fox News viewers are the most likely to say they follow the war ‘very closely’ as of this week (49%), while MSNBC viewers are nearly three times as likely as Fox viewers to say they follow the war ‘not at all closely’ (30% compared to 11%).

Back in December, CivicScience polled Americans to see how much they support or oppose ongoing U.S. military aid to Ukraine. While there’s still broad, largely bipartisan support for Ukraine aid, it’s slid just a hair since the last data (from 68% to 65% for baseline support as of this week).

CivicScience will continue tracking Americans’ responses to the Russia-Ukraine war. Want to know how your consumers feel about the latest in ongoing news developments? Work with us.