His relatives are at war 5,000 miles away.
In the United States, however, residents who identify with their Russian heritage and those who identify with their Ukrainian heritage express increasingly similar views about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk A pair of university polls meet. The two groups are united in opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war is now on his orders.
The invasion was opposed by almost everyone in both groups., 87% Russian-American and 94% Ukrainian-American. People of Russian descent have a more positive view of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (72%) than Putin (6%). From nine to one, they say that Putin should be removed from office.
“Someone just needs to get him out,” said Dina Sarkisova, 44, who owns a spa in San Diego and took part in the survey. Half-Russian and half-Azarian, she came to the United States as a refugee in 1990, fleeing conflict in Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed. “There’s no argument with that.”
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“It’s a treason; it’s a nightmare,” said Jacob Plotkin, 68, a Ukrainian-American from Boca Raton, Florida, who works in real estate and agreed to a follow-up interview after the vote. The older man is raising a small child. This is wrong.”
The outrage from Ukrainian-Americans comes as no surprise as they see their homeland hit by a Russian attack of tanks and missiles. But there is also strong support among Russian-Americans for sending military hardware to be used against Russians on the battlefield (55%) and imposing very strict economic sanctions (59%) that would harm those living in Russia, including their Members are also included. Family.
Many Russians immigrated to the United States to flee the Soviet Union, and Putin defended the communist system. Still, the findings underscore their separation not only among global leaders but also among those with roots in their country.
David Pelogos, director of the Suffolk Political Research Center, said, “Since the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on 24 February, some Russian restaurants and businesses across the United States have been boycotted or ransacked by Americans angered by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Has been.” “Yet in their despair with the war, Americans’ anger may be unfairly directed at other Americans who share those frustrations.”
USA Today and Suffolk University surveyed 500 US residents who identify with their Russian heritage and 500 residents with their Ukrainian heritage. Some are US citizens and some are not. Polls conducted by landline and cell phone on March 5-10 have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
far and near home
War is not a distant debate for many called in the poll. Nearly half (48%) of people of Ukrainian descent report fighting relatives in Ukraine. So do one in five (19%) of people of Russian descent.
Olga Rudenko, 49, an artist who emigrated from Ukraine in 2002 and now lives in Harlem, has loaded Ukrainian air alerts on her phone that warn of attacks there.
“So I know my mom needs to go to the shelter, and what’s up, because I have to check in the morning if she’s alive, if she hadn’t been bombed.” Her mother doesn’t have a smartphone, so Rudenko checks on her through an aunt who lives in another city in Ukraine.
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She starts crying while talking about her family, then stops herself. “I have no right to cry,” she said. “I’m not the one who bombed.”
There are significant differences between Russian-Americans and Ukrainian-Americans on some issues, including whether NATO expansion is a threat to Russian security, an argument Putin has used to justify the invasion. Of those who identify with their Ukrainian heritage, almost three-in-one (63%-22%) say that NATO is not a threat. But those who identify with their Russian heritage are more closely divided: 38% say it does; 48% say it is not.
“It’s a serious problem from the point of view of the Russians because clearly you don’t want your capital, not to mention some of your other major population centers in missile range close to NATO,” said 31-year-old Artem Zhukov, a doctoral candidate. University of Texas at Dallas who came from Russia as a child.
He does not see the stakes for the United States guaranteed to impose sanctions and deploy additional troops in Eastern Europe. “It is possible not to take any position in foreign policy,” he said.
Viktor Shevchuk, 53, an engineer from Richardson, Texas, who is Ukrainian-American, said Ukraine as a sovereign nation should be able to make its own decisions about joining NATO.
“It’s a very complex and difficult situation, especially since Russia has nuclear power and Vladimir Putin is somewhat troubled,” he said. “I want us to help Ukraine as much as possible without triggering WWIII.”
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He added that in the face of resistance from Ukraine, Putin has already gone to “more and more extreme measures”.
The invasion of Ukraine has soured the views of many Russian-Americans towards Putin. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say they have a worse view of them than they were before the attacks in February. Seven in 10 respondents who have spoken with family members in the region in recent weeks said those relatives had an unfavorable view of Putin.
Ninety-nine percent of Ukrainian-Americans and 70% of Russian-Americans said Putin should be charged with war crimes.
Is America doing enough?
Many surveyed wish the United States did more.
Half of Russian-Americans say the US is not doing enough in the conflict; Seven out of 10 Ukrainian-Americans agree. Only 13% of Russian-Americans and 2% of Ukrainian-Americans say the United States is doing too much.
President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict received a mediocre approval rating: 40% approval-43% disapproval among people of Russian descent; Of those of Ukrainian descent, 35% approved 49%.
“We need a leader, not a tip-tour,” said Tara Shvetzov, who lives in Beaville, South Texas. His father immigrated from Russia. A veteran of the US military who served in the Iraq war, she believes the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year may have opened the door to an invasion of Ukraine. “It gives bullies an opportunity to say ‘they show weakness and we take advantage of that weakness,'” she said.
Most of those surveyed, 67% of Russian-Americans and 57% of Ukrainian-Americans, predict the current crisis in Ukraine is the beginning of a new Cold War between the United States and Russia. Or worse: Two-thirds of each group is “very” or “somewhat” concerned that a direct military confrontation There could be a rift between the two countries.
Yevgenia Valchuk, 39, who moved to the United States 15 years ago and now lives in San Francisco, called the Russian invasion inevitable.
“Everyone in Ukraine knew it would happen,” she said, “based on Ukraine’s history and how the Russians behaved and how the Russian president behaved over the past 30 years.” He referred to Putin’s aggressive actions in Syria and elsewhere.
“He took everything he wanted, and all that stands now is Ukraine,” she said.
His younger brother and sister are among those currently standing against him on the battlefield.
