Harris says Americans feel ‘responsibility’ to continue support for Ukraine ahead of war anniversary

Vice President Harris said she believes the American people feel a “responsibility” to continue to support Ukrainians in the face of the atrocities happening in Ukraine as the conflict with Russia reaches its one-year anniversary. 

Harris said in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Friday that she has seen Ukrainian flags being placed in people’s windows and in storefronts throughout the country, and she knows Ukraine continues to have people’s support. 

“I know the American people feel a sense of moral outrage and a sense of responsibility for our nation to stand with the Ukrainian people around these atrocities, and I’m confident in that,” she said. 

Harris’s comments come as a poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed some declining support for sending weapons and economic assistance to Ukraine. 

About 60 percent of respondents in their survey said they supported sending weapons last May, about three months into the conflict, but only 48 percent said so in the more recent poll. The percentage of people who said they opposed sending weapons rose from 22 percent to 29 percent in that time period.

Just more than a third of respondents said they supported sending economic aid, and around the same amount said they opposed it. About a fifth said they do not have an opinion. 

Support for sending assistance to Ukraine in its war with Russia had remained mostly steady throughout the past year of the conflict. But some congressional Republicans have shown skepticism about continuing to provide as much support for Ukraine as the United States has given. 

The vice president said she hoped that sentiment would change.

“Hopefully, our elected representatives will reflect how the American people feel about things like independence, which is a founding principle of our nation and we take it seriously, the independence of Ukraine, how the American people feel about the atrocities we are seeing,” Harris said. 

A United Nations report released last year concluded that Russia has committed many war crimes against the Ukrainian people, including rape, torture and summary executions.