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In October, the YouTube channel UATV Arabic, part of the State Enterprise “The International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine”, has started the project “War Born Art” (الفن الذي ولدته الحرب), in which viewers from the Arabic-speaking world will be able to see how the instruments of Russian aggression are transformed into works of art in the hands of artists.
“War Born Art” is a series of short videos with artists and designers who use artefacts of war to create, thus demonstrating to the world the resilience and creativity of Ukrainians during the Russian invasion.
“This project is about the life we want to share with the whole world. We aim to show our Arabic-speaking audience that despite the horrors of war, Ukrainians do not lose their love for life, because we are not victims by our nature. We are a people who are able to turn even the most terrible things into beauty,” says Kostiukova Svitlana, head of the international editorial office of the State Enterprise “The International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine”, which includes the YouTube channel “UATV Arabic”.
First in the Arabic adaptation is an episode about the Nesemos project, from which viewers learn how the pieces of Russian planes used to create key chains, pendants or figurines helps to buy pickup trucks for the Ukrainian Defence Forces.
Since August 2024, the project (War-Born Art) has been available on the English-language digital platform of Ukrainian foreign broadcasting The Gaze, where it has already been viewed more than 100 thousand times, 32.9% in Spain, 28.4% in Italy, and 16.6% in Canada. The project ‘War Born Art’ was also launched on the Spanish-language platform UATV Español.
The UATV Arabic YouTube channel presents daily news about Russia’s war against Ukraine and other most resonant events on the Ukrainian agenda, as well as key official statements and messages of the President of Ukraine. 100% of the channel’s views are from abroad. The top countries in terms of views* include Algeria (15.7%), Morocco (11.9%), Iraq (10.6%), Saudi Arabia (7.3%), Egypt (6%). The top five cities include Algeria, Casablanca, Baghdad, Damascus, Jeddah.
In September, the channel started the ‘Editor’s Commentary’ project, authored and hosted by Mykola Bastun, editorial director of UATV Arabic channel and a lecturer of oriental languages. The project allows Arabic-speaking YouTube users to receive timely information about the situation in Ukraine.
“As the invasion began in full scale, many Arab media invited me to comment on the events I was a witness to. Afterwards, I joined the Arabic foreign newsroom to help the team prepare news, taking into account the specifics of the Arabic-speaking world. You have to work with Eastern audiences and tell them the truth about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. No matter how it sounds pathetic, there is an information front and it is important to me that I can use my knowledge to be useful to the country in such difficult times,’ says Bastun Mykola.”
Information: YouTube channel ‘UATV Arabic’ was created in October 2016 as a digital platform for Ukrainian foreign broadcasting, by 2020 the channel received 38 000 subscribers and 4.5 million views. In 2020, ‘UATV Arabic’ became the main Arabic-language resource of the State Enterprise “The International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine” and by 2022 it had grown its audience to 132 000 subscribers and 19.6 million views. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, UATV Arabic became a source of verified information about the Russian aggression against Ukraine in Arabic. Now the number of subscribers of the channel has grown to 201 000 people, the number of views – more than 37 million.
* Data as of 30.09.2024. Data source YouTube Studio UATV Arabic.
