Ljubljana - The Slovenian public see the war in Ukraine as a much bigger cause for concern than they did Covid-19 at any time of the pandemic, a poll released by Valicon suggests.

The poll puts the rate of people being personally concerned about the war and its impact at 85, which compares to the high of 72 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rate is the difference in the proportions of those who are very concerned or concerned on the one hand and those who are less concerned or not concerned at all.

Similarly, the rate of pessimism, that is the expectation of whether developments related to the conflict can turn for the worse or better, is at -83, which compares -82 at the height of the pandemic.

The survey has also been conducted in other countries in the region with Valicon finding a similar pattern elsewhere.

The results show only respondents in Croatia are more worried than Slovenians with the rate of concern at 85 and the rate of pessimism at -84 there, which compares to 78 and -82 during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, there are greater differences when it comes to whom the public blame for the war.

In Slovenia, Russia was named as the main culprit by 71% of those questioned as 37% pointed their finger at the US and 22% at NATO, 17% blamed Ukraine and 11% the EU. Several answers were possible.

While similar results were observed in Croatia, the blame was distributed more evenly in the eyes of the public in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the picture was completely reversed in Serbia where 60% blamed the US and 51% NATO.

As some of the biggest causes for concern, respondents in Slovenia see the possibility of the war spreading beyond Ukraine (20%), its proximity (13%), the risk of radiation from nuclear arms or damaged reactors (13%), rising food prices (12%) and additional energy price hikes (11%).

The survey was conducted as part of Valicon's #Novanormalnost (#Newnormal) series of polls based on a web pool of respondents. It questioned 517 people in each Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 505 in Serbia and 535 in Croatia between 4 and 6 March.