The majority of Americans oppose any substantial U.S. involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, poll results have shown.
About 56 percent of Americans think their country should "not get too involved" in the situation, while only about half as many — 29 percent — want the U.S. to take a "firm stand" against Russian actions, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center on March 6-9 and released Tuesday indicates.
A separate poll, conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News, shows the U.S. public look more favorably on economic sanctions against Russia, however.
Fifty-six percent of those polled said they supported coordinated U.S. and European sanctions against Russia, while another 31 percent opposed them, the results released Tuesday showed.
Following Russia's dispatch of troops to Ukraine, U.S. President Barack Obama said last week that "if this violation of international law continues, the resolve of the U.S., and our allies and the international community will remain firm."
The U.S. has sent additional forces, including fighter jets, to Eastern Europe in response to the crisis, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said the U.S. would "respond" if mutual defense obligations with NATO members in Europe require it to intervene.
The Pew Research Center poll, conducted among 1,003 people nationwide, gave a sampling error or 3.6 percentage points. The Washington Post-ABC poll, conducted March 5 to 9 among 1,014 people across the country, gave a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.