Poll: Romanians say Ukraine will win the war, want NATO troops in Romania

More than 70% of Romanians believe that Russia is to blame for the war in Ukraine, and more than half believe that Ukraine will win, according to an INSCOP poll. 65% of respondents have a good opinion that NATO is sending troops to Romania, up from February. Also, two thirds of those surveyed believe that, by exploiting the Black Sea gas, Romania will no longer be energy dependent on Russia.

Asked who they think will win the war in the neighboring country, 50.3% of respondents believe that Ukraine, 26.1% Russia, and 23.5% do not know or do not answer, according to the survey conducted by INSCOP at the request of New Strategy Center.

87.3% of Romanians agree with the statement: “Russian leaders should be convicted of war crimes in Ukraine”, 7.7% disagree and 4.9% do not know or do not answer.

Only 21.9% of Romanians agree with the statement: “Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to win the war“, while 73.5% do not believe that Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 4.5% do not know or do not answer.

22.7% of Romanians believe that Russia will occupy the Republic of Moldova, while more than two thirds (68.7%) do not agree with this.

The percentage of Romanians who believe that, by exploiting the natural gas resources in the Black Sea, Romania will no longer be dependent on imports from Russia has increased to 66.9% (compared to 53.2% in February 2022). Only 26.7% believe that the gas from the Black Sea will be sold in the West, it will not stay in Romania.

65% of Romanians have a good opinion about the fact that NATO and the USA send more troops to Romania, because they defend us from Russia. It is an increase compared to February 2022, when 59.2% of Romanians shared this opinion. 31.7% have a bad opinion, because they believe that sending NATO and US troops to Romania will upset Russia (down from 35.4% in February 2022).

Asked what they think Romania should do if a NATO state were attacked, 51.2% of Romanians believe that Romania should fulfill its obligations as a NATO member state and help the attacked ally militarily (similar to the situation in February 2022 when 51.1% shared this opinion), 28% believe that Romania should not take part in the war, but should send medical aid and food (compared to 27.7% in February 2022), and 15.9% are opinion that it must remain neutral (compared to 12.2% in February 2022). 3% believe that they should leave NATO (compared to 6.2% in February 2022), while 1.9% do not know or do not answer (compared to 2.8% in February 2022), according to the survey.

Only 14.6% of respondents believe that Romania should leave the European Union, a significant decrease compared to February 2022 when 22.4% were of this opinion, while 83% oppose a Ro-Exit (strongly increasing compared to February 2022 when 74.7% had this opinion), and 2.4% do not know or do not answer.

Also, only 11.9% of respondents (compared to 15.7% in February 2022) believe that Romania should leave NATO, while 86% believe that Romania should remain in NATO (compared to 81.2 50.5% of Romanians believe that the acquisition of advanced weapons in the US helps to strengthen the Romanian Army, the percentage is slightly higher than in February 2022 when 48.5% of Romanians supported this point of view. only with the increase in the profits of arms manufacturers in the opinion of 41.5% of respondents (45% supported this view in February 2022), 8.1% do not know or do not answer (6.5% in February 2022).

The reputation of the Russian army seems to have been seriously damaged by the war in Ukraine, according to the poll. In May 2022, only 32% of Romanians still believe that, “if they wanted, the Russian army would arrive in Bucharest in five days.” In comparison, in February 2022, before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the percentage of those who agreed with this statement was almost double (61.2%). Two-thirds of Romanians (65.7%) do not believe that if they wanted to, the Russian army would arrive in Bucharest in five days (36% disagreed with this statement in February 2022).

And the percentage of those who believe that “Russia defends traditional values ​​in the face of the moral decadence of Western countries” has fallen sharply. Only 24.7% of Romanians still believe this in May 2022 compared to 41.4% in February 2022.

The survey was conducted between May 16-21, 2022 by the CATI method (telephone interviews) on 1100 people.