Are 80-86 percent of Slovaks against sending weapons to Ukraine, as Slovak MP Lubos Blaha suggests? No, that's not true: This is a misleading and manipulative interpretation of data, regarding Slovak public support towards arming Ukraine. Data cited by Denník N, which Lubos Blaha repeatedly and misleadingly quotes, shows a chart from an online sociological survey conducted by the Ipsos agency. According to the survey conducted by Ipsos, respondents were asked how Slovakia should assist Ukraine, with six different options provided. One of the options was sending arms to Ukraine. Participants were allowed to select multiple answers. The survey revealed that 14 percent of the respondents chose to send weapons as one of their preferred options for assisting Ukraine.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok where it was published by @exotickyduch on June 5, 2023, under the title "Blaha is crushing Krupa on TA3." It opened:
If, according to Globsec and Dennik N, 80-86 percent of people refuse the armament of Ukraine, then the 14 percent that want it are in minority.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jun 9 14:40:26 2023 UTC)
The Ipsos poll does not provide specific information on the number of people who oppose sending weapons to Ukraine. This data is not available in the original dataset that Lead Stories had access to and examined. It's important to note that just because 14 percent of people expressed support for sending weapons, it does not necessarily mean that the remaining respondents are strictly against it. Some respondents may have been uncertain about the effectiveness of sending weapons to Ukraine or simply lacked sufficient knowledge on the matter.
Screenshot of the original infographic in Dennik N with translated captions.
Mr. Blaha also refers to the Slovak Think-Tank Globsec for this data, however, the organization did not include a question about supporting the shipment of weapons to Ukraine in their 2023 Trends survey. Therefore, the claim that people are against the armament of Ukraine is fabricated and lacks any factual basis.
