Their relatives are at war 5,000 miles away.
In the USA, though, residents who identify with their Russian heritage and those who identify with their Ukrainian heritage express strikingly similar views about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a pair of exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University polls finds. The two groups are united in their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war raging on his orders.
The invasion is opposed by nearly everyone in both groups: 87% of Russian Americans and 94% of Ukrainian Americans. Those of Russian descent have a more positive view of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (72%) than they do of Putin (6%). By 9-1, they say Putin should be removed from office.
“Somebody just needs to extract him,” says Dina Sarkisova, 44, who owns a spa in San Diego and participated in the survey. Half-Russian and half-Azeri, she came to the USA as a refugee in 1990, fleeing conflict in Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed. “There’s no reasoning with him.”
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“It’s a travesty; it’s a nightmare,” says Jacob Plotkin, 68, a Ukrainian American from Boca Raton, Florida, who works in real estate and agreed to a follow-up interview after being polled. “A big guy picking on a little kid. It’s wrong.”
The outrage of Ukrainian Americans is no surprise as they watch their homeland hammered by a Russian onslaught of tanks and missiles. But there is also…
