Roughly two-thirds of the French favor maintaining or increasing aid to Ukraine and sending peacekeepers after the end of hostilities, BFM TV reported on March 4, citing a survey by the Elabe Institute.
Many European leaders have reiterated their ongoing support for Ukraine amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for a swift deal to end the war.
Still, some allies in Europe fear that they will have to shoulder the economic and security burdens of Ukraine’s post-war recovery as the U.S. and Russia exclude them from talks on ending the war.
Some 64% of respondents want France to continue providing assistance to Ukraine. Meanwhile, 20% of respondents believe that the amount of aid must be increased, and 44% think that it should be at the same level as it is now, according to the survey.
Another 18% of respondents believe support must be reduced, and 17% say it should be terminated.
Voters of the pro-Macron centrist coalition Ensemble, as well as the left-wing New Popular Front, are in favor of continued aid, while voters of the right-wing National Rally (FN) mostly want it reduced or terminated, BFM TV reported.
France has allocated around 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine as of December 2024, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said. This included Caesar howitzers, AMX-10RC armored vehicles, and Mirage 2000 jets.
While ranking high in overall support, France has allocated a smaller portion of its GDP to support Ukraine than some smaller European nations, like the Netherlands, Denmark, or the Baltic countries.
Though the share of those who want to continue supporting Ukraine has been growing since June 2024, three out of four respondents say they are not ready to pay more taxes for this purpose. Only 24% say they are ready to contribute.
Around 68% of respondents opposed deploying French soldiers to Ukraine while the hostilities are ongoing. At the same time, 67% support sending peacekeeping troops after the signing of a peace agreement with Moscow to guarantee security and peace in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been spearheading the idea of deploying peacekeeping troops to Ukraine to monitor a ceasefire.
Regarding NATO, 40% of respondents favored Ukraine’s accession after the war, and 30% now. Some 35% of respondents favored Ukraine joining the European Union after the war, and 31% favored it now.
While President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine’s preferred postwar security guarantee is NATO membership, the U.S. leadership has severely undercut that aim in the past few days.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during the Ramstein summit on Feb. 12 that Ukraine’s NATO membership was not a “realistic outcome” of peace negotiations. He also said that a return to the country’s pre-2014 borders was “an unrealistic objective.”
‘I received an important letter from President Zelensky’ — Trump says Ukraine, Russia ready to end war
Trump said in his address to Congress that he “appreciate(s)” Zelensky’s recent statements expressing Ukraine’s readiness for peace, but did not say whether or not the U.S. would resume weapons deliveries.
