Ukraine advocates are frustrated. But even Trump must follow public opinion. Pro-Ukraine communicators are still using a playbook designed for Dems, not for reaching the voters who influence Trump.
JUL 06, 2025
I frequently hear Ukrainians and pro-Ukraine communicators lament that there is nothing they can do with Trump. Nothing they are doing is working. Here is the data behind their frustration.
In March of 2022, polling from the Economist showed President Zelensky with a 67% favorable rating among Trump voters. Ukraine Freedom Project polling from earlier this month shows Zelensky at 28% among Republican primary voters, 18% among Republicans who primarily support Trump.
A forty to fifty point drop over three years is an epic loss of goodwill. Polling shows this loss is for three major reasons.
- Polling from the Ukraine Freedom Project from April of 2024 shows two years of Russian propaganda drove Zelensky down to 38% favorable/35% unfavorable rating among Republican primary voters – plus three favorable/unfavorable. June 2025 polling shows he is at 28% favorable and 54% unfavorable for minus 26, a 29 point loss over the course of about a year.
- President Trump has said a lot of unkind things about President Zelensky during his short time in office. That has driven Zelensky’s rating down further.
- The Zelensky Administration has made numerous easily avoidable mis-steps with Republicans. Forty-three percent of Republicans who have negative of Trump also lack a favorable view of Zelensky. So it is not all Trump and the Russians.
The good news is that polling shows a way out of this, and we have proved the concept in promoting our movie, A Faith Under Siege.
Why should Ukrainians and the pro-Ukraine community care what a Republican in Nashville things? Trump has pulled a U turn on tariffs. Trump pulled a sharp U turn on Elon Musk, with the momentum throwing him out of the car. Much of this was generated by shifting Republican opinion.
Some 84% of Republican primary voters favor stronger sanctions on Russia. This is part of the reason that Senator Graham’s sanction bill has 82 co-sponsors. With the addition of a waiver for the President to the legislation, maintaining and activating this support is going to be very important.
We can’t control what Trump and Zelensky does, but we can respond better to the Russian propagandists and anti-Ukraine forces that attack President Zelensky and Ukraine. Here is the problem: Russian propagandists attack primarily through conservative influencers, and the pro-Ukraine communicators respond with a Zelensky interview on Sixty Minutes.
Only 4% of Republicans we polled watch CBS, the network that airs Sixty Minutes. For years, Republicans have heard massive amounts of Russian propaganda, and should they want the truth, they need to turn to a network they feel lies to them about everything else.
CBS, CNN and other left-leaning networks are still important. A recent Economist poll showed that 23% of Harris voters believe Ukraine will win – 24% of Harris voters think Russia will win. With Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine destroyed $7 billion in Russian military aircraft with $100,000 in drones. Ukraine, with a navy smaller than the almost landlocked, desert country of Jordan, sank 42% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine leads the world in drone warfare. These stories are not getting out because most of the media Democrats watch says “Today something blew up in Ukraine” every day.
Back to Zelensky. President Zelensky has started thinking strategically about his communications, largely by wisely staying quiet. He is giving Putin the space to explain to the world that he is the obstacle to peace. Seventy percent of Republican primary voters now see Putin as the blocker to peace, whereas only 17% blame Zelensky.
Lately, when President Zelensky does speak, he speaks to the right people. His recent interviews with Ben Shapiro and Shelby Wilder at Newsmax are a great shift in strategy from talking to, say, Sixty Minutes. Newsmax reaches 22% of Republican primary voters and Shapiro reaches 12%. CBS, the network on which 60 minutes airs, reaches 4%. Ben Shapiro reaches 3x the number of Republicans as Sixty Minutes. Newsmax reaches 5.5x.
These interviews are paying off. Republicans who get their news from Newsmax and Shapiro have the highest opinion of President Zelensky of any conservative news source except for Fox News. On which Zelensky also appeared.
In America, Zelensky polls behind Ukraine among Republicans, meaning that his lack of popularity stands in the way of building support for Ukraine. While Zelensky’s favorability among Republican voters stands at 28%, 39% say they would support additional weapons to Ukraine. Zelensky is polling 11 points lower than military aid to Ukraine.
As another starker example, the Ukraine Freedom Project polled the statement: Vladimir Putin will not be satisfied until he takes over Ukraine and other eastern European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Eighty-nine percent of Republican primary voters agree with that statement. We also polled it with President Zelensky’s name attached: President Zelensky says Vladimir Putin will not be satisfied… Agreement with that statement was nine points less than the version without Zelensky attached to it. Zelensky’s name being a drag on Ukraine is consistent throughout our research.
