Polish support towards Ukraine remains unwavering even though the explosion at the Polish village last week was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, a new survey found.
The poll was conducted by the United Surveys for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and RMF FM radio.
According to the poll, only 19% of the Polish people believe the incident in Przewodowo near the Ukrainian border, where a likely Ukrainian missile hit the local infrastructure, would affect the relations between Poland and Ukraine.
“The government’s reaction [to the incident] was sober and reasonable so that it did not influence our relations with Ukrainians, who are also fighting for our freedom. The Polish people are still ready to help,” said Norbert Maliszewski, the head of the government’s Strategic Analysis Centre.
Early investigations suggest the explosion in Przewodowo was not a deliberate attack but an accident with an air defence missile changing its trajectory probably because of a human mistake.
However, the opinions vary depending on the kind of help that should be offered to Ukraine.
Among those surveyed, 80% of Poles believe their country should provide humanitarian aid, while 68% claim the government should accept refugees from a war-torn country, and 58% favour sending light weapons, like grenade launchers or carbines. On top of that, one in three Poles wants Poland to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Regarding Poland helping Ukraine financially, fewer people agree (27%), while only 17% want concessions for Polish volunteers to fight in Ukraine.
While almost a fifth of the respondents agree that Polish people who want to join the Ukrainian foreign legion should have the possibility to do so, almost no one answered that he or she would like the Polish army to be deployed in Ukraine.
Compared with a similar poll from March, Polish eagerness to support Ukraine did not weaken significantly, even if the share of positive answers in each category has dropped.
“These are surprisingly good results,” Maciej Duszczyk from Warsaw University Centre of Migration Research told DGP.
“The tiredness with the topic of the war is clear, but the decrease [in support for Ukraine] is not as dramatic as one might expect after half a year of a conflict and all its consequences.”
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
