Kateryna Shymkevych: Vučić and Fico keep Putin's influence alive (Part 1)

A vast network of Kremlin influence agents is operating in the Balkans under the guise of scientists, public organizations, and scientific institutions, spreading the narratives of the "Russian World."

At the same time, Ukraine has unique experience in combating disinformation and propaganda, which can be useful for democratic countries in the conditions of a hybrid war.

This was stated by Kateryna Shymkevych, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Law and Public Administration of the Zaporizhzhia Institute of Economics and Information Technologies and founder of the public organization “Analytical Center for Balkan Studies”, in an exclusive interview with The Geopost.

Full interview (part 1):

The Geopost: The reason for our conversation was the news of the first anniversary of the publication of the journal “Mist. Ukraine-Balkan”, published with the support of the public organization “Analytical Center for Balkan Studies”. This is an opportunity to reflect not only on the current state of relations between Ukraine and the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, but also on Ukrainian studies on the Balkans in general. So, the first question for you is: What does Ukrainian Balkan studies look like today?

Shymkevych: A very good name, but unfortunately, in my opinion, there is no such concept. Perhaps my colleagues working in this region will disagree, but there is no such term as Ukrainian Balkan Studies. There are individual studies on the Balkans, but they are mainly devoted to Bulgaria, and sometimes also to the countries of the former Yugoslavia. And there is nothing so comprehensive and complete regarding all the countries that make up the Balkan Peninsula. We have long-term historical relations with Bulgaria. Therefore, there is a strong layer of Bulgarians (at least before the start of the great war).

I can name a few centers where Bulgarian studies have been developed in our country. These include Odessa, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia, where most Bulgarians live. What concerns Greeks has been developed a little: this is Mariupol State University, which has now moved to Kiev and Odessa. Some were engaged in the study of Greeks in other cities, but it is impossible to say that this is a comprehensive direction.

The situation is more complicated with other countries. Chernivtsi has some developments in Romania – this is explained by its proximity and various cross-border connections. Everyone is doing research on the countries of the former Yugoslavia because this has been important and relevant since 2014.

People see that these topics match our background and start to draw some parallels, which is not always correct. There are even defended dissertations, if we talk about the scientific, academic level. Some of them were defended already in the early 1990s. When I was writing my dissertation, I tried to see what already existed in this field.

Most of the research is devoted to Yugoslavia, there are one or two dissertations on Macedonia. There seems to be one dissertation on Serbia, quite a bit on Croatia, on Slovenia. Unfortunately, all this is only fragmentary. We constantly emphasize that this direction should be expanded. But the Western Balkans region is largely embedded in the broader context of Southeast Europe. Therefore, it is not isolated.

There is a lack of specialists who can combine knowledge of the language with a deep understanding of culture, peculiarities of mentality, linguistics and history. Also, we practically do not have experts in regional international relations who specialize in this region—and this region represents a geopolitical “Balkan chessboard” in miniature. Many actors are involved: the USA, the EU, China, Russia, and even Ukraine, which, incidentally, is already beginning to actively represent its position.

Why don't they train specialists? Because universities are dominated by courses that call themselves either European Studies or Southeast European Studies. Students know very little about the fact that Montenegro and Croatia, for example, are atypical maritime countries. There are countries that are friendly to Ukraine: Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia. And certain parallels immediately emerge.

Everyone knows about Kosovo. Who hasn’t tried to commit an extremely unreasonable act since 2014 by trying to compare Crimea with Kosovo! But this is mainly journalism. At the level of a scientific and academic approach, so that we can talk about university courses or a special direction, such as Balkan studies, – unfortunately, we don’t have anything like that yet. This is my personal point of view, which can be very direct. But there is still no interest in this region as we would like. It is specific and usually depends on the situation.

The Geopost: At the same time, Ukraine should be interested in countering the Russian propaganda offensive in the Balkans. Do we have a real opportunity for this?

