Nearly half of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of Russia's war against Ukraine

A poll by The Economist/YouGov has found that 49% of respondents in the United States "somewhat" or "strongly" disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling Russia's war against Ukraine, while 30% support his approach.

As reported by The Hill, according to The Economist/YouGov poll, when asked whether they approve of "the way Donald Trump is handling the situation with Russia and Ukraine", 49% of respondents said they "somewhat disapprove" or "strongly disapprove".

A total of 30% of respondents said they "somewhat approve" or "strongly approve" of Trump's actions, while 20% said they were unsure.

In the first year of Trump's second term, his administration has pushed hard for an end to the war in Ukraine, but with limited success.

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago. Following the meeting, both leaders said at a joint press conference that progress had been made on a 20-point peace proposal supported by Zelenskyy.

In the poll, 27% of respondents said they believed Russia currently has the upper hand in the war, 6% thought Ukraine had the advantage, while 44% said neither side was ahead of the other. A further 24% were unsure which side holds the advantage.

The poll was conducted from 26 to 29 December among 1,550 respondents. The margin of error is 3.6 percentage points.

After meeting the US president at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Donald Trump had promised him assistance with air defence systems.

Zelenskyy has also said that a visit to Ukraine by US President Donald Trump would be beneficial, particularly if the White House leader were to fly directly to Ukraine.