Survey: 54% of Romanians support more economic assistance for Ukraine

A total of 54% of Romanians support providing more economic assistance to Ukraine, a pan-European survey commissioned by the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) found.

In Poland, another country surveyed that shares a land border with Ukraine, 71% of the respondents backed more economic assistance to their neighbor.

Sending additional arms to Ukraine is backed by 78% in Poland, against just 46% in Romania. The two countries differ most significantly on the idea of sending troops to Ukraine. Poles are among the few countries where support prevails over opposition to it (by 46% to 30%). Meanwhile, Romanians clearly oppose sending troops (by 44% to 26%), the survey found.

At the same time, 83% of those surveyed in Poland blame Russia for the conflict, compared to 58% in Romania, while 74% see Russia as the biggest obstacle to peace, compared to 42% in Romania.

The survey, carried out in Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden, found that a majority of Europeans support Ukraine’s EU membership bid. Across the countries polled, 57% said they are in favor of Ukraine joining the EU, while 19% opposed such a move.

Poland is most in favor of Ukraine becoming an EU member, with 70% of the country’s respondents supporting Ukraine’s EU accession, followed by 69% in Portugal and Finland, and 66% in Sweden. A majority in Spain (58%) is also in favor.

The survey found that almost one-third (32%) of those polled in Germany, and just over a quarter of French (26%) and Italian (28%) respondents oppose Ukraine’s EU accession. However, the prevailing view in these three countries was still in support of Kyiv joining the bloc (48%, 47% and 46%, respectively).

Russia is universally blamed for starting the conflict and is also seen as the biggest obstacle to peace, according to the survey. Over 80% of respondents in Poland (83%), Sweden (83%), Finland (90%), and Great Britain (83%) hold Russia as the party responsible for this war – a view shared by strong majorities in Italy (56%), France (62%) and Germany (66%).

A comparable picture was also evident when the respondents were asked about the chief blockage to a potential peace agreement. In every country, a majority or plurality of citizens see Russia as the primary obstacle, with this viewpoint most evident in Finland (where 87% said this), Sweden (82%), Great Britain (76%), Poland (74%) and Spain (69%).

In Romania, 58% hold Russia responsible for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, while 42% see it as the primary obstacle to a potential peace agreement.

The survey also identified a prevailing feeling that governments are too focused on the war, at the expense of other problems facing their own citizens. A total of 42% of respondents claimed their governments spend too much time on the war in Ukraine, while 36% were pleased with the amount of attention devoted to the conflict, and 4% said there was too little focus on the war. In Romania, 58% felt the government dedicated too much attention to the war, while 18% said the focus was about right.