With enough time and appearances in conservative media, President Zelensky could build back much the popularity he had in 2022. But Zelensky would be well-served to empower surrogate spokespeople in America for the task. We are finding that Americans respond well to average Ukrainians with heroic stories. Americans who have heard the stories of Ukrainian Christians who have suffered for their faith are more likely to support military aid to Ukraine and have a higher opinion of President Zelensky.
Another every day Ukrainian hit a chord with Trump. Check out President Trump’s reaction to Ukrainian BBC reporter Myroslava Petsa.
A Faith Under Siege, a movie on which I am an executive producer, documents those stories of Ukrainian Christians who have been targeted by Russia for their faith. We have had a lot of success with reaching out to podcasters and conservative influencers. We launched our poll after three weeks of promotion in the conservative ecosphere. After three weeks, seven percent of poll respondents said they had seen, read or heard something about our film – a number equal to about 1.9 million Republican voters.
Several dozen conservative influencers with a combined 2.9 million followers have watched A Faith Under Siege and told their audiences about our film, including Patriot Barbie, Patriot Blondie, That Patriot Teacher and Conspiracy Theory Nut as well as bigger names like Allie Beth Stuckey and The Glenn Beck Show. Check out a mashup of what they said about A Faith Under Siege. Rogan is not on our list of influencers, yet 12% of Rogan’s followers have heard something about our film, compared to 7% of all Republican voters. We are reaching his audience through other influencers.
Those who have heard about our movie are more likely to support additional military aid to Ukraine – 39% of Republican voters support additional military aid to Ukraine but 47% of those who have seen, read or heard something about A Faith Under Siege support additional aid to Ukraine. Poll respondents who have seen, read or heard something about our movie also have a more positive view of President Zelensky – 28% among all Republicans and 32% among those who are familiar with A Faith Under Siege. Unfortunately, Zelensky at 32% is still polling 15 points behind support for aid to Ukraine, which as mentioned above receives 47% support.
Even better news. As referenced above, 39% of Republicans support additional aid to Ukraine with the information they have now. On our poll, we gave them 17 pieces of factual information about the war in Ukraine, then asked them again with this new information if they support additional aid to Ukraine. Support jumped 21 points from 39% to 60%.
It turns out that even in today’s world, telling people the truth still works. We just need to fund a campaign to get those messages out.
We are six months into Trump’s forty-eight month term. There is not a point at which Ukraine will not need conservative supporters.
We are being successful in building that support by telling the truth. You can help. The Ukraine Freedom Project is a 501c3 organization that is run by Anna Shvetsova and me that gets accurate information to Republican elected officials and their voters. For Americans, a donation of any amount is tax deductible and much appreciated.
You can also help by forwarding A Faith Under Siege to people of faith. If you want to show it in your church, as an event at your Rotary Club, school or other civic organization, we make it easy for you – just click here. Once you watch the film, contact your member of Congress to tell him or her about what you learned.
Tales from World War III is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, we would welcome you as a free or paid subscriber. You can also support the work of the Ukraine Freedom Project that brought you much of this information.
The reasons why so many Republicans hate Zelensky, like putler and don’t mind if his demonic genocide plan succeeds are Trump, his 40 year + links with ruZZia, the maga media and the assembly of freaks, nazi-lovers and lowlife turds that comprise his filthy regime.
I mean, who but a deranged psychopath would put a lying, psychopathic nazi gremlin like Gabbard in charge of intel?
Did you forget your meds this morning? 😉 Hating as much as you do costs a lot of energy. You should try getting your news from places other than social media and partisans.
Last year, an old friend of mine; a serving officer in the ZSU with first hand knowledge of the devastating effect of the first aid block, said to me that a vote for Trump is a vote for genocide.
He proved to be horribly correct.
There will eventually be an audit of the soldiers and civilians who were murdered as a direct result of the first and current aid blocks.
The numbers will be in the thousands.
You got exactly what you voted for: genocide in Ukraine and a putler-rimming halfwit in the WH.
This is why you lack credibility, you only look at things singularly. Trump’s small responsibility for those tragedies are very small compared to Obama and Biden but that fact doesn’t even register with you. I will also remind you, Biden was president at that time and could have moved money around to avoid it….but he didn’t. Until you can be honest your credibility will continue to wane, sadly.
Credibility?!
Coming from a Trump gimp?
Hilarious.
The author of the above piece is a well-known Republican.
Concerning the subject and the suffering of people i find your smiley inappropriate. Just saying my friend…
Red, how about going at it in another way? Make a list of people in Trump’s administration and list their positive aspects concerning this topic. I can’t see any. If you can, please share them.
The best way to go about this…if you truly support Ukraine…is to ask yourself before posting partisan information, “Does this help Ukraine?” As we know, the main job of the Kremlin is to divide people so why in the hell would we help the Kremlin?
