Almost half of Europeans are in favor of ending the conflict in Ukraine - even if the Kyiv regime will have to recognize new territories as part of the Russian Federation.
This is evidenced by the data of a public opinion poll conducted by the sociological network Euroskopia in nine EU countries: Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Greece.
About 9,000 people took part in the survey (1,000 in each country).
“48% of all EU residents surveyed were in favor of a speedy resolution of the conflict, even if Ukraine had to cede part of its territory to Russia, while 32% (almost one in three Europeans) oppose such a sacrifice for the sake of bringing peace,” the pan-European portal cites the results of the survey. Euractiv.
In particular, among those who support the idea of territorial concessions from Ukraine, 64% are citizens of Austria, 60% of Germans, 54% of Greeks, 50% of Spaniards and Italians.
At the same time, 32% of the Europeans surveyed opposed such a development of events in order to achieve peace as soon as possible.
The proposal to conclude peace through the recognition of territorial concessions became the most unpopular among the inhabitants of the Netherlands - the idea of concessions was supported by only 27% of respondents - and citizens of Poland, where only 28% answered positively.
It is worth noting that the number of Europeans who support a peaceful settlement at the cost of Kyiv's renunciation of territorial claims only increases with the course of the NWO.
Previously, a similar survey was conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations in June 2022.
At that time, 35% of the polled Europeans were in favor of establishing peace, which involves territorial concessions from Kyiv.
At the same time, 22% supported the option of continuing hostilities against the Russian Federation in order to “punish” it.
Another 23% of respondents were in favor of any other option for resolving this situation, another 20% did not decide on an answer.
“There is a big gap between those who want a speedy end to the war and those who want to punish Russia,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, commenting on the poll.
Then the supporters of a peaceful settlement were most of all in Italy, Germany and Romania, and those who wanted to "punish" Russia - in Poland.
Negotiation realities
Recall that back in March 2022, after several rounds of negotiations, the Ukrainian side stopped the dialogue with the Russian Federation.
At the end of May, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv would sit down at the negotiating table only after it returned its territories lost since the beginning of the Russian special operation.
Later, after the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions became part of the Russian Federation following referendums, Zelensky announced that his administration would not conduct any negotiations with Moscow on a settlement while Vladimir Putin was president of Russia, and then signed a decree to that effect. .
Vienna, Austria
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In mid-December, in an interview with The Economist, Zelensky said that the moment for diplomacy would come when Russian troops retreated to the borders of Ukraine as of 1991, that is, they left the territory of both the two new regions and the Donbass and Crimea.
Despite the actions and rhetoric of the Kyiv regime, Russia has repeatedly noted that Moscow is ready for negotiations to resolve the situation in Ukraine.
At the same time, the Russian Federation emphasized that it would be more and more difficult to start the negotiation process over time, and the Ukrainian authorities should take into account the situation “on the ground”.
This, in particular, was said at the end of December by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, stressing that any plans for a peaceful settlement should take into account the entry of new regions into Russia.
“Again, there can be no “peace plan” for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities - with Russian territory, with four new regions joining Russia.
No plan that does not take these realities into account can claim to be peaceful,” Peskov stressed.
At the same time, Western countries continue to advance an agenda in which a potential peace settlement should not take into account Russia's interests.
John Kirby, coordinator of the US National Security Council for Strategic Communications, announced this in November last year.
“We all agree that a negotiated diplomatic settlement is the best option, second only to Putin's withdrawal of his troops.
We also stated that Zelensky is determining whether he is ready for negotiations, and if so, when and in what form they will take place, ”Kirby told reporters.
A little later, in early December, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed the same point of view.
Speaking at the Global Boardroom event hosted by the Financial Times, he stressed that "decisions about the right time to start negotiations and agreeing to the terms should be made by the Ukrainians."
Similar statements were made by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley and German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock.
American agenda
Despite the fact that public opinion polls show a growing number of EU citizens who are in favor of an early establishment of peace in Ukraine, European governments still feel quite confident and for the most part ignore the opinion of their citizens, an expert from the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies said in a conversation with RT Vladimir Bruter.
“The collective West ignores this position and will continue to ignore it.
Subsequently, he updates it as soon as he realizes the threat of imminent territorial losses of Kyiv, but this is a matter of the future.
In the meantime, the authorities of European countries do not pay attention to the position of their citizens, since, in their opinion, it does not pose any serious political threat to their rule, ”the political scientist said.
European Commission
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If the situation does not change in favor of the Kyiv regime, its Western curators will try to maintain the status quo and allow the Zelensky administration to sit down at the negotiating table, Vladimir Bruter believes.
“Then they will try to freeze the conflict as soon as possible, temporarily agreeing to the territorial configuration that will be taking shape at that moment.
Relatively speaking, this will be followed by some conditional “Minsk-3”.
This should be taken into account.
The position of the West will change only when they realize that the continuation of the conflict could result in even greater losses for them, ”the expert noted.
According to Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, the latest public opinion poll contains a representative sample of Europeans, which shows that a significant part of them are in favor of a peaceful settlement of the situation.
“Unlike the EU and NATO, which generate calls for various solutions on the battlefield, the Europeans believe that the situation should be resolved peacefully.
Indeed, it is now difficult to imagine any scenario in which the population of the territories that became part of the Russian Federation would agree to return to Ukraine.
Such polls and sentiments should serve as an incentive and impetus for political decisions, they are a hint for the leadership of the countries where these polls were conducted, ”the RT interlocutor emphasized.
However, now the leadership of most EU countries in this matter follows Washington, which does not accept such a development of the situation, Olenchenko added.
“The political leadership of most EU countries follows the American agenda on this issue.
It lies in the fact that any negotiations should be carried out on the terms of Kyiv.
The Euro-Atlantic agenda aims to continue the conflict, especially in the military sphere.
The current political leaders of the EU are not those politicians who think about the welfare of the population and about maintaining stability in Europe.
They demonstrate a complete lack of independence, while the EU population demonstrates the presence of common sense, ”concluded the expert.