The Impact of Russia’s Invasion on European Attitudes

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to numerous casualties, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, forced deportation and a significant fall in output. European countries have played an important role in providing humanitarian, economic and military support to Ukraine. However, we do not know about the consequences of this war for public opinion in Europe. Using the tenth wave of the European Social Survey, this article explores how the Russian invasion has affected the political and social attitudes of people across eight European countries. The overlap between the survey fieldwork in these eight countries and the Russian invasion allows us to recover causal estimates by adopting the ‘Unexpected Event during Survey Design’. We find that the invasion increased support for democracy and the welfare state, reinforced positive views of the European Union and immigration, while it reduced authoritarian attitudes