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Majority of Germans support military aid to Ukraine, survey shows

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Majority of Germans support military aid to Ukraine, survey shows
Members of Germany's Bundeswehr look at MIM-104 Patriot missile launching systems at the Luftwaffe Warbelow training center on Dec. 18, 2012, in Warbelow, Germany (Sean Gallup)

A majority of German citizens support providing military assistance to Ukraine, with a significant portion advocating for increased aid, according to a new poll by the Wahlen research group for ZDF Frontal, a German investigative political program.

The representative survey found that 67% of Germans back Germany’s military support for Ukraine. Within this group, 27% favor increasing military aid to Kyiv, while 40% believe Germany should maintain its current level of support. Meanwhile, 27% of respondents called for a reduction in weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

Security expert Jana Puglierin from the European Council on Foreign Relations highlighted the significance of these findings. "It is remarkable that, when combining those who want to continue supporting Ukraine, we reach 67%, which is a clear majority," she told ZDF Frontal. "This means that the so-called ‘Ukraine fatigue’ mentioned by some politicians is not reflected in the public."

Support for military assistance is higher in western Germany than in the east. In the west, 70% of respondents support supplying weapons, with 28% calling for increased aid and 42% favoring the current level. In eastern Germany, 53% support military assistance, with 20% backing increased aid and 33% preferring the status quo.

Among political party supporters, voters of the Green Party show the strongest approval for increasing arms deliveries to Ukraine, with 45% in favor. In contrast, 79% of Alternative for Germany (AfD) supporters and 52% of those backing the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance advocate for reducing military aid.

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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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