Nearly half of Poles have welcomed top officials’ statements that the country is no longer supplying weapons to Ukraine, Poland’s PAP news agency reported on Wednesday.
The Polish-made Krab gun howitzer used by Ukraine.HSW
Quoting a recent poll by IBRiS, the agency wrote that 47.2 % of those surveyed hailed the prime minister’s recent declaration that Poland is now focusing on arming itself rather than providing arms to war-torn Ukraine.
The statement was viewed negatively by 44.5% , while 8.3% had no opinion.
“We are no longer providing any weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland,” Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters last week.
“Poland is now arming itself, with state-of-the-art weapons,” he added.
“If you want to defend yourself, you must have something to defend yourself with,” added the prime minister, who did not specify when Poland had stopped supplying arms to Ukraine.
Among those who supported the statement, the majority were supporters of the ruling camp (71%) with only 30 % of those leaning towards the opposition. The sentiment was also shared by 48% of no-opinion respondents, PAP noted.
Support was particularly pronounced among men (51%), individuals aged fifty and over (60%), rural residents (60%), and those with the lowest level of education (67%).
Furthermore, these respondents primarily relied on information broadcast on public television, PAP wrote.
The survey was conducted on September 22-23, 2023 on a sample size of 1,000 respondents.
Warsaw has been one of Kyiv’s closest allies and main donors of military equipment ever since Russia’s invasion in February last year.
The assistance included hundreds of tanks, both Soviet-designed T-72s as well as more modern German-made Leopards.
According to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine support tracker, Poland provided Ukraine with military aid worth 3 billion euro by the end of July this year, the sixth most worldwide.
(mo/pm)
Source: PAP