On February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine – next week will be a year ago and now many people’s concerns about the war and its consequences are still sky-high. 77 percent are concerned about the course of the fighting in Ukraine and three-quarters (74 percent) about peace and stability in Europe.
“The war in Ukraine is also our war”, Prime Minister Rutte said last year – and today more than half of the people (52 percent) share that feeling.
‘Enemy of the Netherlands’
Six out of ten (58 percent) also see Putin as ‘an enemy of the Netherlands’. When we ask whether people support the current support measures in the Netherlands, 84 percent say yes.
“But that support for Ukraine is not unconditional,” says opinion poller at RTL News Gijs Rademaker. “At the same time, people are massively (85 percent) concerned about the high prices of energy and livelihoods. Four in ten say they support support for Ukraine now, but will stop doing so if prices remain this way for a long time. stay high.”
Many people are also hesitant when it comes to supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine. There is little support for sending anti-aircraft defenses (45 percent are in favour), as is the decision to supply Leopard tanks (41 percent in favour). For the time being, there is hardly any support for the delivery of F-16 fighter jets, which various countries, including the Netherlands, are considering: 26 percent think this is a good plan.
Atomic attack
One of the reasons for this hesitation is the concern about becoming too directly involved in the conflict. Putin has threatened nuclear strikes against Western countries over the past year.
Although half think that the Russian president is bluffing, a third (35 percent) of the participants think that such a nuclear attack on the West is a real possibility.
The survey was conducted on February 13 and 14 by DVJ Insights on behalf of RTL News and held among a representative sample of 1000 respondents.
