Europe Today: Ukraine seeks urgent funding in Brussels as Russia's drones pound Kyiv

Good morning! It's Tuesday, September 29th, you're watching Euronews, and this is Europe Today. Coming up! Ukraine is turning to international partners to help cover its wartime spending needs, with Brussels set to bring together donor countries and financial institutions later today. Ukraine has cut its 24 billion euro funding shortfall to 18 billion euro through austerity measures, but it's unclear how the remaining gap can be plugged. Russia's recent escalation has added urgency to the search for funding. Pope Leo XIV has praised multilateralism as the best defense against the desire for dominance in a speech in the French city of Metz. The pontiff lamented a world marked by conflict, from war and hunger to deteriorating personal relations, describing an increasingly uncivilized climate. He also criticized the lies and deception, he said, were fueling growing distrust between citizens and governments. And Euronews is hosting its Travel and Tourism Summit 2026 in Brussels today, bringing together policymakers, industry leaders and travel experts from across Europe and beyond. The summit examines the policies, technologies and investments shaping tomorrow's travel landscape, from sustainable mobility and destination management to infrastructure and tourism investment. Welcome to the program. I'm Stefan Grobe. Russia launched more than 120 drones at Ukraine on Monday, with President Zelensky saying almost 90 of them were faster jet-powered models. In Kiev, a medical center was hit while another jet-powered drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in the heart of the capital in broad daylight. And while emergency crews were still working at the academy, our team witnessed what appeared to be an attempted double-tap attack aimed at rescue workers, with another Russian drone intercepted directly above the site. Our correspondent Sasha Vakulina was there and joins us now from Kiev. Sasha, you were at the scene when that second drone came in. What did you see? Another night of relentless non-stop attacks here in Kiev, when Russia used both missiles and also drones, including those jet-powered drones. And I think it's important to look at what is it that Moscow is trying to target. Now, some of the targets are the sites that we have seen Moscow trying to hit throughout the war. First of all, this is, of course, energy infrastructure. On Monday, Euronews was filming at the site of an energy site of one of the recent Russia's attacks in the Kiev region, but we had to stop the filming and we had to seek shelter because there was another drone approaching the same site, probably trying to hit the crews and the people working on fixing that energy site. But also, Moscow is increasingly targeting data centres and communication infrastructure. And you can already feel this here in Kiev, with the internet connection and the mobile networks going rather patchy. And this is, of course, problematic both for the people in Ukraine, but also for Ukraine's military and the air defence. But most of Russia's strikes also are hitting residential and other civilian sites. One example is the National Academy of Sciences here in the very centre of Kiev. Now, emergency services working here confirmed to Euronews that this was most probably a direct hit by Russia's jet-powered drones. And that brings us to this big problem that Kiev and Ukrainian authorities are facing now is these drones and how to counter them. Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that Ukraine's interception rate when it comes to all of the drones stands at around 70%. When it comes to the jet-powered drones, those faster new ones, this is around 57%. Ukraine is indeed these days testing the new interceptors to counter them, but this is increasingly becoming a technological race. The way Russia adapts its weapons and tactics and then Ukraine is adapting and trying to intercept the new weapons and do that as quickly as it can because, of course, these are the attacks on the residents, on the people of Ukraine. Euronews crew were at the National Academy of Sciences in the immediate aftermath of Russia's attacks and with the emergency crews still working there at the centre, another Russian drone was coming towards our way and we had to seek shelter in what was apparently Moscow's attempt to attack the rescue workers working there on the site. Take a look at what happened on Monday. We are standing right at the site of the attack here in Kiev city centre. This here is the National Academy of Sciences which was hit earlier and as the rescue teams are working here, as you can see, there was another attempted attack right now with the air defence intercepting another drone right above the site. At around half past one, there was a direct hit. A jet-powered drone struck a three-storey building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Can you confirm that this is a civilian building? That's the building. You can see it right at the entrance. That's the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Nothing else. Here, it's basically a business centre and other buildings. We're standing at the site of a Russian drone attack in the very centre of Kiev. The capital's emergency services confirmed to Euronews that this was a direct hit by a jet-powered drone. Now, these are newer, faster drones that Russia has been using a lot these days and, in fact, there are no breaks between the air raid alerts and the drone attacks in the capital these days. And you can see the rescue workers here working right behind me. The emergency services also confirmed that here in the centre of Kiev, next to this building and in the building itself, there are no military targets. This is the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. All right, Sasha Vakulina, thank you very much