Poles' Readiness to Accept Ukrainian Refugees Drops 21 Percentage Points After March High

WARSAW (Sputnik) - The majority of Poles - 67% - are still ready to accept refugees from Ukraine, but that figure is down 21 percentage points since its record high in March, according to an Openfield research group survey released on Thursday.

The research group conducted the first survey on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, to determine Poles' attitudes toward the expected wave of refugees. To date, five such surveys have been conducted.

According to this week's poll, 67% of Poles agree to accept refugees, while in previous surveys, the percentage of those who welcome migrants was higher, namely 72% in February, 88% in March, 79% in May and 71% in October.

The number of Polish residents confident that Kiev can stand up to Russia is also declining, at nearly 37%, down from over 43% in fall of 2022, the poll showed.

Over 60% of Poles believe that refugees receive more assistance and benefits from the government than citizens, up from nearly 56% in October 2022, according to the poll.

Every third Pole had no contact with a Ukrainian citizen before the Russian military operation, while now only 6.4% had no contact with Ukrainian refugees, the survey showed.

At the same time, interest in regularly following news about events in Ukraine is decreasing in Poland. If after the start of the military conflict 85% of respondents said they were interested in this information, now this figure has dropped to 52%, the poll showed.

The poll was conducted on February 14 and surveyed 1,677 people.

Almost 10 million people have crossed the border from Ukraine to Poland since Russia's military operation began on February 24. 2022. About 1.5 million of them currently remain in Poland.