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.

Two weeks before European Parliamentary elections, the topic of Ukraine is at the centre of attention, and has become a divisive topic in national and European politics. It is especially true in Bulgaria, which will see both national and European elections on 9 June, and where major parties don’t agree on how to support Ukraine, in the face of Russian aggression. The same is true in Italy, where the investigative media Pagella dedicated a detailed article to the positions on the topic of Ukraine of all Italian parties running for EU elections. 

The German foreign minister has visited Kyiv, while Germany is considering increasing its support to Ukraine. Hungary is tracking down media who share Russian propaganda. Spanish political parties pointed at a ship carrying weapons they believed were destined for Israel, but an investigation revealed it was in fact for Ukraine. And France’s President wants the EU to open a discussion about nuclear deterrence.

Also in this edition, the Europe-Ukraine Desk has translated an interview into English with this year’s winner of the prestigious Ukrainian journalism award, the Georgiy Gongadze Prize, Tetiana Troshchynska, producer and host for national TV and radio programmes. The interviewer received the prize, usually awarded to reporters, for the subtlety in the way she conducts her work on sensitive and traumatic topics. 

Have a good read.

Sarah-Lou Lepers
Editor of this week's edition

Each year on 21 May, the winner is announced of the the Georgiy Gongadze Prize, a prestigious award for Ukrainian journalists. This time Tetiana Troshchynska, producer of the socio-political talk show New Countdown, radio host at the public radio Kultura, won the accolade. Unlike some of the previous year's recipients of the prize, she doesn’t work on the frontline, but she excels in working with sensitive topics such as trauma and loss.

Among the recent works of Troshcynska is a podcast Love does not pass. She dedicated this work to the topic of lost loved ones. In 2023, her 18-year old son died from a sudden and rapidly developing cancer. Since that time, she discovered how the topic of loss and grief is still taboo in Ukrainian society, despite the ongoing experience of war.

In this podcast she shares some of her personal stories alongside conversations with different experts, mostly psychologists, who help to explain every aspect of grief.

In an interview translated by n-ost this week, she shares about living through loss, as well as other issues and challenges of journalism in wartime. Troshchynsk says:

"This topic of grief is taboo in a country that has been at war for ten years, and for two years in this hot phase. We walk the streets, take the subway, a trolley bus, or a minibus, or stand in a shopping queue, having no idea about the losses that people around us might have suffered. Their grief is not marked on their foreheads. That's why I started to talk about this."

This piece was originally published by NV, an independent Ukrainian online-media, that covers domestic and foreign affairs.

Translated by Olesia Storozhuk.

Bulgaria

President: "Elections are a choice between peace and war"

"In the coming elections, we will choose between peace and war," Bulgarian President Rumen Radev recently stated in an interview on the significance of the parliamentary and European elections awaiting Bulgaria on 9 June. For Radev, accused by his political opponents of being pro-Russian, "it is unacceptable that the continuation of the war and an impossible victory against Russia are presented as the only possible ways out". Commenting on the assassination attempt on Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico, Radev added: "Today every voice outside the chorus is presented as 'pro-Russian', this is unfair and dangerous." (Mediapool)

With the electoral campaign for both national and EU elections underway, Sofia's plan to sell nuclear technology to Ukraine has become a field of political conflict. Last week, activists from the Vazrazhdane party - who supports ending sanctions against Russia and pushing for friendly relations with Moscow - tried to block the access of Ukrainian specialists to Bulgaria’s unfinished nuclear facility, Belene. They had come to inspect the site and equipment, which Sofia should be transferring to the Khmel'nytsky plant in Ukraine. According to Vazrazhdane activists, the equipment is about to be sold off at a cheap rate. The Bulgarian parliament has set the minimum price at around 600 million dollars. (Sega)

Bulgarian prime minister Dimitar Glavchev has confirmed Bulgaria's presence at the Ukraine peace talks scheduled for mid-June in Switzerland. The meeting, in which at least 50 countries will take part, should define a road map on the principles outlined by Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky's "formula for peace" initiative. In this framework, Bulgaria is engaged in energy security, ecological security and justice. Despite the endemic political instability that continues to affect the country, Glavchev argued that Bulgaria will continue to staunchly support the Ukrainian cause. (Trud)

France

Towards a European doctrine of nuclear deterrence?

