Over nine in ten people in Malta are worried about the war in Ukraine and its potentially devastating impact on the continent, a new Eurobarometer survey has found. 

The flash survey, which was conducted among 26,066 between 13th April and 20th April, revealed some interesting details on the way Europeans, including Maltese, are feeling over developments of the war and ensuing crisis. 

According to the results, Maltese people are overwhelmingly sympathetic to Ukrainians (96%), with almost 99% saying that it supports providing humanitarian support to people affected by the war, with 95% saying that it approves of welcoming those fleeing the country. 

Malta regularly tops the list of EU countries when it comes to supporting Ukrainians, but it’s clear that the country’s status as an island is leading to concerns among people over supply, particularly when it comes to energy. 

Almost 96% said that measures should be taken to impact rising energy prices, with a further 94% saying they believed that gas storage ahead of potential shortages should be a priority. 

Still, it seems that Maltese are only willing to turn off lights when they leave a room (85%) or buy energy-efficient equipment (70%) to deal with the rising prices. 

It’s clear that a large majority support shifting away from Russian gas, but interestingly over 90% said that the current situation should be the perfect opportunity to start the shift towards renewable resources. 

Maltese respondents have also put the blame for the crisis squarely on Russia (85%), with the same figure supporting all of the EU’s current sanctions. Still, almost 89% said that there should be a clear distinction between the Russian leadership and the Russia people. 

This figure runs completely contrary to the sentiment recorded on border countries like Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia which scored in the 60% range.

On the other hand, almost 60% are happy with the EU’s actions during the crisis, but still almost 36% said they were not satisfied with the bloc’s performance so far. Conversely, almost 50% of Maltese people are not satisfied with the role of the United States. 

When it comes to the future, Maltese respondents overwhelmingly said that they consider Ukrainians as European (77%) and that the country should join the EU when ready (77%).

The survey also gave some insight into how people in Malta consume international media. Close to 75% said they trust the information they received from news sources, dwarfing the figure recorded for social media. 

What do you think of the figures?