Escalation of the War in Ukraine as a Factor Determining a Sense of Threat to Poland’s Security in the Eyes of Public Opinion

Abstract

The hybrid war which began in 2014 with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine became a turning point for the assessment of the threat to Poland’s security. Its con sequences, with the annexation of Crimea and the seisure of south-eastern Ukraine, and then the escalation of the conflict into a full-scale war, had a fundamental impact on the involvement of Poles in helping Ukraine. The aim of the article is to show the evolution of Poles’ opinions regarding Poland’s security and the related support for Ukraine as a result of the escalation of the war in 2014 and 2022. It was assumed as a hypothesis that Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine, which increased a sense of threat to Poland’s security among Poles, translated into increased public support for tightening restrictions in relations with Russia and deepening assistance to Ukraine. As part of the research analysis, the following methods were used: descriptive, comparative and the analysis of exisiting data.