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

The world’s attention has moved to Israel and Gaza this week. Hundreds of people have been killed after Hamas launched a violent attack on Israel this Saturday, and Israel has responded with a heavy offensive on Gaza, giving a new turn in the Israel-Gaza war. Though this has overshadowed the presence of Ukraine in the news of the western world, the Europe-Ukraine Desk has gathered news for you in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary, which you might want to catch up with.

We also feature an article published in Ukrainian by Babel, that follows the people who cross the one and only existing check-point between Ukraine and Russia, in the north-west Sumy region. The Europe-Ukraine Desk has translated this article into English, so you can get a glimpse of how Ukrainian media tackled this topic.

Also, big news: we have launched a new round of applications to our 2024 fellowship program! More information is included at the end of this newsletter, if you’re interested in joining us for a trip to Ukraine (and more). 

Sarah-Lou Lepers
Editor of this week's edition

France

President Zelensky speaks on French national TV about Israel and Gaza 

President Zelensky was interviewed live on Tuesday evening on French National TV. This was one of his first TV appearances in the EU media since Hamas launched its attacks in Israel on 7 October: "We have every indication that Russia is helping terrorist operations to take place. It's not the first time, it did it in Syria, it did it in Ukraine," he said. He also thanked France for its support, called President Macron a “strong and powerful ally of Ukraine”, and used his first name “Emmanuel”. (France 2)

Has Olena Zelenska, President’s Zelensky wife, a Russian passport? France 24’s fact-checking team, The Observers, dedicated a long and detailed paper on debunking this information shared by many Russian and pro-Russian accounts on X (former Twitter). Analysing a picture of this alleged passport they explain why they think it is inauthentic, and link it to another piece of alleged news about Zelenska having an Israeli passport. (France 24)

Novelist Marc Levy's next book, The Symphony of Monsters, tells the story of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia, and is to be published on 17 October. Based on cases being investigated in Ukraine, the novel will be translated into Russian, and shared for free online. Levy is one of France’s bestselling authors, and wants to fight censorship in Russia, where he has a big audience: “If popular writers had been writing about Nazism as early as 1933, some Germans might have seen things differently,” he said. (Le Monde)

Germany 

Who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? German journalists investigate

Late September, a team of journalists from Die Zeit, ARD and Süddeutsche Zeitung published an investigation tracing the responsibilities for damaging Nord Stream pipelines to Ukraine. According to this investigation, a Polish company with Ukrainian owners rented a sailboat, which was used to conduct the secret operation. The hypothesis that Ukraine is behind the sabotage could have an impact on diplomatic relations between Kyiv and Berlin. (Die Zeit)

As a reminder, explosions damaged the Nord Stream pipelines one year ago on 26 September, halting the controversial project that has been described as a symbol of Germany’s failed East European policy. (MDR)

Other hypotheses for these explosions have also been investigated, some of them demonstrating the involvement of Russia and even the USA. In September, Deutschlandfunk published an overview of all three versions and their media coverage. (Deutschlandfunk)

A piece in the news magazine Der Spiegel shared information about alleged perpetrators, revealed by Polish intelligence. The Polish secret services have identified the crew of the yacht as Russians. (Der Spiegel)

Spain

EU summit puts Ukraine membership on table, with caveats

Last week, the European Political Community (EPC) gathered 50 leaders, both EU and aspirants, in the Spanish city of Granada. The question of the accession of Ukraine was on the table. Beyond all the usual caveats to hypothetical Ukraine’s EU membership, there is still one big problem that the EU needs to fix by itself: the reform of the Union’s decision-making process and the unanimity principle. (El Confidencial)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the dispatch of six new anti-aircraft missile launchers, during this EU summit (El País). The same aid was promised in autumn last year, in an attempt to boost Ukrainian defences for the winter Russian attack campaign against energy infrastructure. (El Español)

In this Eurocentric week in Spain, El Mundo prepared a field report about two Ukrainian worlds. One is already living "the European dream", represented by cities like Lviv and Kyiv, and another, rural, is anchored in the Soviet world, which will find it hard to fit into the EU. (El Mundo)

Italy

The Great Cold in Italy, and Western democracies, where ideals are increasingly fragile 

