The Opinions of Poles about the Need to Provide Humanitarian Aid to Refugees from the Area Covered by the Russian–Ukrainian War

Abstract

The armed conflict in Ukraine has caused a lot of emotions around the world. Many countries have been involved in helping brutally attacked people, especially mothers and children. The versatile involvement of large powers is monitored and noticeable by the media. Active help from Poland is a very visible sign of human solidarity with the suffering Ukrainian nation. Open hearts, houses and institutions and humanitarian and medical aid are elements of Polish kindness and empathy. The aim of the research was to collect Poles’ opinions about the need to provide humanitarian aid to Ukrainians from the territories of the Russian–Ukrainian war. Capturing feelings of Poles towards Ukrainians during the war is an interesting issue that shows subjective opinions about the existential situation perceived in the space of mutual personal interactions. The results showing opinions on help were collected from a group of 1012 people throughout Poland with the help of an authorial questionnaire. The obtained data shows a positive attitude of Poles to Ukrainians. The most willing to help are people over 49 years old, more often with a good and very good financial situation. Respondents believe that general assistance from other countries and the European Parliament is not sufficient. Military support is accepted the most by the oldest participants of research, and less by the age group up to 30 years who support medical help more. More concerned about the ongoing conflict are respondents under the age of 30 and the least wealthy, including, more often, women. The richest respondents are least afraid of the effects of the ongoing Russian–Ukrainian conflict. The conducted research confirms the openness of Polish society to refugees and brings opinions about existential solidarity with the suffering Ukrainian nation.

Whether a religious group membership is shared and salient influences perceived similarity, political support, and helping intention toward refugees, but not charitable donation

“…Even fewer studies have approached this topic in a specific context, scrutinizing pre‐existing samples' responses towards a specific group of refugee targets. As exceptions, for instance, Karakiewicz‐Krawczyk et al (2022) surveyed Polish people's opinions on helping Ukrainian refugees while Albayrak‐Aydemir and Gleibs (2021) explored British and German people's levels of global bystander intervention for Syrian refugees. Hence, the present research makes a major contribution to research on helping refugees by examining different pre‐existing groups' helping responses to different groups or pre‐existing refugee targets.…”

Refugee Health: A Global and Multidisciplinary Challenge

“…Although Ukrainian refugees are well accepted by host governmental institutions and volunteers and treated with compassion, they still need a better organized humanitarian aid. 1 2 The adult refugees are in a dire need for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations and boosters while children require age-related vaccinations against measles, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. 3 4 …”