Cultural or Economic? How Parties Shape the Political Meaning of the Ukraine War

As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, EU military support for Ukraine remains politically divisive. While elite-level opposition to Ukraine assistance mainly comes from radical right parties—and in some countries from the radical left— less is known about how these ideological divides manifest at the citizen-level. This matters because the war involves both identity-related and redistributive concerns. I argue that whether citizens interpret the Ukraine issue through the cultural or class cleavage depends on which party family leads the opposition to Ukraine. Where radical right parties oppose support, mass-level opposition to Ukraine assistance is linked to culturally right-wing attitudes; where radical left parties are more critical, opposition is linked to economically left-wing beliefs. Using data from the 2024 European Election Study and the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, a multilevel CFA supports the crucial role political parties play in shaping whether citizens perceive Ukraine assistance in cultural or economic terms.