In war of narratives, where does Southeast Asia stand in Ukraine-Russia conflict?

Surveys suggest Southeast Asians are largely ambivalent and perceive the war as a ‘distant’ conflict, even as it’s driving up the costs of living

While most governments in the region will ‘avoid becoming entangled’, analysts say pressure will be placed on those officials heading to the polls

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Ukrainian military recruits take part in a trench training in the UK. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 11:00am, 18 Feb 2023Updated: 1:52pm, 18 Feb 2023

When Malaysian Lee Thiam Hong first heard about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, he thought the Kremlin’s “special military operation” would end in about a month, just as swiftly as it did in 2014 when Moscow occupied Crimea.

But one year later there is no end in sight to the battle that has caused prices of commodities and food items to shoot up around the world, including in Lee’s hometown of Kuala Lumpur.

“Everything costs more now, chicken, vegetables, even roti canai,” said the 39-year-old IT manager, referring to the popular Indian flatbread dish found throughout Southeast Asia.

But even so, Lee said there was little his country or Southeast Asia could have done to prevent or help bring an end to the fighting as “it is a war involving Russia, the United States, and Nato”.

The kind of ambivalence about the war described by Lee is not uncommon across Southeast Asia, prominent regional diplomatic observers told This Week in Asia ahead of the conflict’s first anniversary.

While a consensus view is that Moscow breached international law with its offensive, any support for Ukraine is tempered by the belief that the war is distant, experts say, and such views have largely remained unchanged since fighting began on February 24, 2022.