In Italy, a number of opposition citizens called for the arming of Ukraine

Rome, February 24 – The proportion of Italians opposed to sending arms to Ukraine has risen from 42% to 45% since December, according to a poll published Friday by Corriere della Sera newspaper.

According to the study, the percentage of supporters of military supplies decreased from 36% to 34%.

The poll also showed the distribution of opinions of voters from individual parties regarding the Ukrainian crisis. Thus, 55% of the voters of the League, which is part of the ruling coalition, oppose military support. Voters of the Five Star Movement, who are in opposition to the current government, are sticking to the same position. Most of the supporters of sending arms are from the opposition Democratic Party (52%) and Forward, Italy (51%), which, on the contrary, are part of the ruling majority.

Almost half of respondents (49%) expressed concern about the economic consequences of the conflict in Ukraine, in December this figure was 52%. At the same time, the proportion of Italians worried about its “military consequences” rose from 19% to 26%.

46% of Italians supported sanctions against the Russian Federation: in March last year, 55% of respondents shared this position. 38% oppose the imposition of such restrictions, while a year ago this opinion was shared by 31% of the population of Italy.

1,000 respondents over the age of 18 participated in the current survey. The study was conducted from February 21 to 23.

At the end of January, La Stampa newspaper published the results of an opinion poll, according to which 52% of Italians oppose sending new Western weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, the number of opponents of military support for Kiev has increased by several percentage points since mid-December. 68.5% answered in the negative when asked if they supported “NATO’s entry into the Russian-Ukrainian conflict”. A third of respondents (33.9%) considered it necessary to support the Kiev authorities with the help of German Leopard tanks, and 58% expressed their disagreement with such measures.

The Russian Federation had earlier sent a note to NATO countries over the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has indicated that any shipment containing weapons to Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that NATO countries were “playing with fire” by supplying arms to Ukraine. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, noted that the injection of weapons into Ukraine from the West does not contribute to the success of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative impact. Lavrov stated that the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, including not only the supply of weapons, but also the training of personnel in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and other countries.