Shymkevych: I think that in the field of media, you know better than me what mechanisms can be developed and how to counter them, given that Russia Today broadcasts not only in Serbia. They also broadcast in the part of Kosovo where the northern municipalities are not controlled by the central authorities. This is Montenegro and Banja Luka with the Republika Srpska as part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Surprisingly, this is even part of North Macedonia. They (Kremlin propagandists – editor's note) are not only present on YouTube. Last year they launched satellite television and are actively promoting Telegram channels.

What I like about Ukraine is that we have moved from simple fact-checking to developing mechanisms to combat disinformation and propaganda. This is an experience that we should be proud of and not keep quiet about. Because in most Balkan countries, everything depends on fact-checking. Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria are very proud of their active counteraction to Russian propaganda. But here too, it is only about fact-checking. Of course, there are many different regional networks there, and the Western Balkan countries are separately united in such fact-checking networks. The European Union has set up its own media centers to combat propaganda in Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, the Western Balkan countries, but this is the level of fact-checking. What is fact-checking? We take a fact and explain why it is not true. And then?

But Ukraine has already taken these countermeasures over the past 10-11 years, when aggression against us began and hybrid warfare increased, and we should share them with our colleagues.

The Geopost: The result of this situation were the election results in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.

Shymkevych: Yes, especially the ones Romania showed them again. The December elections in Romania proved that fact-checking should be replaced by active mechanisms to combat propaganda and disinformation, at least at the level of TikTok. But the Romanians have not drawn any consistent conclusions. In principle, this also applies to the Ukrainian experts who are taking on this task. Russia is provoking all this. Every country has internal problems. Russia does not invent them, it catalyzes them. The same problems that existed in Romania in December 2024 will exist in May 2025. This is an economic situation that people are unhappy with. This is corruption, a constant transfer of power from one party to another, which means that there is no change. People live in the hope that something will change, but there is no change.

As a result, a pro-Russian candidate won, now we see the victory of another. Well, what has changed? Pro-European candidates simply received a few more votes. Yes, there will be a second round. But there is a risk that this candidate will come to power. This shows that internal problems are not being resolved. And Russia has changed its tactics – now it is pushing them less openly. This is exactly what you asked me about the mechanisms for combating propaganda, and Ukraine can demonstrate them. In Romania, for example, there are Russian centers at universities: the Russian Center, the Russian House. Why do they still exist? Well, close them! It is an agreement on cultural, scientific and technical cooperation. It is enough to put an end to this cooperation, because proving that such institutions are engaged in propaganda is very simple: open a website and see what activities they are carrying out. There is no large ethnic Russian diaspora in Romania, so we are not talking about suppressing the rights of Russians. Of course, Moscow will see things differently.

You can monitor everything. This is not the competence of the European Union. Institutions such as the Russian Center, the Russian House and the Russian Cabinets should be closed only by national governments. This is the first low level, but they must be closed. Zagreb has closed them. They were closed in Ljubljana, but they continue to operate in Maribor. They exist in Bulgaria, Greece, not to mention Serbia. These are places conducive to espionage and the spread of propaganda that must be fought. This is a huge task.

For example, Ukrainian researchers and teachers can exchange ideas on how to work with historical topics. On the eve of May 9, this apparatus of “victory obsession” can be observed in almost all Balkan countries. And not only there. The revival of the “immortal regiment” in Washington is a kind of absurdity!

In national historiography, the achievements of one's own troops, one's own army, in World War II are minimized. We can see this in the example of the countries of the former Yugoslavia, where the focus has shifted. The contribution of Josip Broz Tito's partisans is minimized: they liberated practically all of Yugoslavia alone, and the Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts are the fronts of the Red Army. But it is not the partisans who are put in the first place, but the Soviet army. Why does such an exchange of terms occur? Because Russian propaganda exalts itself by denigrating others.

And here Ukrainian teachers, historians and lecturers can speak openly: explaining that such topics should be treated very carefully. There should be a consensus. Start with small steps, do not rush immediately to the 90s, it is a complex topic. But teachers are still working with them.

Russian studies departments are another center of influence that we don't see, but which is very strong. Almost every university in the Balkans has a Russian studies department. Some even have two, one for the language and one for literature.

The second part of the interview will be published next week.

/The Geopost