Despite direct economic consequences, study finds majority of Arabs do not care about Ukraine-Russia war

Despite direct economic consequences, study finds majority of Arabs do not care about Ukraine-Russia war

LONDON: According to an exclusive Arab News-YouGov poll, the majority of people across the Middle East and North Africa do not seem to care very much about the war in Ukraine. Experts, however, say there are plenty of reasons why they should. “It does seem like it is taking place so far away,” said Abeer Etefa, the Cairo-based senior spokeswoman for the UN World Food Programme in the Middle East and North Africa. Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, is more than 3,000 kilometers from Riyadh. “But also, the politics and dynamics of the conflict in Ukraine are far too complicated for a lot of the audiences in this region.” The survey was carried out among 7,835 people across 14 countries in the MENA region between April 26 and May 4. Asked where they stand in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, 18 percent sided with Ukraine, and 16 percent with Russia. But an overwhelming 66 percent of respondents answered with a collective shrug, opting to take “no stance” on the crisis — indifference that peaked in Jordan and Algeria (74 percent) and Saudi Arabia (71 percent). The complexities of European history and politics aside, Richard Gowan, UN director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, sees