Welcome to this edition of What about Ukraine?, a newsletter that helps you keep updated about what has been said recently about Ukraine in Ukraine, and in the international media.

The Ukrainian incursion into Russia is widely discussed in European politics and press, and we have selected some critical perspectives on this development. In Italy, Il Corriere questions whether prime minister Giorgia Meloni is truly committed to supporting Ukraine, as she has stated, while Italian politics fiercely debates the legitimacy of the Ukrainian incursion. According to the German Der Spiegel, the alleged involvement of German tanks in the Ukrainian offensive has stirred "emotional unease" within the country, where one of the hot topics in the upcoming state elections is Ukraine.

Apart from events on the battlefield, the leading topic for the Spanish press is that Russian-Spanish national Pavel Rubtsov, who spent 29 months in prison in Poland for spying for the Russian foreign-intelligence agency GRU, was released as part of the recent prisoner exchange. In Hungary, the press will not stop discussing the government's cuts in care for refugees: media outlets have visited shelters in Hungary, where refugees already have limited financial means back home in Ukraine, and are unlikely to manage in Hungary without state-subsidised accommodation.

Integrating as a refugee in another country is not easy, but it may still be less of a change than returning home from the front after years of fighting. This was the experience of Yulia Matvienko, a sniper for the Ukrainian military, former economist, and mother of four children. The Ukrainian article of the week, which is published in English in this newsletter, details how she found a new place in civilian life as a farmer.

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Kornélia Kiss
Editor of this week's edition

At the end of spring 2024, there were 1.2 million military veterans registered in Ukraine. And the current official prognosis states that after the Russo-Ukrainian war ends, this number will rise up to six million. More than half of them will require employment once they are back to civil life.

In order to address the issue of veteran employment, independent Ukrainian media hromadske launched a series of stories of those, who have already settled in a civilian life, either as entrepreneurs or employees. In an article, translated by n-ost this week, journalist Natalia Mazina talks to Yulia Matvienko, a sniper, a veteran, a mother of four and an owner of a farm. 

Matvienko joined the army twice: in 2015 and in 2022. Over these nine years she fought against sexism in the army, overcame the prejudices of her colleagues, and started a farming business twice. To develop her enterprise, she successfully applied for special governmental programs for veterans. Now she actively shares her experience with others. She emphasises:

"The most important thing for a veteran is not psychological help to adapt to a peaceful life, although this is certainly very good and I myself use a psychologist’s services. The most important thing is for a veteran to be able to feed their children. If there are no funds, no specialist will help. When they come back, they need a job or a small business. Benefits or subsidies won’t work. I, for example, don’t use my status as a combat veteran in Zaporizhzhia, where I live."

This piece was originally published by hromadske, an online-media, launched by a group of journalists in 2013 and specialised in field reporting and coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Translated by Natalia Volynets.

Italy

Italian local community and UNHCR stall repatriation of Ukrainian orphans

Fifty-seven Ukrainian children, evacuated from the Berdyansk orphanage in March 2022 and hosted in the Imagna valley, Bergamo, as mentioned in a previous newsletter, will stay in Italy and won't be repatriated on 16 August. The Ukrainian consul had requested repatriation and had obtained the green light from the Italian juvenile court. But the local community protested, arguing that the minors would have been at risk if they had returned. The UNHCR concerns and several requests for international protection presented by the children’s legal guardians brought Italian authorities to a last-minute revoke of the previous decision. (Il Manifesto)

Kyiv’s military incursion in Russia has sparked a polarised debate in Italian politics. Despite minister of defence Guido Crosetto arguing that Italian weapons cannot be used to attack Russia, PM Giorgia Meloni confirmed that the government position, in support of Ukraine, has not changed. According to a piece in Il Corriere, it’s difficult to believe that Meloni’s foreign policy hasn’t changed, considering her distance ideologically from EU leaders such as Macron, Scholz and Von der Leyen, and after the nomination process for the top jobs in the EU did not turn out as Meloni may have hoped (Corriere). Giuseppe Conte, the leader of the opposition populist party M5S, condemned the Ukrainian attack in Russia and the EU’s position that defined it as legitimate, claiming "there’s no intention to commit to peace negotiations". (LaStampa)

Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian student collective ‘Priama Diia’, active since the nineties, has created a broader movement to address social issues and revitalise the student community, an activist explains in an interview in Obct. Despite martial law, the collective have organised protests and cultural events, gathering people with shared ideals, such as free education and anti-discrimination. The group aims to create a new progressive ideology supporting democracy and self-defence against external aggression. (Obct)

