Only 17.3% of Poles support including Polish soldiers in potential peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, according to a new SW Research poll for rp.pl.
The survey found 61.1% of respondents opposed Polish participation in any international mission to Ukraine, while 21.6% expressed no opinion on the issue.
The polling comes as international discussions intensify around post-war security guarantees for Ukraine. France and Britain proposed deploying approximately 30,000 peacekeeping troops to Ukraine after the war’s conclusion in early 2025, aimed at preventing renewed Russian aggression.
“Polish presence in a potential peacekeeping mission is opposed somewhat more by men (64%) than women (59%),” said Wiktoria Maruszczak, senior project manager at SW Research. “More often than others, such views are expressed by the youngest respondents (69%) and people from cities with no more than 20,000 inhabitants (70%).”
The concept has since evolved toward smaller reassurance forces that would station away from the demarcation line between Russian and Ukrainian forces, providing logistical and training support to the Ukrainian army. Britain has additionally signaled readiness to deploy fighter jets to protect Ukrainian airspace.
Poland has consistently declared it will not send soldiers to Ukraine, with the Polish government stating that the Polish army’s task is ensuring security of NATO’s eastern flank. However, Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed readiness to provide logistical support for any potential mission over the Dnieper.
Following an 18 August White House summit where Donald Trump announced that Russia agreed to security guarantees for Ukraine, Bloomberg reported that approximately 10 countries are prepared to send soldiers to the Dnipro Oblast. Trump indicated the United States does not intend to deploy troops to Ukraine, though he mentioned in a Fox News interview that the US could provide unspecified “air support” for the entire operation.
Russia consistently rejects the possibility of NATO country troops appearing in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin reportedly presented demands during his meeting with Trump in Alaska that no NATO forces be stationed in Ukraine, alongside requiring Ukrainian withdrawal from still-controlled parts of Donbas and Ukraine’s abandonment of NATO membership aspirations.
Regarding peace guarantees, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested returning to proposals from spring 2022. Moscow then proposed that UN Security Council member countries guarantee Ukraine’s security. Under this scenario, Ukraine would remain a neutral state, and if attacked, all guarantor countries would need unanimous consent to provide military assistance—effectively giving Russia veto power over military aid to Ukraine. Kyiv rejected this proposal.
The SW Research poll found the strongest support for Polish peacekeeping participation among respondents with basic vocational education, at 27%.