Italians are the outlier, being divided on the issue
Key takeaways
- YouGov European Political Monthly survey conducted in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain - with additional data from Great Britain - shows Europeans still tend to support aiding Ukraine financially
- There is significant support in almost all countries surveyed for using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine's war effort
- Europeans tend to support Ukrainian EU and NATO membership after the war ends
- Italians are consistently much more closely divided on matters surrounding the Ukraine war than other nations surveyed
An end to the war in Ukraine may be close, with the US, Russia and Ukraine wrangling over details laid out in competing peace proposals.
New data from YouGov’s European Political Monthly survey (with additional comparison data from Great Britain) shows that Europeans still believe it was right to give financial support to Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
Likewise, Europeans generally back continuing to give financial aid to Ukraine, with Britons and Spaniards the most likely to support doing so, at 68%. Italy proves the exception in being closely divided on the issue, with 43% supportive but 40% opposed.
While Europeans believe the financial support coming from the continent has made a large or significant difference to Ukraine’s ability to resist the Russian invasion, there is division within each nation over whether the level of support given to Ukraine is too little, too much, or about right.
One option that has been consistently touted for giving greater financial resource to Ukraine is to make use of frozen Russian assets in European bank accounts. Such a proposal has been recently blocked by Belgium in the EU, but it finds support among European publics.
Fully 63% of Britons support using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort, as do the majority in Poland, Germany and Spain (55-57%), and a plurality in France (by 47% to 28%). Italy again is an outlier, with Italians divided 39% to 38%.
The competing peace plans put out by Russia and Europe both make provisions for Ukraine’s future relationship with the EU and NATO.
Both peace plans propose allowing Ukraine to join the EU, as well as preferential market access while the body considers its membership; there is net support across all countries surveyed for Ukrainian membership of the EU. Among EU countries surveyed, Spaniards are the most in favour (70%), while the other nations are supportive by more narrow margins, with between 42% and 47% backing Ukrainian membership (but in each case higher than the 32-38% opposed).
When it comes to NATO, Russia wants to prohibit Ukrainian membership, while Europe wants not to rule it out. European willingness to see Ukraine join the military alliance in the event of a peace deal closely mirrors attitudes towards EU membership – additionally, Britons are also in favour at a rate of 66%.
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