Spain

Spy-journalist freed and embraced by Putin 

After 29 months imprisoned in Poland on charges of spying for the GRU, Russian-Spanish national Pablo Gonzalez (whose real name is Pavel Rubtsov) was released. Arrested in Ukraine in February 2022 and detained again four days after the invasion at the Polish border, Gonzalez was part of the recent prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington, the largest since the Cold War. While Russia freed detainees such as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, it received FSB members in return. Vladimir Putin personally greeted the returning group at the plane with hugs. The Spanish government never publicly defended Pavel Rubtsov. (El País)

Official sources confirmed to El Español that the Polish secret services offered Gonzalez/Rubtsov a deal for his release if he confirmed Russian interference in the Catalan independence movement. According to these sources, Gonzalez/Rubtsov was allegedly involved in contacts between members of the Kremlin's military intelligence and the entourage of the then-president of Catalonia. He refused the deal and is now in Moscow, where he plans to remain for the time being, as Spain does not recognise dual nationality with Russia. His Spanish passport was confiscated in Poland. (El Español)

Who is this 42-year-old alleged journalist with a shaved head and thick beard? Gonzalez/Rubtsov is the grandson of a refugee from the Spanish Civil War who grew up in Russia until he was nine years old, before moving with his mother to northern Spain. Specialising in the post-Soviet space, his reporting covered conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and Donbas. It has now come to light that he reported on Russian dissidents such as Ilya Yashin (who was freed in the same exchange) and had an affair with Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015 in Moscow. Gonzalez/Rubtsov allegedly used this relationship to steal information from Zhanna, and monitor her movements. (El Independiente)

Germany 

Upcoming state elections intensifying debate on Ukraine war

In eastern Germany, the upcoming state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia are intensifying debates about the war in Ukraine and creating tensions among candidates. Social democratic (SPD) politician Dietmar Woidke emphasises the need to discuss how to end the war soon, while Thuringia’s left-wing premier Bodo Ramelow has called for "less talk about arms deliveries and more about paths to peace" and suggested a "non-aggression pact" with a post-Putin Russia. Michael Kretschmer, the minister-president of Saxony, supports halting arms supplies to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Mario Voigt, the conservative CDU’s lead candidate in Thuringia, prefers to exclude the Ukraine issue from the election debate. (tagesschau)

The alleged involvement of German tanks in Ukraine’s offensive in Russia has stirred "emotional unease" at home, writes Mathieu von Rohr, head of foreign desk of the weekly Der Spiegel, as he reflects on the culture of public debate in Germany. Over the last two-and-a-half years, German discussions have frequently centred on what Ukraine should not do, rather than on how to provide more effective support, according to the article. "The longer the war lasted and the further Putin escalated, the more problematic this policy of red lines turned out to be," the author says. (Spiegel)

To increase weapon and military equipment production in response to the Russian threat, the German government is exploring greater state involvement in arms companies. Economic minister Robert Habeck and defence minister Boris Pistorius have initiated efforts in this regard, including launching the construction of a new ammunition factory. A new national security and defence industry strategy is being developed to support this shift, though it faces financial and bureaucratic hurdles. The plan includes potential state shares in arms firms, such as Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, and various support measures. The cabinet is expected to decide on the strategy in September. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Hungary

Ukrainian refugees face difficulties due to new restrictions

Hungary has tightened the conditions for care for Ukrainian refugees, as mentioned in our previous newsletter. It will provide accommodation only for people from regions "directly affected by military operations". The journalist of 24.hu spent a day with children from Transcarpathia living in a shelter in Budapest, and found they have settled in school and in their new social environment, while many parents have stable jobs that do not exist in Ukraine. If they lose their housing, their new livelihoods could be at risk (24.hu). Residents of another shelter said that, in this case, they would have no choice but to return home. (Magyar Hang)

Geert Wilders' right-wing Dutch populist party has joined the new European Parliament group, Patriots for Europe, set up by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, but disagreements over Ukraine remain. According to Wilders, "everyone certainly agrees" that the Russian invasion was not legitimate. However, he also told the pro-government media Mandiner that it has been “important to support Ukraine both militarily and politically." The Hungarian government opposes military aid. (Mandiner)

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán used the Hungarian minority community in Ukraine as an "excuse" for visiting Kyiv in July, academic and expert on Ukraine Csilla Fedinec says in an interview with the news portal 444.hu. If the prime minister had announced his trip as a "peace mission", he "could not have gone to Kyiv" according to Fedinec. "Everyone is misunderstanding Viktor Orbán's trip to Kyiv, claiming that good things are starting to happen as a result of it, for example, in terms of language rights," she says. The researcher pointed out that Kyiv's attitude to the minority issue has changed after it was granted EU candidate status. (444.hu)

The Europe-Ukraine Desk curated this newsletter. This week's edition has been composed by our team all over Europe: Marika Ikonomu, Kornelia Kiss, Katarina Kukla, Sarah Lou Lepers, Oksana Mamchenkova, Francesco Martino, Antonina Rybka and Fermin Torrano.
Michael Bird was our proofreader. 

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