Most Poles fear Ukraine war threatens Poland's security - poll

A majority of Poles believe that the war in Ukraine could spill over into Poland, a new survey has found.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, attacking its neighbour from three sides with overwhelming military forces. What was likely planned to be a swift military operation aimed to topple the government has turned into a more prolonged conflict, with thousands of casualties on both sides and the number of refugees exceeding two million, most of them heading towards the Polish border.

The level of fear related to the war in Ukraine is very high amongst Poles, according to the CBOS poll whose results were published on Tuesday,

As many as 85 percent of respondents admitted they were concerned about the threat the war in Ukraine posed to the security of Poland and only 11 percent did not have such fear while 4 percent had no opinion on the matter.

At the same time, 88 percent admitted they were closely following events in Ukraine and 12 percent said they were not.

About 90 percent of Poles believe that Ukraine should be given financial aid, as well as military equipment and weapons, the survey found.

Asked by CBOS whether they provide Ukrainians with some material or financial assistance, 68 percent declared they did while 32 percent denied such help.

Some 57 percent also said that they avoided buying Russian products against 43 percent who did not.

The CBOS poll also found that 77 percent of Poles were concerned that Russia might use nuclear weapons against Ukraine whereas 17 percent did not fear such a scenario.

At the same time, 65 percent Poles were worried about the use of nuclear weapons by Russia against their country.

CBOS ran the mixed-mode survey on February 28 - March 10 on a random group of 1,078 Poles.