Eighty-one percent of Republicans and eighty-six percent of Democrats support tougher sanctions on Russia. The Graham sanction bill is popular all around.
JUL 19
The untimely passing of Senator Lindsey Graham has inspired his colleagues to pass his long suffering sanctions bill and name it after him as a tribute to his passion for Ukraine and dedication to making life miserable for Vladimir Putin.
Last month, Razom for Ukraine teamed with my organization, the Ukraine Freedom Project, to survey the popularity of various actions the United States can take against Russia based on the provisions of H.R. 2913, the Ukraine aid bill that passed the House of Representatives last month.
Every provision of H.R. 2913 – including sending weapons to Ukraine – was popular with a majority of Americans and a majority of a subsample of both Democrats and Republicans. Sanctions were the most popular. Here is what we learned.
Now, please read several separate proposals that have been discussed in Congress related to the war in Ukraine. Please read a series of policies and for each one, please indicate whether you support or oppose that policy.
Impose tougher economic sanctions on Russia.
Total Support: 82%
Strongly Support: 48%
Total GOP Support: 81%
Trump Voters: 83%
Total Dem Support: 86%
Total Independent Support: 74%
The Ukrainian government has identified 19,546 children who have been stolen from Ukraine by the Russians. The Yale School of Public Health has directly identified more than 8,400 children relocated to at least 56 facilities (13 in Belarus, 43 in Russia and occupied territory).
The Ukraine Freedom Project’s own research shows that many of these children are sent to military camps to be brainwashed to hate Ukraine and trained to fight against their countrymen. Some children are sexually traffickedon government websites. The makers of A Faith Under Siege are releasing The Stolen Children in August, which tells the stories of these children.
While 19,546 children have been identified, Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, has said Russia has 700,000 Ukrainian children. Sanctioning Lvova-Belova and people like her is even more popular.
Sanction Russian officials responsible for abducting Ukrainian children.
Total Support: 84%
Strongly Support: 64%
Total GOP Support: 83%
Trump Supporters: 80%
Total Dem Support: 88%
Total Independent Support: 78%
Russia’s military spending is mostly classified, but $500 million per day is a conservative estimate, probably an undercount. China spent more than $280 million daily on Russian fossil fuels in June. India spent $211 million dailyon Russian energy during the same period. Sanctioning the Russian oil industry and those doing business with it is popular and could potentially dry up an amount of revenue equal to Russia’s daily war spending.
Increase penalties on foreign companies, like those in India and China, that continue doing business with Russia.
Total Support: 73%
Strongly Support: 35%
Total GOP Support: 77%
Trump Supporters: 79%
Total Dem Support: 74%
Total Independent Support: 63%
Increase sanctions on Russian oil and banking industries.
Total Support: 79%
Strongly Support: 46%
Total GOP Support: 78%
Trump Supporters: 81%
Total Dem Support: 82%
Total Independent Support: 63%
The numbers I quote for the GOP are for Republican primary voters. I have polled Ukraine issues with GOP primary voters since 2023. About 50% in our polls typically support additional military aid to Ukraine. We can get that number as high as 75% by giving truthful, accurate information about Ukraine. A quarter is opposed to anything with the word “Ukraine” in it. Those people are the loudest. In our June poll, 52% of Republican primary voters support providing U.S. weapons and military funding to Ukraine, with 61% support from all voters.
Here is the smart one that is not in the Graham bill but is something on which Congress needs to act, immediately. Especially given the tough lessons we are learning about drone warfare in Iran.
Increase U.S.-Ukraine defense cooperation so the United States can learn from Ukraine’s frontline experience fighting Russia and apply those lessons to strengthen U.S. military readiness.
Total Support: 74%
Strongly Support: 34%
Total GOP Support: 70%
Trump Supporters: 69%
Total Dem Support: 81%
Total Independent Support: 64%
The Ukraine Freedom Project is able to provide survey research like this to educate members of Congress through the generosity of our donors. If you find our work supporting Ukraine’s fight for freedom and pushing for a strong foreign policy valuable, please make a tax deductible donation to support our work.
The survey, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, was completed June 1-7, 2026, among 1000 registered voterswith an oversample of 744 likely GOP primary voters. The survey has a credibility interval of +3.53% and the oversample has a credibility interval of +4.10%. Interviews were conducted online.
People
Former House Leadership Chief of Staff and current Social Entrepreneur. Firsthand information on Ukraine.
https://stevenmoore.substack.com/p/sanctioning-russia-is-popular-in
As I asked before : will he honour the Senator’s legacy by putting out the full “bone crushing sanctions”, or will it be watered-down crap?
No matter what passes, it won’t be good enough for the haters.
Sir Red, I’m not a hater, but putting the trigger in the hands of Trump rather than immediately imposing the sanctions, makes this a useless bill. Geez, just look at Trump’s love of Putin. Anyone who believes Trump will impose these sanctions could be interested in a bridge I’m selling in Brooklyn.
There you have it :
China and India pay putler to murder and kidnap Ukrainian children.
The two most populous shitholes in the world are enabling genocidal Nazis.
Off topic :
Good news from Andy Burnham :
pro-Ukraine former Def Sec John Healey is promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Crap news from Andy Burnham:
the new Foreign Secretary is Ed Miliband, a world class wanker who comes from a communist family.
I would not trust him on Ukraine. Or anything else.
Yeah. I liked Yvonne Cooper. She has integrity. Andy already blew it on day 1 in office. 🤮
This makes it pretty darned clear what most Americans want. But I doubt that the orange gangster will do the right thing. He still loves the other gangster too much … the one who enjoys slaughtering people.