I’m sorry, Red, but I cannot be neutral with a group of people who are hateful towards an innocent nation suffering gravely every day.
Try your argument with Jesus.
Jesus tells me that allowing invasions and war crimes is WAY worse than holding up some legislation for a few months.
“allowing war crimes”
Like trumpkov is doing?
In fact, I would argue that when he stops sharing intelligence with Ukraine, and halts delivery of defensive weapons, he’s *encouraging* war crimes.
Yes, yes, I know, criticize Trump but keep mum on Obama and Biden, they aren’t responsible for anything. I will remind you, Obama was president 3 years after Putler invaded and so was Biden after Putler’s full-on invasion. Trump withheld a few months. There’s your context if that can be filtered through your TDS narrative.
I will remind you that President Biden was responsible for authorizing the weapons that your precious trumpkov is withholding. Defensive weapons that could *prevent* some of the war crimes that putler is committing.
Trump and his supporters’ problem is that they respond to any criticism with more hatred for Ukraine, insults and blaming others, instead of fucking finally proving us all wrong for God’s sake!
Sadly, hate has found fertile grounds in the United States, and it comes vastly from the maga cult. Hate is what characterized Nazism in Germany during the 1930s and 40s.
Our hate for this cult and mafia land is a direct response to being subjected to gross injustices and by our country being placed on the wrong side of history, and all its negative consequences, which are foremost the hundreds of thousands of lives being lost or ruined in an innocent country, Ukraine.
Ok I ama n avid Ukraine supporter and absolutely love Zelensky. That said I live in Kentucky was is a strongly conservative people and a chronic Trump supporter as you can get. Most of my friends and co workers absolutely love Trump. Why a bunch of rural southern conservatives love is draft dodging, rich boy, yankee is beyond me but the fact is they do so here are my first hand observations:
1) They are not all ignorant rednecks. Many are well educated and wealthy. I am talking Doctors, lawyers successful businessmen.
2) Ukraine and her supporters can not just write them off and ignore their opinions. With Trump as POTUS their opinions matter.
What do they think?
Statements I have personally heard:
“Ukraine is the most corrupt country in the world”
“Zelensky started the war.”
Putin had no choice but to attack.”
“The Ukrainians are Russian and not committed to the war and support Putin.”
“Putin is a good strong leader”
Zelensky is the greatest beggar/conman in history.”
When I confront them with the fallacy of these statements they all buckle and don’t respond. but a month later they say the same things.
The good news is they can be swayed with the right kind of appeals. So here are my ideas for changing their opinions many of which we see here on this sight:
1) Get Fox News on sides- By hook or by crook make it happen. bribe, blackmail whatever.
2) Start appealing to Christian broadcasting Networks. don’t just show how Ukrainian Christians are being oppressed show how non Orthodox Christians in Russia are being oppressed also and show how imoral Russia is with drugs, AIDS epidemic, human trafficking and prostitution. Child kidnaping etc. They hate that shit. We here know of it well but they do not. frame putin as the Anti Christ who will start WWIII unless he is stopped at Ukraine. They love that Revelations stuff.
3) FIGHT CORRUPTION- They don’t want taxpayer dollars going to line corrupt bureaucrats pockets. However DO IT PUBLICLY and SUCCESSFULLY. No one wants to hear they arrested a crook and then released them so the crook could leave the country. Put the fuckers on trial and in jail or on the front line. Then make sure Fox tells everyone or it didn’t happen. This will not only help Ukraine’s image but also help the war effort.
4) Ukraine needs to be a winner- Americans love underdogs but admire winners. Beg less and do more. Losers beg, winners do it on their own. Conservatives don’t like beggars who take government handouts, unless it is themselves of course.
5) Sell Ukraine’s vast potential, Trump’s Minerals Deal kinda sucked but it helps make Ukraine fashionable as an investment opportunity.
6)Look like they are winning the war. Spider Web was great and important victory but first and foremost BLOW UP THE BRIDGE. It is a tough nut to crack but it is personifies the Putin regime. Wrecking it would be a huge symbolic victory. Highlight how much Ukraine is producing on their own. We know what they are doing but the Fox fans don’t. When I tell them Ukraine is producing all of their own tube artillery they look surprised and impressed. Spare no expense getting the Sapsan missile into production and extending the range. Covertly target the Russian shadow fleet for destruction. Load navel drones on a nondescript freighter and hunt the fuckers down. the Russian navy also.
7) Start drafting 18 year olds and above. The US did it all throughout the Cold War. Conservatives view that if Ukraine can’t commit to winning the war then why should we?
I am not here to argue about the validity of their views, this is what they think. Show them the truth and they will change their minds.