Most Czechs Believe that New Government Should Help Ukraine, but Not with Weapons

Most Czechs believe that the new government of Andrej Babiš should continue to help Ukraine. More than half of the population is in favor of humanitarian aid, but only 29% are in favor of military assistance.

This is reported by Novinky.cz based on the results of a public opinion poll.

Only 18 percent of Czechs believe that the new government of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (from the ANO party) should not help Ukraine at all.

Instead, 57 percent of respondents support humanitarian aid, and 56 percent want to continue diplomatic support for Ukraine; 54 percent of ANO voters also demand it from the government. At the same time, only 29% of the population supports military aid, and 27% supports financial aid.

The exclusive poll was conducted by the NMS agency on behalf of Novinky. The survey involved 1009 people. The question was: in what ways should the ANO, SPD and Motorists government led by Babiš support Ukraine; several options were available.

“Although it often doesn’t seem so, most Czechs are convinced that Ukraine needs to be helped in some way. The debate is primarily about how to help,” commented Tereza Friedrichova, political analyst at NMS.

There are significant differences among the voters of individual parties. The supporters of the center-right Spolu coalition are the most supportive of Ukraine, mostly supporting humanitarian aid (87%), diplomatic (82%), financial and economic (60%), and military (74%).

The supporters of the populist ANO primarily support diplomatic assistance (54%), and exactly half of those polled would also support Ukraine in terms of humanitarian aid. Only 13% stand for financial assistance and 11% for military aid.

The voters of the right-wing SPD party are the most distanced from helping Ukraine: 42% of them believe that Ukraine should not be helped at all. If SPD voters do believe that Ukraine should be helped, it should be mainly diplomatically (41%) or humanitarian (39%).

The public is also divided on the question of whether the Czech Republic should continue the Czech Initiative, under which Czech arms companies, in coordination with the government and with funding from partner countries, use their network of connections to purchase shells for Ukraine from ‘third countries.’ In particular, 38% of respondents believe that it should continue, 46% stand for its termination, and the rest do not know.

“Most people may not know that the Czech Republic is actually more of a coordinator of aid, and the funds are provided primarily by allied states. Therefore, this is an example of diplomatic aid rather than military aid,” Friedrichova explained.

Currently, the new Czech Defence Minister Jaromír Zuna from the Babiš government has confirmed the continuation of the Czech Initiative in 2026.