Some U.S. Conservatives Are Shifting In Favor Of Ukraine
Conservative support for Ukraine in the United States appears to be shifting. Political commentator Laura Loomer reversed her earlier skepticism after visiting Ukraine, while political commentator Ben Shapiro, a longtime supporter of Ukraine, grew firmer in that support. Polling from YouGov and Pew shows declining Republican opposition to U.S. aid. In Congress, the House passed the bipartisan Ukraine Support Act in June, and the Senate advanced a new bipartisan Russia sanctions bill in late July. U.S. President Donald Trump has also increased engagement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Still, the shift should not be overstated. Only a small share of House Republicans backed the bill, and skepticism toward further U.S. involvement remains widespread among many conservatives.
On July 23, U.S. far-right political commentator Laura Loomer met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the war in Ukraine. During the interview, they addressed Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, U.S. assistance to Ukraine, and Zelenskyy’s interactions with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The interview occurred after Loomer announced on her X account that she would be traveling to Ukraine in July to learn more about the war. She had previously declared her opposition to the U.S. providing assistance to Ukraine.
But during her visit to Kyiv, Loomer shared on her X account that she had been wrong about the war. She recounted hearing air raid sirens while in Ukraine. Loomer also met with senior officials from the Ukrainian government. Later, she shared that she had been influenced by Russian misinformation, adding that she had “made a mistake.” Now, Loomer has stated on her X account that “Russia is the aggressor,” and she has argued that Ukraine is a U.S. ally. She is now working to inform Americans about how “important Ukraine is to U.S. national defense.”
Loomer is not the only U.S. conservative political commentator who has reconsidered his or her views on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. For example, while Ben Shapiro has long supported helping Ukraine, he previously questioned U.S. spending on aid and argued that the U.S. needs to define clearer objectives. He later visited Ukraine in April 2025, where he interviewed Zelenskyy. During their discussion, they addressed U.S. assistance to Ukraine, religious freedoms in Ukraine, and Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump back in February 2025. Unlike Loomer, Shapiro did not reverse his position on the war, but his visit appeared to reinforce his support for Ukraine.
These developments appear to mirror a larger pattern among conservatives throughout the United States. According to YouGov, an international internet-based market research and data analytics firm, support for Ukraine among Republican voters has increased over the past year. In March 2025, YouGov conducted a survey asking registered voters in the United States about assistance provided to Ukraine. At the time, 60% of Republicans said that they wanted to decrease or stop military aid to Ukraine. A similar poll conducted in April this year, however, found that now only 37% of Republicans want to decrease or stop military aid to Ukraine. (YouGov also noted in April that less than 10% of Democrats said they want to decrease or stop aid to Ukraine.)
Similarly, a Pew Research Center poll published in April found that 36% of Republicans believe that the U.S. is providing enough aid to Ukraine, while an additional 11% argue that the U.S. should do more. The YouGov and Pew polls suggest that a large contingent of Republicans in the United States still supports Ukraine, and they want the U.S. to continue sending aid to Ukraine.
Republican elected officials and conservatives in office have also voiced their solidarity with Ukraine. Beginning in July 2025, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives signed a discharge petition to introduce new aid to Ukraine. The petition reached the required 218 signatures in May, and the Ukraine Support Act was brought to the floor in the House in June. It passed 226-195 with bipartisan support. Should the Senate review and pass the House’s Ukraine Support Act, it would be the first time Congress has passed new assistance to Ukraine since April 2024.
Meanwhile, on July 28, the Senate voted on legislation that would seek to increase sanctions on the Russian Federation while it continues its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The bill would authorize Trump to impose tariffs on the world’s purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas. It would also introduce new sanctions on Russia’s financial institutions, political elites, oligarchs, and the “shadow fleet,” an unofficial network of oil tankers and cargo vessels used to transport Russian oil while bypassing current sanctions imposed by the international community. (The proposed legislation would also introduce new sanctions on Iran.) The Senate held a procedural vote on the bill, where it voted 86-12 in favor of advancing the bipartisan bill. While the Senate still needs to debate and pass the final sanctions package, the support the procedural motion received suggests that Democrats and Republicans continue to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
Even Trump’s approach to Ukraine and the war has slightly shifted. Initially, during the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, Trump argued that the U.S. had provided too much aid to Ukraine. He also vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine War within a day, should he be elected as president of the United States. Following the election, Trump took office in January 2025. He then began to push Zelenskyy for peace negotiations in February 2025, and in March 2025, Trump paused defense assistance to Ukraine.
Since then, the U.S. president has increased his meetings with the president of Ukraine while also changing some policies on the Russia-Ukraine War. In August 2025, the United States and NATO countries established a program known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, under which NATO allies would pay into a U.S.-administered fund that finances U.S. weapons shipments directly to Ukraine. The Trump Administration approved the first PURL-funded weapons package in September 2025. Then, in October 2025, the United States introduced new sanctions on Russian energy companies Rosneft and Lukoil. Most recently, on July 28, Trump hosted Zelenskyy at the White House to address Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. Following the meeting, Zelenskyy said the two discussed licensing Ukraine to produce Patriot missile interceptors domestically, something Ukraine has sought for years as it looks to defend itself against Russian missile and drone attacks. Trump had first raised the possibility of such a license during the 2026 NATO Summit in Turkey in early July. But a few days after the White House meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said on July 31 that the U.S. “has not agreed” to grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot missile systems.
Ukraine’s current successes on the battlefield may be credited for the change in conservative opinion in the U.S. on the war. Since the start of Trump’s second term in office in January 2025, the Institute for the Study of War has found that Russian offensives in the spring and summer of 2026 “failed to achieve operationally significant gains thus far.” Meanwhile, as Ukraine continues to strike Russian oil refineries, Reuters has reported that these attacks have resulted in a decline in Russian gasoline production. In July, Reuters noted that the “Russian gasoline output fell to a level equivalent to only around 65% of the season average.” This has allowed Ukraine to regain some Russian-occupied territory. Finally, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in July that the monthly casualty rate for Russians in 2026 has been between 30,000 and 34,000. These figures suggest that Russia has taken significant losses this year, which may be why some conservatives in the United States are beginning to view the war in Ukraine differently.
No one is certain when or how Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine will end. Nonetheless, fresh eyewitness accounts of the Russia-Ukraine War coupled with Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia suggest that public perception of the war is changing among some conservative Americans.
As the war continues, it remains to be seen how this support for Ukraine will hold, and what other actions political commentators and elected officials will take as they look to support Ukraine. Still, this shift should not be overstated. Only 18 of 212 House Republicans voted for the Ukraine Support Act in June, and polling shows a majority of Republicans still believe the U.S. is doing enough, or too much, to support Ukraine. Skepticism toward further U.S. involvement remains widespread among many conservatives, and Trump himself has yet to commit to the Patriot licensing deal he discussed with Zelenskyy. As a result, observers of the Russia-Ukraine War and supporters of Ukraine will be curious to see what unfolds, particularly as conservatives within the United States continue to reassess their views on the war in Ukraine.