Most Finns Support Sending Troops to Ukraine, Poles Opposed

The vast majority of Finnish citizens support their country’s involvement in providing post-war security guarantees to Ukraine, including sending troops to Ukraine. Meanwhile, most Poles do not support participation in a peacekeeping contingent.

This is evidenced by surveys conducted in Finland commissioned by the magazine Iltalehti, and a survey carried out by SW Research in Poland for the publication Rzeczpospolita.

Finland

Finnish respondents were asked the following question: Do you support Finland’s participation as a state in any security guarantees that may be provided to Ukraine?

According to the survey, 67% support security guarantees, while only 10% oppose them. 23% of respondents are undecided.

After that, respondents were asked to select from a list of four options all the types of security guarantees they would be willing to accept from Finland. The results were processed to also include the 10% group that opposes security guarantees.

68% of respondents are willing to send soldiers to Ukraine, but for non-combat roles. 63% support arms assistance, and 60% support aid in non-weapon materials.

Meanwhile, a significantly smaller share of respondents, 19%, support sending soldiers on combat missions.

Support for security guarantees for Ukraine is almost evenly distributed among supporters of different political parties in Finland.

Poland

Polish respondents were asked the following question: If peacekeeping forces are deployed in Ukraine, should they include Polish soldiers?

17,3% of respondents answered ‘yes’ to this question. 61,1% responded ‘no.’ 21,6% of respondents had no opinion on the matter.

Men (64%) are somewhat more opposed to Polish participation in a potential peacekeeping mission than women (59%). This view is more commonly expressed by the youngest respondents (69%) and residents of towns with populations of 20,000 or fewer (70%).

This public stance in Poland aligns with the consistent policy of the Polish government, which holds that Poland has other priorities, including “defending NATO’s eastern flank.” Meanwhile, Poland can provide infrastructure and logistics for a possible peacekeeping mission.