People of 8 NATO countries against arms aid to Ukraine: Poll

A new survey shows a majority of people in eight NATO member states is against providing the Ukrainian government with military aid amid tensions in the country’s volatile eastern region.

According to the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center and released on Wednesday, a majority of the citizens across the eight countries, particularly in Western Europe, believes that the delivery of lethal weapons to Kiev is wrong.

The poll gathered the public opinion of more than 11,000 people in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom - eight of the 28 NATO member states - as well as Russia and Ukraine.

According to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in 1949, the parties agreed that “an armed attack against one” member state “shall be considered an attack against them all.”

A majority of the respondents to the poll, however, mainly in Germany (58%), France (53%), and Italy (51%), were against upholding Article 5 and rejected involvement of their countries in the military conflict in eastern Ukraine. 

Tensions between Russia and NATO over the crisis in Ukraine run high. Ukraine and Western governments accuse Moscow of supporting pro-Russia forces in the east. The Kremlin denies the allegations of involvement in the crisis.

According to estimates by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has forced some 878,000 Ukrainians to flee the country and has made more than 1.3 million others internally displaced by June 4.

MIS/HSN/GHN

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