Discussions on nuclear deterrence have intensified with the Kremlin's threat against Europe, since the start of full-scale invasion of Ukraine. France is the only EU member state to directly own nuclear weapons, while other countries rely on NATO. At the end of April, Emmanuel Macron offered to start a discussion to better integrate this deterrence into the EU’s defence structure "not to share the French deterrence," explains the article, "but to remind [EU partners] that it exists and wake them all up." France and NATO don’t share the same military doctrine, as France’s doctrine is for retaliation that causes "unacceptable damages" to a power that wants to attack France’s vital interests, whereas NATO is for "flexible response" and "to meet each hostile action with a proportional reaction." (Le Figaro)

The situation is starting to improve for French banks operating in Ukraine, but is not at its best, as demonstrated by the results just published by BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole. These figures, linked to a slowdown in activity, in a context of persistent conflict, are not euphoric for BNP Paribas, whose subsidiary had 4,900 employees at the end of 2021, or for Crédit Agricole, whose subsidiary employs 2,100. But they see "a glimpse of the future" in it, as the two giants say they want to take part in "the country’s reconstruction when the time comes". (Les Echos)

A longform report from the cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol, that have been occupied by Russia for almost two years has been published by daily Le Figaro. Titled 'Travel in Donbas under Russian guardianship' the paper’s Moscow-based correspondent meets with pro-Russian citizens who stand against Ukraine. They share their reasons for engaging with Russia, and their fear if Ukraine takes back these territories. "Each time, the words are astonishingly similar, as if shaped by the same bias, formatted by the messages constantly repeated by the official media," writes the journalist. (Le Figaro)

Germany 

Government to increase military support to Ukraine 

Foreign minister Annalena Baerbock visited Kyiv, highlighting the increasingly difficult situation for Ukraine against Russian aggressors and reiterating the urge for more assistance in air defence, stating that "the situation in Ukraine has dramatically escalated with massive Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure and the brutal Russian offensive in the Kharkiv area." In these "harsh conditions", Baerbock emphasised Germany’s future support for the country: "almost one billion euros have been gathered to provide additional support to the Ukrainian air defence forces, and we are working intensively to increase this further." (FAZ)

The German government plans to significantly increase military aid to Ukraine this year, according to Bild am Sonntag. So far, Germany has allocated 7.1 billion euros for military aid this year. However, almost the entire amount is already committed, with only 300 million euros still available for new purchases of ammunition and weapons, the newspaper writes, citing the Ministry of Defence. Now, the Ministry has requested an additional 3.8 billion euros for military support. The extraordinary expenditure is expected to be submitted to parliament for approval in June. (tagesschau)

Over 2,400 refugees from Ukraine currently reside in the Fürstenfeldbruck district in Bavaria, creating a bridge between this location and Ukraine. Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) shares the stories of five Ukrainians who have connections to Fürstenfeldbruck, showcasing their current situation. Natascha Kharchenko, a cultural manager who fled Kyiv with her children and father, now lives in this district, and is focusing on integration into German society despite bureaucratic hurdles. She says, "Life in Ukraine will remain very dangerous for a long time, that's why I want to integrate here." Another interviewee, sociology student Anastasiia Bezpalko, was actively involved in distributing humanitarian aid sent from Fürstenfeldbruck to Chernovograd in Ukraine. (SZ)

Hungary

Hungarian media links to banned Russian outlets in EU

EU countries have banned the distribution of four media outlets associated with Russia and which have spread Russian propaganda in the EU. The Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta will no longer be available in the EU (Hvg). As we highlighted in a previous newsletter, a Budapest-based website, the Visegrád Post, was also identified by European secret services as linked to the same Russian influence network. This was run by Ferenc Almássy, a French-Hungarian citizen living in Budapest. Nicolas de Lamberterie, a French citizen who also lives in Budapest, was a regular contributor. The investigative portal Lakmusz has examined their media appearances. The portal noted that they were regularly featured as analysts not only in the more marginal Hungarian far-right public sphere, but also in media close to the governing parties. (Lakmusz)

