Most Americans think that Russia started the war in Ukraine while those who said Kyiv was first to attack were in single digits, according to a survey that was published on Wednesday.
The new YouGov poll found that 61 percent of U.S. adults think Russia started the conflict in Eastern Europe that has been raging for nearly three years. Some six percent said Ukraine was the one to kick it off.
Around 15 percent of respondents blamed both sides equally while 18 percent were not sure, the poll found.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but President Trump seemed to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war, saying on Tuesday that that he “should have never started it.” The Ukrainian president said the next day that the U.S. president was living in a Russian “disinformation space.”
Trump continued to hammer Zelensky, saying he has done a “terrible job” as the nation’s head, accusing him of exploiting the U.S. to garner aid and claiming his approval numbers dipped into single digits. He also called Zelensky a “dictator.”
Nearly half of Americans, 45 percent, do not think that Ukraine’s president is a dictator. Around 22 percent think that he is while a third of respondents were not sure, according to the survey.
The comments are part of the escalation of tension between the two leaders. Zelensky shot down the initial offer from the U.S. to have ownership of 50 percent of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
The U.S. has begun talks about forging a peace agreement in Eastern Europe. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and the special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, sat down for a meeting in Saudi Arabia with Russian officials to discuss ending the war. The two countries are seeking to refurbish ties between the two nuclear-armored nations after the relationship soured during the previous administration.
Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia retired Gen. Keith Kellogg’s joint press conference with Zelensky was canceled on Thursday at the request of the U.S. side, Ukraine president’s spokesperson Serhii Nikiforov said.
The poll was conducted on Feb. 19 with 4,071 Americans.
