US Survey: Only 34% could identify Ukraine on the map
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Though only few can identify Ukraine on the map, more want to crush Russia with sanctions and military might.
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In 2014, a WashPo blog, The Monkey Cage, published a similar survey, asking around 2,066 Americans where Ukraine is on the map. Only 1 in 6 Americans were able to get it right. The interesting part? The farther the guesses were from Ukraine, the more they wanted the US to intervene with military force. (The Monkey Cage)
Ignorance is not bliss - it is confidence.
While the US has been ramping up its anti-Russia rhetoric and hysteria in mainstream media, in addition to deploying thousands of troops to Ukraine, and dispatching tons of heavy weapons to the former Soviet republic, many American citizens do not know where their taxes are going - quite literally.
On Monday, 2,005 registered American voters were polled, asked to point at Ukraine on the map, and hence are unable to identify where US aid is being sent.
The results are as such: Only 34% of those polled were able to correctly identify Ukraine on the map, while some of the rest pointed at the UK, France, and even some African nations.
However, almost 75% of voters were able to locate Russia (Russia isn't very hard to miss, though).
More sanctions
Of those who spotted Ukraine correctly, 58% said they support harsh sanctions against Russia if Moscow were to invade - surprisingly, that number decreases among those who weren't sure of where Ukraine is: 41%, who said they are in favor of implementing "the most strenuous" package of punitive measures against Moscow.
Almost 75% of those who found Ukraine support discharging Russia, in case of invasion, from the SWIFT international payment system, while 65% said they support shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which connects Russia and Germany.
More war
It didn't matter if the participant failed to place Ukraine on the map: 25% of that population was in favor of sending more US troops to Eastern Europe, "even if there may be US casualties." Those who located Ukraine correctly had 34% support this decision, too.
However, this isn't the first time a considerable number of Americans demonstrate that they want to bomb countries they can't point on a map: Here's one of Jimmy Kimmel's classic field experiments, where his correspondent asks Americans if they can point at North Korea.
Last week, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov revealed that the Ukrainian military has already received weapons from the United States as part of their latest military aid package.
By the end of December 2021, the Biden administration approved sending a security package worth $200 million to Ukraine, which includes lethal defensive assistance such as Javelin anti-tank missiles and ammunition.
