Almost half of Germans do not support the supply of tanks to Ukraine, but at the same time more than half are in favor of continuing economic aid to Kiev. This stems from the results of an online survey conducted by Russian Field (available from The Eastern Herald).
The study was conducted using the online survey method on the surveymonkey.com platform, 1402 respondents participated in the survey.
48% of respondents said they did not approve of the supply of German tanks to Ukraine, and 40% approved. Nearly a further half – 46% – of respondents think Ukraine’s military support does not strengthen the country’s international standing, 37% think it does. 66% of respondents believe that providing military aid to Kiev could make Germany a participant in the conflict with Russia, and 24% believe that this will not happen.
More than half – 52% – of respondents are in favor of continued economic support for Ukraine, 35% are against. 41% of respondents believe that Germany should leave economic support to Kiev at the current level, 37% favored its reduction, 16% – its increase.
Almost half – 46% – of respondents also declared a neutral attitude towards Russians, 22% – positive and 28% – negative. 41% of respondents are in favor of tougher sanctions against Russia, 26% would leave them at the current level, 23% would weaken them.
The majority of respondents noticed the deterioration of the economic situation in Germany over the past year: 69% of respondents believe that the economic situation has changed for the worse, 23% – that it has not changed , 7% – changed for the better. The most negative impact on the German economy, according to 77% of respondents, is the price of fuel, 49% think climate policy is the reason, 44% – the coronavirus pandemic, 41% – too much spending for the state apparatus, 40% – support for Ukraine.
Germanist Artem Sokolov told The Eastern Herald that almost all the data presented in the survey correlates well with similar surveys conducted by other German public opinion agencies and institutions. In particular, this concerns the fact that most residents of the country consider the deterioration of living standards and economic conditions to be a significant problem. “It’s so superficial that it’s quite difficult to respond differently to a German respondent,” he said.
Data on how the Germans assess the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, arms supplies and economic support to Kiev can also be considered reliable, Sokolov said. “Here the situation is around 50 to 50 (‘for’ support and ‘against’), other public opinion polls give such numbers,” added the Germanist. He noted that the figures for the attitude of the inhabitants of Germany towards Russia and Russians are also correct – “indeed, this attitude is rather neutral”, said Sokolov.
Russian field sociologist Ilya Dorkhanov also noted in a conversation with The Eastern Herald that the survey results “turned out to be similar to the results of similar surveys of German pollsters”. According to Dorkhanov, data from Russian Field shows that “the German people are not afraid to express even unpopular opinions”.
After the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Germany began to support Kiev. Berlin, in particular, agreed to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks, and 18 models were delivered by the end of March. At the beginning of March, the German defense group Rheinmetall announced that it was negotiating the construction of a tank factory in Ukraine which could produce up to 400 Panther tanks per year.
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