Eurotopics.net

EU Council President Charles Michel paid an unexpected visit to Kyiv on Wednesday. At a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky he said the EU would "do everything" to ensure Ukraine "will win the war". Empty promises or a sea change?

Slovak investigators have accused former three-time prime minister Robert Fico and Robert Kaliňák, his interior minister for many years, of setting up a criminal organisation and committing tax offences. Kaliňák has been arrested, but as leader of the parliamentary opposition, Fico enjoys immunity for the time being. Commentators assess the implications.

According to research by The Citizen Lab think tank, the mobile phones of more than 60 Catalan separatists were tapped between 2017 and 2020. The Israeli spyware Pegasus was allegedly used, as reported in The New Yorker. The junior government partner Unidas Podemos is demanding that the Socialists, who have been in government since 2018, set up a parliamentary investigation. Who bears the responsibility here?

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared on Tuesday that the large-scale military operation against eastern Ukraine marked the beginning of a "new phase" in the war. The Russian forces are stepping up their attacks, the situation in the embattled port city of Mariupol is dramatic. Commentators debate anxiously over whether this new stage could involve nuclear weapons.