Odesa Technical College in Odesa, Ukraine, damaged in a nighttime Russian drone attack on Feb. 8. (Nina Liashonok/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Two years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 74% of Americans view the war there as important to U.S. national interests – with 43% describing it as very important.
Similar shares see the war between Israel and Hamas (75%) and tensions between China and Taiwan (75%) as important to U.S. national interests, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 22-28.
Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand Americans’ views of three ongoing global conflicts: the war between Russia and Ukraine, the war between Israel and Hamas and tensions between China and Taiwan. We first asked respondents to rate how important each conflict is to them personally. We then asked them to rate how important each conflict is to U.S. national interests.
For this analysis, we surveyed 5,146 U.S. adults from Jan. 22 to 28, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
When asked how important each conflict is to them personally, 59% of Americans say the war between Russia and Ukraine is important to them.
This is similar to the share who say tensions between China and Taiwan (57%) are important to them personally. But it is lower than the share who see the Israel-Hamas war as personally important (65%).
Roughly a third of Americans describe the Israel-Hamas war as very important to them personally, compared with around a quarter for the other two conflicts we asked about.
Differences by party
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to see the Russia-Ukraine war as important to U.S. national interests (81% vs. 69%).
Related: About half of Republicans now say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine
However, Democrats and Republicans are about equally likely to see the Israel-Hamas war (76% vs. 77%) and China-Taiwan tensions (76% vs. 78%) as important to U.S. interests.
Americans at the ideological poles – that is, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats – are more likely than their more moderate counterparts in each party to view both the Israel-Hamas war and China-Taiwan tensions as important to U.S. interests.
When it comes to the importance of each conflict to them personally, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the Russia-Ukraine war is important to them (65% vs. 56%), while Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say this about China-Taiwan tensions (62% vs. 56%). Roughly equal shares of Democrats (67%) and Republicans (66%) say the Israel-Hamas war is personally important to them.
Related: Americans’ Views of the Israel-Hamas War
Differences by age
For all three conflicts we asked about, the oldest Americans are more likely than younger Americans to perceive them as important to both U.S. national interests and to them personally.
However, even among U.S. adults under 30, a majority (58%) see the Israel-Hamas war as personally important. This is not the case for the Russia-Ukraine war or for the ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan.
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
