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.

Landmines are a direct threat to civilian populations in Ukraine, but not only on the frontlines or in deoccupied areas. An article from the Ukrainian press translated into English this week interviews the people who live near the border with Belarus, where forests have been mined by Ukraine to prevent an invasion from its neighbour.

Also in this edition, Spain has become the largest buyer of Ukraine’s wheat and corn, while the Hungarian agriculture minister warns that Ukraine’s EU integration is a great challenge for EU countries’ agricultural sector. 

In Germany, the new left-wing populist party BSW may be in a position to form a coalition with centrist parties in state parliaments, despite its opposition to arms deliveries to Ukraine and its advocacy for immediate negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Bulgaria is wondering why it still doesn’t have an ambassador in Kyiv, after two years of failure to fill this post. Finally, France’s nuclear power company Famatome will supply several Slovakian reactors with nuclear fuel using Russian technology, which raises controversy in Germany, where the tech will be installed in one of Framatome’s facilities.

We are still gathering feedback on how to improve this newsletter, so if you have five minutes to answer a few questions, it would mean a lot!

Sarah-Lou Lepers
Editor of this week's edition

According to official data, around a quarter of Ukraine’s territory is potentially contaminated with explosive objects. This number is usually mentioned in regard to deoccupied or frontline regions, such as Kharkiv, Donetsk or Kherson. But this statistics also includes forests along Ukraine’s border with Belarus. Minsk is regularly holding military exercises, including joint ones with Russia or China, and Ukraine considers Belarus could conduct a potential military attack. Therefore, the Ukrainian army has mined its bordering lands.

In a piece translated by n-ost this week, journalist Denys Bulavin goes to the Rivne region, in the northwest Ukraine, which shares a border with Belarus. He discovers how people, whose life depends on selling berries and timber, deal with the not-so-obvious dangers of wartime. He talks to locals in order to figure out if people, living in the remote villages far from war, but close to a potential threat, feel the effects of the conflict, and respect Government restrictions on their former freedoms. Part of his concerns are based on the news that occasionally appears reporting on civilians injured by mines. As one of the local inhabitants, Nadiia, puts it:

"Our people are hardworking, and keep the place in order. Of course, they go berry picking, it’s their means to provide for themselves. I mean, this is hard labour, in the heat like this — and still, they go and do it, disregarding mosquitos and the landmines."

Nadiia notes that the locals even make sure to have ID on them, when going into the woods, and are aware of the places they should never go. This piece was originally published at hromadske, an independent Ukrainian online-media focused on field reporting and investigative journalism.

Translated by Tetiana Evloeva.

Spain

Eighteen years in prison for letter bombs to stop Ukraine aid 

The high court has sentenced a 76-year-old man, Pompeyo Gonzalez, to 18 years in prison for sending letter bombs to Spanish leaders, diplomats and arms groups, protesting against Spain's support for Ukraine. By the end of 2022, former undertaker Gonzalez had sent the envelopes to the Spanish president, the defence minister, an arms company, and the US and Ukrainian ambassadors. Only one letter was opened, injuring a Ukrainian embassy worker. Gonzalez had radicalised himself, and frequently consulted pro-Russian channels. According to the judges, he wanted to "cause a great commotion in Spanish society so that it would exert pressure" on the government to "stop supporting Ukraine." (El Mundo)

Spain has become the largest buyer of Ukrainian wheat and corn, importing more than 12 million tonnes in the 2023-2024 period, analyses the specialised newspaper AgoInformacion. This increase has pushed China, which traditionally held the top spot, into second place. However, Ukraine's production is decreasing. This year, a five percent reduction in cereal production is expected, which marks a nearly 25 percent drop from pre-Russian invasion levels. Industry sources say that "30 percent of the arable area has been lost due to fields being mined and contamination from bombing and missile debris." (AgroInformación)

A friendship between grandmothers Carmen, from Spain, and Valentina, from Ukraine, blossomed due to their shared love of flowers. Despite a 17-year age difference and a language barrier, the two became friends after Valentina and her family fled Ukraine due to the Russian invasion and settled in Spain. El País tells their story from Seville, where Valentina’s family is spending the summer, one year after returning to their hometown of Kryvyi Rih. (El País)

Hungary

Strengthening of Ukraine’s identity "an irreversible process"

Head of the Kharkiv Literary Museum Tetjana Pilipchuk is working in an empty space, after the museum moved all its contents to a safe place. The exhibitions she curates instead process the traumas of the present day. For reporter Szabolcs Vörös, changes in the life of Pilipchuk are also proof that Ukraine's identity has strengthened and this process seems irreversible. Pilipchuk studied Russian literature and discovered her Ukrainian roots in her early twenties. "It's more comfortable to be Ukrainian now than it was before the full-scale invasion, and especially before 2014," she says. Back then she was seen as an ultra-nationalist simply because she spoke Ukrainian. "Now that's impossible," she says. "Ukrainian has become the norm."(Válaszonline)

Ukraine's accession to the EU is a huge challenge for the agricultural sectors of EU countries, Hungarian agriculture minister István Nagy claims in an interview with the pro-government media Mandiner. In his opinion "we will always lose in terms of volume", as Ukrainian agriculture produces many times more than EU member states. Therefore, he says, EU-agriculture has to compete in terms of added value, with high quality, highly manufactured products. "This is how we can keep our market advantage," he argues, "which is necessary for our survival. There is no other way." (Mandiner)

