48% Of EU Respondents Want Quick End To War Even If Ukraine Loses Territories: Poll

Almost half of Europeans favor an immediate end to the war launched by Russia, even at the cost of Ukraine losing some of its territories, a poll of residents in nine countries in the European Union revealed.

Euroskopia, an alliance of social research and media companies in the E.U., asked 1,000 adult residents in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal regarding their vision of the end of Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine.

In all the countries surveyed, 48% of Europeans are in favor of a quick resolution to the war, even if Ukraine gives up some of its occupied territories to Russia, according to Euroskopia.

According to the poll, 64% of Austrians, 60% of Germans, 54% of Greeks, 50% of Italians and 50% of Spaniards support the rapid cessation of hostilities even if it means territorial loss for Ukraine.

In Spain, the majority of voters supporting the left-wing government prefer an early end to the war to achieve peace over a complete victory by Ukraine and its allies, European Pravda reported.

But 48% of citizens in the Netherlands, 45% of Portuguese and 42% of Polish residents opposed the idea of Kyiv giving up its territories to Moscow in order to end the war quickly.

The result also revealed that 32% of surveyed Europeans rejected making sacrifices to end the war quickly.

Despite different visions on how they see an end to the war in Ukraine, 56% of Europeans said they want to continue arms shipments to support the Ukrainian military, with 61% of Spaniards supporting the idea.

But 60% of citizens in Greece and 50% of Italians reject the continuation of military support to Ukraine.

When asked about maintaining the sanctions imposed on Russia, a razor-thin majority of 51.8% of Europeans support the continuation of imposing economic sanctions on all Russian companies.

But most residents in Germany, Greece, Austria and Italy want their countries to resume buying Russian gas in the future if the war ends through a peace agreement. Overall, 35.1% of Europeans support the idea of bringing back Russian gas to their energy consumption.

The E.U.-wide survey came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged allies to speed up their shipment of military aid, warning that Russia could be preparing a fresh offensive almost a year after it invaded Ukraine.

Zelensky cited the Russian strike on an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, which killed at least 44 people, as a sign that Russia is planning to turn the tide of the war in their favor.

“[The] fact that Russia is preparing a new attempt to seize the initiative in the war, the fact that the nature of hostilities at the front requires new decisions in the defense supply — all this only emphasizes how important it is to coordinate our efforts,” Zelensky said, the New York Times reported.

According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, at least 7,031 civilians have been killed since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022.

The latest tally from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces revealed that about 116,950 Russian military personnel have already died in the conflict.