How Trump's policy changed Ukrainians' attitudes towards NATO
Recent months have brought many changes, including in countries that are NATO members.
The revision of defence spending insisted on by US President Donald Trump did not lead to a stronger sense of security.
Quite the opposite – for many European allies, the willingness of the United States to come to their aid in the event of activation of the collective defence clause has become even more doubtful. And recent statements from the White House about the need to reconsider the advisability of US membership in the Alliance only confirm these concerns.
Read more about how this has affected Ukrainians' assessment of NATO in the article by Serhii Solodkyi of the New Europe Center, based on the results of the Info Sapiens study: The Trump effect: how perceptions and trust in NATO have changed in Ukraine.
Commissioned by the New Europe Center, the research agency Info Sapiens studied Ukrainians' views on support for membership, levels of trust and expectations of the Alliance. The survey was conducted from 7 to 20 March 2026 (before Donald Trump’s latest statements about a possible US withdrawal from NATO).
The sample consisted of 1,000 respondents. The theoretical margin of error does not exceed 3.1% with a probability of 0.95.
The first and key conclusion: Ukrainians support joining NATO but do not fully trust the Alliance itself.
Thus, 68.9% of Ukrainians support the country’s membership in NATO. However, only 54.7% of respondents trust the Alliance, while 41.5% do not.
This means that some respondents, although they want to see Ukraine in NATO, still view it with distrust.
Ukrainians distrust NATO primarily because of its behaviour during the war: the Alliance is perceived as doing too little, acting slowly and lacking decisiveness.
Responses to an open-ended question about the reasons for distrust included: insufficient assistance to Ukraine (16.5%), they talk more than they act (13.5%), inaction (11.0%), they are unable to protect themselves (9.1%), the war is still ongoing (6.1%).
Trust in the Alliance is influenced by three main factors: assistance to Ukraine (18.5%), protection for Ukraine (13.3%), security guarantees (11.8%).
More than a third of respondents support inviting Ukraine to join (35.8%) and sending a NATO military contingent (34.9%).
It can be assumed that these two figures would be significantly higher if Ukrainians believed in their realism or if there were fewer doubts about the United States.
However, the study's results simultaneously show that Ukrainians are not abandoning the Euro-Atlantic perspective in any way.
Most respondents do not support the idea of NATO publicly renouncing Ukraine’s membership and ending cooperation in order to stop the war – only 16.3% chose this option.