A cross country survey in Europe has found that support for a forever war in Ukraine is falling, perhaps not coincidentally given President-Elect Donald Trump telegraphing he expects Europeans to pay a greater share of the bill for their own defence.
Total Ukrainian victory at any cost feeling appears to be waning in Europe, with a YouGov survey this month finding that support for Kyiv “until it wins” against Moscow has steeply declined throughout western Europe, the Guardian reports.
Amid growing realisation that they may soon be on the hook to foot the bill, support for standing by Ukraine until victory, including by extending the war, fell in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.
Meanwhile, the polling agency found that support for a peace settlement, including one in which Russia is granted previous Ukrainian territory — seen as totally unacceptable in Kyiv — rose in every country surveyed.
For example, support for a negotiated peace rose from 45 per cent to 55 per cent in Italy, from 38 per cent to 46 in Spain, 35 per cent to 43 in France, and 38 per cent to 45 per cent in Germany.
While support for a to-the-bitter-end war remained relatively high in Sweden at 50 per cent, Denmark at 40 per cent, and the UK at 36 per cent, support had declined significantly from 57, 51, and 50 per cent, respectively.
The decline in support for the war comes amid growing recognition that the incoming Trump administration will demand that Europeans pay for their own defence, rather than relying on the American taxpayer to foot the bill.
According to the survey, 62 per cent of Germans, 60 per cent of Spaniards, 56 per cent of Britons, 52 per cent of French, and 48 per cent of Italians believe that Trump would cut American aid to Ukraine, meaning that Europeans would have to pay up if they wish to keep Kyiv int he fight.
An early adopter of this perspective was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Last year, he warned that a right-ward shift in the United States could leave Europe alone in funding the war, which given its own economic problems, it can ill afford to do.
Orbán, has been perhaps the chief supporter in the EU of Donald Trump’s peace efforts and bringing about the end of the war, although this has opened him to accusations of being a crypto-Putinist.
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