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.

Russia attacks and advances in the northern Kharkiv region. Villages that a year and a half ago were liberated from Moscow's hands face again the threat of invasion. Once again, we see stark images of citizens packing their belongings under bomb attacks.

In our weekly translated article from Ukrainian into English, we also talk about evacuations, this time from the city of Mariupol. Despite being controlled by the Kremlin, many citizens have been trying to escape for two years. The piece not only describes the challenges and dangers of such evacuations, but also points to key issues, such as why some people flee, while others prefer to stay.

In this edition, we also approach the impact of the likely future Ukrainian accession to the European Union on the June EU elections. While some groups and NGOs ask for more support for Kyiv, some are against such assistance, if this affects economic aid to farmers. In Bulgaria, there is a debate over whether to sign a bilateral military agreement with Ukraine, while the country remains committed to sending anti-aircraft defence aid, and France analyses Russian threats after diplomatic clashes over Paris’s support for Ukraine.

The Olympic flame in the hands of a Ukraine athlete, sexual violence in the war, German regional differences in attitudes towards Moscow, and ramped-up artillery shell production are also among the topics, in a week when Volodymyr Zelenskiy puts his visits to Madrid and Lisbon on hold, while he deals with Russia’s military advances.

Putin’s full-scale invasion is 812 days old today.

Fermín Torrano
Editor of this week's edition

The beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine forced millions of people to flee from their homes. Six million left the country after 24 February 2022, and a further 3.6 million people have registered as internally displaced inside Ukraine. An offensive recently launched by the Russian army in the northern part of Kharkiv region sparked another wave of civilian evacuations from small towns and villages close to the border. But the process of escape from temporarily occupied territories never stops. 

In an article, translated by n-ost this week, journalist Oksana Rasulova tells the story of Halyna, an 85-year-old woman, and her cat, who travelled 2,600 km overland from her native Mariupol through Russia and Belarus to reunite with her daughter Olena, at the Belarus-Ukraine border. It took around a month to organise the getaway and four days of travelling. Everything was managed remotely by Denys, a Ukrainian volunteer, originally from Mariupol who is now managing the NGO Vyvezemo (We will take them out). Since the beginning of the full-scale war, his team helped around 7,000 people to arrive from temporarily occupied Ukraine to Kyiv-controlled territories.

The piece not only describes all the challenges and dangers of such an evacuation, but also introduces sensitive issues, such as the reason why some people are eager to escape from occupation, while others chose to stay despite their pro-Ukrainian position. Denys’s parents remain in Mariupol to this day:

"My parents belong to the kind of elderly people who do not want to start a new life. It is easier for them to live their old one. They hardly left the apartment for three months, so they did not see most of the horrors - only the burned house across the street and the collapsed entrance of our house. Mom says that then she talked to our photos and cried. Now, every time we say goodbye on the phone, she says that she loves me - for the first time in her life. And I was never in the habit of calling them every day, but now I'm making amends - I top up Viber, and buy Skype minutes.”

The piece was originally published by Liga.net, a Ukrainian online media specialised in economics, but also socio-political topics.

Translated by Tetiana Evloeva.

Spain

A last-minute cancellation, a traitor, and a ghost tank supplier

President Zelensky will not travel to Spain this week. Speculation emerged after El País reported that the Ukrainian president would be in Madrid this Friday to meet with the King and the Spanish prime minister. On Tuesday night, the Spanish royal house confirmed the agenda, but a few hours later, Zelensky cancelled his trip. The reason: Russia’s advance in northern and southern Ukraine. The president will also not travel to Portugal, and new dates are already being sought for the signing of bilateral security agreements between Ukraine and the two southern European countries. (El País)

Morocco appears to be one of Ukraine's major tank suppliers, despite no official documentation or public announcement. According to data cited by El Confidencial, the Alawite kingdom has donated around 100 soviet T-72 tanks, which were modified in the Czech Republic before dispatch to the war zone. Good news for Ukraine, but not so positive for Spain. Why? It is alleged that in exchange for giving the old armoured vehicles to Ukraine, Morocco is due to receive advanced weaponry from the United States and Israel, such as Abrams tanks and Merkava III. Previously, the US and Morocco formed an agreement for Washington to provide missile launchers and anti-tank weapons to Rabat. With a common border and two cities on the territory of North Africa, Spain is keeping a close eye on Morocco's military reinforcement. (El Confidencial)

