Initiate end of war: Majority wants West to initiate negotiations

Six months after the start of the Ukraine war, a third of Germans are willing to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine, even at the expense of the Bundeswehr.

Initiate end of war: Majority wants West to initiate negotiations

Six months after the start of the Ukraine war, a third of Germans are willing to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine, even at the expense of the Bundeswehr. More than two-thirds want the West to actively seek negotiations.

26 percent of Germans are currently of the opinion that the federal government is doing too little to support Ukraine. 43 percent consider the level of support to be just right. 25 percent of those surveyed in the current RTL/ntv trend barometer find that the federal government is doing too much for Ukraine. The latter is what most respondents in East Germany (40 percent) and above all the supporters of the AfD (84 percent) mean.

Some coalition politicians are calling for Germany to supply Ukraine with more heavy weapons, even if this temporarily leads to shortages in the Bundeswehr, as Germany's security is also being defended in Ukraine. Others speak out against more deliveries of heavy weapons if this leads to bottlenecks in the Bundeswehr. A third of Germans (32 percent) are in favor of supplying more heavy weapons to Ukraine, even if this is at the expense of equipping the Bundeswehr. 62 percent of Germans believe that Germany should not do this.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have called Russian President Vladimir Putin several times in recent weeks about the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, a large majority of 87 percent of Germans - across all electoral groups - find it correct that Western heads of government are speaking to Putin. Only 11 percent think that's wrong.

A large majority of 77 percent also believe that the West should make concrete efforts at this stage to initiate negotiations to end the war. 17 percent think the West should not do that at the moment.

The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL Germany on August 26 and 29, 2022. Database: 1011 respondents. Statistical error tolerance: /- 3 percentage points.

More information about Forsa here

Forsa surveys commissioned by RTL Germany