A piece by La Repubblica, The Great Cold looming over Kyiv, shares an analysis of the disintegration of democracy in Italy and Western countries in general. These countries took the side of Ukraine not only for humanitarian reasons, but also because they perceived that their part of the world was indirectly affected by the war. According to the author, former editor-in-chief Ezio Mauro, Western democracies have realised the foundations of their ideals are fragile, and democracy is evolving into populism. Mauro underlines that most Italian political parties’ positions towards Ukraine, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, remain on the surface and don’t have strong roots. (La Repubblica)

This challenge of democracies’ endurance in the face of their own contradictions is also the topic of an editorial by the analyst Francesco Strazzari on the newspaper Il Manifesto. It says war is not close to an end, and savages western democracies: “Those who strive for peace will have to continue to defend the distinction, threatened by a constant propaganda campaign, between pursuing the logic of war and surrendering to the purposes of the most ruthless side.” (il manifesto)

Due to the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine is one of the most mined countries in the world, as depicted in Italian correspondent Ilario Piagnarelli’s last report. He followed deminers in Ukraine, helping secure watercourses and seas. Piagnarelli tells the story of the first woman scuba diver and bomb disposal engineer, who retrieves mines, unexploded bullets and cluster bombs. (Rai News 24)

How to photograph war? An interview with the Italian photojournalist Alessio Romenzi, reveals the risks photographers have to take, and the ethical decisions they have to make. He also adds that in this war, drones are the real innovation, and have allowed us to see the war close-up. (Podcast on Il Post)

The Italian photographer Alessandro Pavone won an Emmy award for a report from Ukraine. (La Repubblica)

Bulgaria

Bulgaria: president Radev is against sending weapons to Ukraine

Despite the Bulgarian government's recent decision to support Ukraine militarily, political forces in the country remain divided on the issue. Among those opposing the move is President Rumen Radev. “Sending weapons does not lead to the resolution of the conflict,” said Radev during a recent visit to Portugal. According to the Bulgarian president “only a new balance of military, economic and diplomatic measures" can lead to peace in Ukraine. (Sega)

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine keeps feeding fake news to Bulgarians online. Lately, numerous Facebook posts accused the Ministry of Defence of keeping routine communication with reservists, in link with an alleged general mobilisation, in relation to the conflict in Ukraine. The fact-checking team of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) debunked these allegations in a detailed article. (BNR)

The navies of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey will join forces to clear the waters of the Black Sea from mines deployed since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The operation could begin as early as next month. The initiative, not part of official NATO activities, marks the strengthening of the collaboration between the three countries, who are strongly interested in maintaining free and safe navigation in the Black Sea. (Bloomberg TV - Bulgaria)

According to the government website "Bulgaria for Ukraine", cited by the online newspaper Dnevnik, in September the number of Ukrainian refugees who registered at least temporarily in Bulgaria reached 170,000. Of these, around 55,000 live in the country today. In relative terms, Bulgaria is one of the EU countries that hosts the most Ukrainian citizens: 26.5 for every 1,000 Bulgarians. (Dnevnik)

Hungary

Hungary: Ukrainian grain imports remain a hot topic

In the past months, Hungary has threatened to veto EU funds to Ukraine. However, an analysis by Hungarian media explains the background of the Hungarian veto, and warns that other countries have already found ways to get around a hypothetical Hungarian veto. Money may pass through an intergovernmental agreement that Hungary cannot veto, rather than being processed as an EU payment, which Hungary could veto. (Válasz Online) 

An article by the online newspaper Merce explains that the Hungarian government has cut back on accommodation subsidies for refugees from Ukraine. Housing for refugees in Hungary is subsidised only through the employer, with rare exceptions. It is probably the government's intention to push refugees towards the labour market. However, access to this could be hampered by a number of difficulties, explains the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Those Ukrainian refugees who remained in Hungary are often Hungarian Roma from Transcarpathia, who also may face discrimination. (Mérce)

Ukraine has suspended its complaint against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia for blocking the imports of Ukrainian grain. It had been filed a few weeks ago at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), but the Ukrainians decided they would prefer to find a compromise. (Interfax Ukraine) 

Nonetheless, Ukrainian grain imports remain a hot topic in the Visegrád countries (Hungary, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia). “Ukrainian grain has devastated the markets,” the President of the National Chamber of Agriculture, Balázs Győrffy, said last week in an interview and called for a common European solution. (Portfolio.hu)

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

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