A new case of a suspected traitor in Spain has reached the national High Court. According to a ruling of the Audiencia Nacional (national High Court), a Ukrainian citizen from Luhansk, who organised pro-Russian separatist militias in 2014, has been granted international protection. This is his second attempt at securing this safeguard, after being denied by Spanish officials in 2021. The SBU has accused him of being a Russian spy but, as a refugee in Russia, he claimed he was harassed by the FSB and GRU and forced to return to Ukraine to work for the secret services. He refused and fled in 2018 to Spain. (El Confidencial Digital)

Bulgaria

Ukrainian refugees on the increase

The number of Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria is increasing again, after a period of decline, according to volunteers and NGOs. "Hundreds of people arrive every day in the cities of Bulgaria. Some of them go to other countries, but a large part stay, especially the Bessarabian Bulgarians. They speak Bulgarian and easily integrate into society," reports BNR. Currently, their total number is around 80,000, located mainly in Burgas and other cities on the Black Sea coast. In many instances, the difficult process of education diploma recognition is a major obstacle to their successful integration in Bulgarian society and the labour market. (BNR)

Bulgaria is currently one of the EU countries reluctant to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine, together with Hungary, Cyprus and Austria. A chance of signing this agreement was floated by then-Bulgarian prime minister Nikolay Denkov during his visit to Kyiv last February. However, the announcement had given rise to strong political controversy: President Rumen Radev, accused by his opponents of adopting a pro-Russian position, asked for clarification on the meaning of such an agreement, arguing that if support for Ukraine is necessary, Bulgaria "cannot afford rash actions capable of widening the military conflict." (Club Z)

Despite internal divisions, and new general elections, scheduled for 9 June, the Bulgarian caretaker government has reaffirmed its willingness to support Ukraine "at all levels, from political to military", as stated by prime minister Dimitar Glavchev during a video conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmigal. Bulgaria may provide Kyiv with two new military aid packages, which include the S-300 and S-200 ‘Vega’ anti-aircraft defence systems, badly needed by Ukraine at this stage of the war, along with artillery ammunition, the scarcity of which is one of the weak points of the Ukrainian military. (Mediapool)

France

No, Russia’s flag was not displayed in the sky of Marseille

Ukrainian gymnast Mariia Vysochanska was invited to carry the Olympic flame in Marseille on 9 May, in solidarity with war-torn Ukraine. Vysochanska was invited to be part of the 28 athletes, each representing the countries of the European Union and candidate country Ukraine, who participated in the relay of the Olympic flame. "It's an enormous show of support, first and foremost from France, and a way of underlining that we form a single European family, and that it's not just Europe PLUS one," said her Ukrainian counterpart Viktoriia Riasna. (Nouvel Obs and AFP)

Russian accounts, media and the Russian ministry of foreign affairs communication head shared a video showing French fighter-jets forming the Russian flag in smoke trails above Marseille harbour while the Olympic flame was arriving, but the Check News team debunked this allegation. The article blames an optical illusion, because the plane which spread the white smoke over the city during the ceremony was flying a little above the others, creating a distortion when looking at it from the side. This gave the impression that France’s flag colours (blue, white, red) were in another order (red, blue, white), the colours of Russia’s flag. (Libération)

France is one of the Kremlin’s favourite targets of Russian disinformation campaigns and Russia is highly critical of France’s diplomatic positions, regarding the invasion of Ukraine and the Russian threat in West Africa, where Wagner mercenaries have replaced the French Army in Niger and Burkina Faso. An analysis by Le Figaro sees this policy as a response to the tightening of Emmanuel Macron’s politics towards Russia, and because France is a prominent EU member state (Le Figaro). French researcher Maxime Audinet also shares his analysis about Russia’s influence operations in France, and their evolution since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in an interview with Liberation. (Libération)

Germany 

Sexual violence is Russia's "attempt to erase Ukraine as a nation”

East German territories’ stance against weapon delivery to Ukraine is seen as Putin-friendly, according to an essay in Berliner Zeitung by Charlotte Misselwitz. In response, the same paper publishes Malte Kießler’s analysis explaining the different opinions of east and west Germany throughout history. The author highlights that “the rejection of arms assistance to Ukraine is strongest wherever there is particular scepticism towards the USA”, including in east Germany, along with parties Die Linke and the AfD. According to the author, the attitude is rooted in a historical context, dating back to the GDR, where “Anti-Americanism” and caution toward Western military involvement prevailed. Kießler emphasises the potential consequences of withholding weapon support for Ukraine, stating that "we absolutely cannot afford to let our view of Putin be distorted by an anti-American lens". (Berliner Zeitung) 