for this update under the most stressful conditions. But it's not only the capital, Kiev, that was pounded by Russian strikes. In rural areas, Ukraine's agricultural economy is directly targeted, including export routes in the Black Sea. Our correspondent Merit Gwin spoke to the Ukrainian agriculture minister Taras Vysotsky and asked him whether the country could still rely on its main export corridor. Unfortunately, since the end of July, that's already for two months, the situation is really critical. We are not able to export agricultural commodities through our deep water ports of Odessa region. Why is it so critical? Just an example, in June 2026, 90% of agricultural commodities were exported through this channel. That means that the biggest and the main channel of export logistics has been closed since the end of July. And what can Ukraine's partners do here? Is it about providing more protection in the Black Sea? Is it about opening alternative export routes, for example, through the Baltics? Are you at a point where you say, actually, we need a broken deal with Russia? We are currently working with our partners, including the European ones, simultaneously on a few tracks. One of them is to develop EU solidarity lanes, that's alternative routes. And so far, we have some progress. When we look at the September numbers, we can say that around 40-45% of export is done through these EU solidarity lanes. Definitely, we keep working on protection, because we do understand the best guarantee instrument is to have enough military forces, military power to protect these routes from all of these rocket hackers. And also, we are ready to create the safety conditions in the Black Sea for all of the civil goods, including Ukrainian agricultural commodities. We are open for it. And do you think that impact on pricing for consumers could be felt beyond Ukraine's borders as well, if this crisis persists in the Black Sea? Actually, it's already happening. We can already see that on average, the grain prices have increased by 25%, and this is a lot. 25%, it means if you multiply it for the overall grain and food consumption out of grain, within a year, it could be even up to 60 billion U.S. dollars additional costs of all of the consumers' wealth. The price increase is already happening. Finally, Minister, we see that Russia is really stepping up its strikes on Ukraine. The winter is coming. How fearful are you now, both for Ukrainian farmers in terms of the impact on them, but also broader for the country going into this winter? Of course, during all of these almost five years of full-scale invasion, we have been constantly preparing. Ukrainians are resilient, but it's very hard. Of course, the level of risks currently is the biggest since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. And it's very hard, really, to prepare just for everything. So first of all, the focus is on military air defense systems. It's very critical to have enough of military air defense systems to save all of this infrastructure. Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Taras Vyzotsky speaking to Merit. As the war in Ukraine continues, Europe faces a difficult question. How far is it prepared to go to support Kiev and increase pressure on Moscow? From sanctions and financial aid to military support, and the growing threat of Russian hybrid attacks across Europe, the EU is trying to balance solidarity with Ukraine against the rising costs and risks at home. To talk about this, I'm now joined by Tobias Kramer, a German Social Democrat in the European Parliament, where he's a member of the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense, and the Delegations for Relations with the U.S. and with NATO. Good morning and welcome to the set. Good morning. Thank you for having me. So, when you see and hear all these reports, what's your reaction? I mean, to me, that just shows the utter desperation of Putin, who has turned this already illegal and criminal campaign into just a campaign where he doesn't even focus his attacks on the battlefields, because he knows he can't progress on that. I think we've calculated that his progress is slower than that of a snail, really. But he's now really focusing on attacking civilians, and he's not just attacking civilians in Ukraine who are suffering every day, but what we are seeing there is that he even goes so far of saying he knows that this grain export, he's hurting the Ukrainian economy, but he's also hurting people all over the world, especially in the Global South, who are so dependent on grain exports from Ukraine. And he knows that this will cause famine, he knows this will cause death in Africa, in other parts of the world, and Putin is so desperate that he just goes in there and tries to cause as much harm as possible, but that is just criminal, let's be honest. Having said that, where does the EU stand on Ukraine right now? Is it still as long as it takes when it comes to support, or do we already see the limits of sustained help for Ukraine? I think what we need to understand is that this war that Putin conducts in Ukraine against Ukraine is not purely about Ukraine, and Putin has said that very, very clearly for him. This is a war against the European order of peace. It's a war to undermine the unity of NATO, and it's a war to undermine the way we are living in our free democracies, and we see the hybrid attacks. It's not just Ukraine that's attacked, I'm from Germany, we had these attacks, and they are no longer hybrid. We had proper attacks in Leipzig, where you had drones that could have caused real damage and cost lives, and I think there is a growing understanding in Europe that we are defending here also our way of life, our liberty, and that supporting Ukraine is really necessary not just for Ukraine, but also for our own security, and the cost of Ukraine failing would be so much higher