A Ukraine ban on oil transit from Russia to Hungary and the Hungarian government’s reaction is another step in "a decade-long Hungarian-Ukrainian game" of mutual blackmailing, Hvg summarises. Ukraine has imposed a ban on the oil transit from the Russian oil and gas company Lukoil via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary. As long as Ukraine does not lift the ban, Budapest will block the 6.5 billion euro the EU has pledged to its member states as compensation for shipping arms to Ukraine. Hvg points out that the decision is put in a different light by the fact that Hungary had already blocked these payments before. "Bilateral relationships are perhaps most poisoned not by blackmail, but by a complete and spectacular mutual distrust," the analysis says. (Hvg)

Germany 

Coalitions for state parliaments may hinge on Ukraine support 

Left-wing populist party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) will base its coalition decisions on its potential partners' stances on the Ukraine war. Its founder, Sahra Wagenknecht, stated: "We will only join a state government that clearly supports diplomacy and opposes preparing for war." In September, elections will take place for new state parliaments in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. With polling of 15-20 percent, BSW might become an alternative coalition partner for centrist parties who are not willing to join with the right-wing AfD, despite the fact that both BSW and AfD oppose arms deliveries to Ukraine and advocate for immediate negotiations. (Zeit Online)

A promotional event for the 3rd Storm Brigade of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment in Berlin was cancelled at the last minute by the organisers, following significant protests. Several leftist groups and organisations criticised the event, citing the unit’s far right and fascist traditions and alleging that its leader is a neo-Nazi. "We find this display of militarism and fascism intolerable, and it cannot be justified by Putin's invasion of Ukraine," read the calls to protest. The 3rd Storm Brigade posted on Telegram that the event was cancelled due to security concerns. (Berliner Zeitung)

"Almost nobody in Brussels expects Ukraine to regain its lost territories," states Christoph B. Schiltz, Welt correspondent in Brussels, after numerous conversations with anonymous sources. The belief in a Ukrainian victory among diplomats and military representatives has diminished, and a ceasefire now seems increasingly plausible. In Brussels, many believe that the West will not increase its military support for Ukraine to a level that would enable a large-scale counteroffensive, says the report. In the meanwhile, Russia can continue the war due to its capacity to mobilise new reservists and its substantial revenue from oil, gas and coal, despite Western sanctions. (Welt)

Bulgaria

Why is there still no ambassador to Ukraine?

Sofia’s lack of an ambassador in Kyiv for two years, a position of importance given bilateral wartime relations and the presence of a Bulgarian ethnic minority in Ukraine, is under analysis in the Bulgarian press. At the root of the problem is a clash between president Rumen Radev and the current government, which last week tried to force the nomination of former defence minister Nikolay Nenchev. According to reports, a previous candidate, the diplomat Petar Tanev, was rejected by the Ukrainian side, probably because he was married to a Russian citizen. This version was, however, flatly denied by the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia. (Svobodna Evropa)

Bulgarian public television BNT tells the story of David, a young Ukrainian who, together with his family, has found a new home in the village of Aheloy, where he grows roses. David, 27, originally from the Kherson region, fled following the arrival of Russian occupiers. "Our life was peaceful, with the occupation we had to flee to continue living," he says. He brought his passion for Chinese roses to Bulgaria, which he now successfully grows in the country he gratefully calls his "second home". However, his dream remains that of returning to live and grow roses in his homeland. (BNT)

Bulgaria continues to provide military aid to Ukraine. Last week, the defence minister of the caretaker government, Atanas Zapryanov, announced the dispatch of a new package of weapons to Kyiv "to enable Ukraine to defend itself from Russian aggression". The nature of these weapons remains confidential, but it is likely artillery ammunition and possibly anti-aircraft defence systems, explains Mediapool. The Bulgarian government has reiterated its political support for Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO, and announced plans to increase the current defence budget to 2.5 percent. (Mediapool)

France

Two-thirds of Russian athletes under neutral banner "would support war"

As the Paris Olympic Games officially kicked off on 26 July, the European foundation Global Rights Compliance estimates that two-thirds of Russian qualifiers would support Russia in the war against Ukraine, despite the rules imposed by the IOC against this position. The report analysed the social media presence of these athletes, who are supposed to have shown no active support for the war, and have no link with the Russian army in order to allow them to compete. However, ten (out of 15) of them are shown not to have respected the neutrality principle: some liked posts supporting the Russian war in Ukraine, and others have links with institutions related to military or security organisations in Russia. (Libération)

Through a joint venture with Russia's TVEL, France's nuclear equipment company Framatome is to supply several Slovakian reactors with nuclear fuel using Russian technology. The tech is planned to be implemented in one Framatone installation in Germany, where the project has fuelled controversy in recent months. At the end of July, Christian Meyer, the environment minister of Lower Saxony, argued that "we stand by Ukraine and should not do anything that could increase Russia's influence on the European energy sector." (Les Echos)

A rare opinion poll conducted in Russia about its war against Ukraine is analysed  by Le Grand Continent, a French geopolitical review. From the "acceptability" of using nuclear weapons to the final victory over Ukraine, the data from the latest poll by Russian Field provides insight into Russian opinion on the war since February 2022. While the majority of Russians are aligned with the Kremlin, this study - the production of which cannot be detached from the authoritarian context of Putin's Russia - also reveals major disparities in the population’s views. For example, 18 to 29-year-old Russians tend to support less the idea of a second wave of mobilisation (15 percent) than those of 60 years or more (41 percent). (Le Grand Continent)

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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