German-based automotive technology and defence company Rheinmetall is waiting to expand production to support Ukraine, and is planning to produce 700,000 155mm artillery shells in 2024, and 1.1 million artillery shells per year by 2027, which aims to cover a considerable part of Ukraine's needs. These shells include advanced ramjet technology, potentially extending the range to 100 kilometres, enhancing Ukraine's defence capabilities: "Rheinmetall could deliver more but needs orders,” says the CEO of the company. (Frankfurter Rundschau)

Novelist Sofi Oksanen examines the role of sexual violence in the Ukraine war as a tool to eradicate identity, in a ZDF interview. Influenced by her personal family history, she tells how sexualised violence is Russia's "attempt to erase Ukraine as a nation" and how "the West fails to recognise that Putin is primarily waging a war against women". After the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014, Oksanen gained attention for warning against Russia's totalitarian rule, and recalled Russia's brutal colonial history. In the interview, she describes how sexual violence is one of the greatest threats of war: "Gender-based violence is a weapon aimed at the future of the nation. It is a weapon used because the perpetrator wants to destroy communities. So, it's not just about the victim, but also about the community, the family, the nation." (ZDF)

Hungary

Wounded soldiers fear increase in killer Russian drones

An entrepreneur, a student, and a pathologist are among the volunteers in the Hospitallers Battalion, a civilian unit in Ukraine that rescues wounded soldiers. Reporter András Földes accompanied the corps in their medicalised bus, which they use to bring the wounded from the front to a safer place. Volunteers are not paid, and they still have civilian jobs. A young woman, called "Vet", is a veterinarian, who volunteers in a battlefield ambulance for a month, and then works as a veterinarian again for a month to make a living. In the video, the wounded soldiers also talk about the state of the front, and the ammunition shortage, and they mention that the Russians have an increasing number of drones. "If we had more weapons to use against drones, the situation would be easier," says one. (Hvg/Youtube)

Zsolt Németh, a Hungarian MP from the governing party and chairman of the Hungarian parliament's foreign affairs committee, has made unusually strong statements condemning Russia, which contrast to the ambivalent narrative employed by the Hungarian government. He stressed the importance of NATO membership and the threat that Russia poses to Hungary. "If we were not a member of NATO, it would probably not be Ukraine that would be defending itself against a Russian attack, but us," he said. "The fact that Russia sees this defence alliance as a threat is simply proof that it wants to dominate NATO members - or at least part of NATO members - and that NATO is making this impossible," he added. (Válaszonline)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held a telephone conversation. (Hvg) Zelensky's post on X revealed that he also invited Viktor Orbán to a global Ukrainian peace summit. The Ukrainian President also stressed to Orban that Ukraine attaches importance to good neighbourly relations with Hungary and to increasing trade, energy and logistics cooperation. (Hvg)

Italy

EU consensus on Ukraine’s entry impacts EU elections

Ukraine’s future EU membership will have an influence on the coming European elections in Italy. Since European funding for agriculture is determined by cultivated area, Kyiv would become the first beneficiary of funds, and European trade associations are concerned about a decrease in funding. Farmers are also protesting against Ukrainian imports and aim to introduce restrictions. According to the latest Ipsos poll, 35 percent of EU citizens are openly against the enlargement, whereas 20 percent are uncertain. The countries most in favour are Finland, Portugal and Spain. Italy ranks roughly in the middle, with 41 percent supporting Ukraine’s entry, and 33 against. (Europe Today)

Candidates in the upcoming European elections should openly stand up for Ukraine, requests a group of Italian civil society organisations, such as Project Mean-European Nonviolent Action Movement and Ventotene Committee. These associations call for the establishment of European civilian peace corps and support for Ukraine over the next five years. "Europe has to take a clear position on what is happening," Angelo Moretti, spokesperson for Mean, states. The group has already attracted support from candidates such as Carlo Calenda (from liberal party Azione) and the Democratic Party’s mayor of Bergamo Giorgio Gori. (La Stampa)

EU representatives have approved a plan to use part of Russian frozen assets in Europe to help Ukraine. The plan still needs final approval by the Council of the EU, probably in the coming weeks, so that the first funds will be sent in summer. For 2024, three billion euros should be paid, of which around one billion will be available immediately. This money comes from the interest on the blocked bank accounts of Russian oligarchs close to the Putin regime. Il Post quotes a calculation that estimates that the interest will yield between 15 and 20 billion euros by 2027. (Il Post)

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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