for us than the cost of supporting Ukraine, so I think there is determination in Europe, we are the biggest supporters of Ukraine, but I also think we have to think very clearly what levers do we have now, and to start thinking creatively. I still think we should use the frozen assets, for instance. That would have been my next question, I mean, the EU just extended sanctions on 3,000, give or take, individuals and entities, after a long and arduous process, right? What should be the next step, the next action against Russia that the EU should take? I mean, I think we really should look at what hurts Putin, and what does he care about, how can we use the levers we have to leverage for peace, and I think it would be poorly advised to just go into Putin's escalatory spiral, where he might have an advantage, so it's not necessarily about having hybrid attacks against Russia, but really looking where does it hurt Putin, and Putin, we see, unfortunately, he doesn't care about the life of his soldiers, he doesn't care about Russian lives, but what he does care about is his wallet, and we still have over 200 billion frozen assets in European bank accounts, and I think we really should be looking very closely of how we can turn that into leverage for peace to show Putin, you are continuing this war, you are escalating this war, it's time you start paying for it, and really using that, and I think it's especially important to do that now, because what we are seeing in the next few months, also with the G20 invitation of Putin into the United States, I think we as Europeans should go there with a plan, not just reacting, but actually saying here we have a peace plan, we worked it out with Ukraine, and talk to Putin, to nothing else, the G20, but Ukraine. All right, Tobias Krämer, thank you so much for coming on the show this morning, I should mention also that you will be a speaker at tomorrow's Euro News Defence Summit here in Brussels, looking forward to that, thank you. So for his last public appearance of his apostolic visit to France, Pope Leo chose the border city of Metz to speak on the future of Europe, giving a distinctly political dimension to a visit to France that has sparked scenes of spiritual jubilation, and stressing the importance of unity on a continent where nationalist movements are gaining strength, and Russia's war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year, shows no sign of abating. To analyze the Pope's visit to France, I'm now joined by Austin Ivory, a fellow in contemporary church history at Oxford University, and author of two biographies of Pope Francis. Good morning, great to have you on the show. Good to be with you. So to you, what was the most surprising element about Leo's speech on Europe? Well, I wasn't wholly surprised by it, in the sense that the content, I think, was typical of him, his commitment to peace, to multilateralism. What surprised me, I think, was the passion with which he is able to challenge Europe at the moment, to say, are you preparing for peace, or are you preparing for war? In other words, are you constructing the institutions that will lay the basis for a new world order which will contain and prevent war, make war unthinkable? Or are you simply increasing the budgets for your military spending, assuming that there will be more war? So I found that very, very challenging and very striking. Also, I think the return to the roots of Europe. It was a very challenging speech in terms of what are the true values that have made Europe? And he talked about the European history, but he also talked about the example of Robert Schuman. He was speaking in Metz, which was the place where Robert Schuman lived and had his work. And it's really Schuman, as one of the great architects of the European Union, he focused on what made that possible after the war, to build that new order. So Leo, this is a great theme of his pontificate, he sees that the world order has crumbled, is crumbling, probably has crumbled, and now is the task to build that new world order. We've seen Pope Leo receive huge public enthusiasm. Does that give him greater political and moral influence, or should we be careful not to confuse popularity with influence? Well, I was struck, of course, by the popularity of him and his visit, very similar, by the way, to his visit to Spain in June. From the papal point of view, what this marks, I think, is the beginning of a new mission to Europe, if I can put it that way. Under Pope Francis, it was important to rebalance the Church. The Church is a global missionary body. Europe is no longer, if you like, the center of Catholicism. I think what Leo's doing is he's saying, actually, yes, he agrees with that, but he's also saying we need to build in Europe on what is happening, which is that young people are returning or coming to faith, not because they were brought up in any way religious, but because they are seeking and searching for meaning, and we've had something like a 400% increase in new Catholics in France since COVID. And so a big part of this trip, I think, just as it was in Spain, was to take that desire for meaning, that search for values, and to just say, look, the Church is here ready to receive you. And one of the things he did when he was addressing the French Church was to say, look, the Church itself has to change. We have to become a different kind of Church if we are to walk with the seekers and the searchers among the young, the searchers for meaning. But yeah, his popularity was extraordinary. Just to see the streets full like that was remarkable. All right. Austin Ivory, an expert on the modern papacy at Oxford University. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. And that's it for today. For the rest of the news throughout the day, Euronews has you covered as usual. Thank you for watching. I'm Stefan Grobe, and I'll see you tomorrow.