The Hungarian government, which calls itself pro-peace, has torpedoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan at the Council of Europe meeting, with Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó vetoing a Council resolution about the Council supporting this peace plan. (24.hu) However, Hungary has not vetoed the confiscation of Russian assets in the EU, so this process can begin (G7)

A high number of Ukrainian-Hungarians, identified as Roma by Hungarian politicians, who left the Transcarpathia region in western Ukraine and sought asylum in EU countries may return to Ukraine in the future. Many of them had claimed refugee benefits while concealing the fact that they also have Hungarian citizenship, even though EU rules do not allow EU citizens to receive the same refugee benefits as Ukrainian refugees, stated László Zubánics, president of the Hungarian minority party in Ukraine, the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Ukraine, to the weekly Magyar Hang. (Magyar Hang)

Italy

OSINT Mariupol map shows Russia “depriving region of former identity”

An Italian citizen living in Scandinavia, Alex, during his freetime, has mapped out the destruction of Mariupol, which has been occupied by Russia since May 2022. "I do it because I won’t tolerate the lies of Moscow propaganda," Alex tells Domani, adding that he has started his research and collection of data, through Open Source Intelligence, for a colleague living in Donbas. Alex explains to Domani that the pictures collected clearly show Russian reconstruction of Mariupol, and its transformation "to deprive it of its former identity". (Domani)

Italy is one of the countries targeted by Russian disinformation on the Ukraine war, an opinion piece for Huffington Post highlights. Disinformation is part of the hybrid war pushed by Moscow, and Italian TV programs often work as "a propaganda sounding board". Information in Italy is considered a "product" to be sold, and it "must trigger strong emotions" writes the author. Her opinion is that the Italian media consider that reports about the resistance in Ukraine against Russian aggression are not exciting enough. (Huffington Post)

The positions of the Italian parties running for European elections on the Russian invasion of Ukraine have been collected by the fact-checking media Pagella Politica. The extreme right-wing Fratelli d’Italia assures "the commitment to solve any conflict for a fair peace" and to develop the process of EU integration of Ukraine. Lega, with former connections with the Kremlin, supports Ukrainian self-defence but asks "efforts to reach an agreed solution". Forza Italia, also part of the government, recalls that Kyiv is fighting for "our values". The left-wing Democratic Party supports EU integration and "diplomatic efforts to stop the war", for "fair peace". The populist Five Star Movement supports Ukrainians but calls for "a stop in military supply". (PagellaPolitica)

Spain

Secret weapons route to Ukraine revealed "accidentally"

An alert issued by two left-wing Spanish political parties ended up compromising the secrecy and security protocols of the shipment of Indian arms to Ukraine, a judicial investigation revealed. The parties, Sumar and Podemos, whose members form or have formed part of the Spanish government since 2020 publicly and judicially denounced the arrival in Spain of a ship carrying arms "for Israel". But it turned out the cargo was arriving from India and heading to the Czech Republic, with a destination for Ukraine. India has been a historic ally of Russia, and it had not been made public that it sent weapons to Ukraine. Also the timing for procuring promised Soviet weapons to Kyiv by Prague has now been uncovered as well. (La Sexta)

Kharkiv-based citizen Oleksii's life collapsed like the roof of his house in autumn 2022. Aged 69 and sporting a Cossack moustache, he told his story to El Mundo's reporter at that time. Rus'ki Tyshky, his village, had been liberated months earlier. The Russians were finally gone, but his wife died in their destroyed house. Two years later, the reporter Alberto Rojas came back looking for him amid a new Russian offensive on the Kharkiv region. Moustache-less and with a hoe working the garden, he says he will not leave his now-rebuilt home. "I cannot escape my fate," he says. "If I have to die due to a Russian bomb, I will accept it". (El Mundo)

"The Ukrainian men of military age who came to Spain after the full-scale invasion of 24 February are hiding because they are shits," said Viktor Kazmiruk, who has been living in Spain for 25 years and is the president of Jortytsya, an association of Ukrainians in Catalonia. He refuses to help the men of military age who arrived after February 2022. El Español interviewed him after the adoption of the new mobilisation law this May. From now on, all Ukrainian men from 18 to 60 years old in Europe can apply for consular services, but only with a document proving they are on the conscription register. (El Español)

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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