Infratest dimap: German majority would rather not send jets to Ukraine

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
17 Feb 15:36
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A new poll finds that the German majority voted that the country should not send military jets to Ukraine.

Bosse, 9, holds a sign at an anti-war demonstration, amid war in Ukraine, in Hamburg, Germany, March 20, 2022 (Reuters).

The German political research firm, Infratest dimap, revealed that roughly 64% of the 1,216 German survey participants oppose the prospective sale of military jets to Ukraine, while just 23% support it.

According to the poll, which was conducted on February 14 and ended on the 15 of the same month, 13% of respondents found it difficult to answer the question.

In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended an EU parliament meeting and a regular EU summit of the heads of state as a last-minute guest.

His trip to Brussels came following a short European tour to the UK and France on February 8 and 9, where he was lobbying for more weapons and garnering support for his request from the 27-bloc member states to supply his country with lighter jets and long-range missiles.

In an address to the MEPs, Zelensky said that "we are defending against the most anti-European force of the modern world -- we are defending ourselves, we Ukrainians on the battlefield, along with you," as he urged for more advanced systems.

On February 12, Former British army intelligence officer Philip Ingram told Newsweek, on that topic, that these calls came after the Ukrainian President upgraded his land forces' capabilities.

"To properly support land manoeuver operations, he needs the ability to generate at least local air superiority, a protective air bubble around attacking land forces," Ingram said.

Marcel Van Herpen, director of the Dutch think tank the Cicero Foundation, in similar vein, told Newsweek that "for Zelensky, there was an urgency" for fighter jets, especially with the nearing anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.

Herpen claimed that "February 24 is for the Kremlin a symbolic date, the start of last year's failed blitzkrieg."

In his opinion, "Zelensky doesn't want the Kremlin to repair this debacle, but to let them repeat this debacle," and in case the Russians do make such a decision, Herpen said, Zelensky will need fighter jets "because these may be a decisive factor for what happens on the ground."

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