The latest standard Eurobarometer poll, published on Thursday, almost a year after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, shows that Romanians are the Europeans most opposed to EU aid to Ukraine.

The Eurobarometer shows that EU citizens continue to express their strong solidarity with Ukraine: 91% of respondents agree to the provision of humanitarian aid, while 88% are in favor of accepting people fleeing war into the EU.

Europeans continue to be mostly in favor of a ban on Russian state media (67%) and EU funding for the purchase and supply of military equipment to Ukraine (65%).

The vast majority of EU citizens (84%) agree that the bloc should reduce its dependence on Russian energy sources as soon as possible.

Citizens of EU member states consider high inflation to be one of the two most important problems facing the EU today (32%), followed by the international situation (28%) and energy supply (26%).

Romanians are the most skeptical Europeans about helping Ukraine

Although Ukraine has high percentages at the EU level for the support of European citizens, the Eurobarometer also shows that:

• 25% of Romanians disapprove of the provision of humanitarian aid to Ukrainians affected by the war, which is the highest percentage in the entire EU, significantly inferior to the following two countries: Bulgaria – 15% disapproval and Slovakia – 11%;

• Romanians are also the leaders in disapproval of the reception of war refugees in the EU, with a disapproval rate of 24%, second only to Czech citizens (26%);

• providing financial support to Ukraine is also disapproved by a large part of Romanians: 35%. Higher indicators were recorded only in Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic;

• 67% of Romanians approve and 25% disapprove of EU sanctions against Russia. In this section, the level of disapproval is higher in Slovenia, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Bulgaria;

55% of Romanians approve of EU financing of arms purchases for Ukraine and 36% do not. Nine EU member states have a higher disapproval rate than Romania;

The Eurobarometer survey was conducted from January 12 to February 6, before the scandal related to the dredging of the Bastro Canal by Ukraine.

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• Explanation of Ukraine in the scandal with Romania regarding the dredging of the Bastro canal