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It takes about three hours by car from the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, to Narva, an Estonian city on the border with Russia. Estonia's area is slightly smaller than the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the population of the country can be equated to the population of Kharkiv - 1.3 million. A quarter of its people are Russians (Narva’s population counts around 90% of Russians). The majority of Estonians consider television as their primary source of news.
A language issue
With the beginning of the full-scale war, more than 120,000 Ukrainian refugees entered Estonia, mainly from the eastern regions of Ukraine and territories occupied since 2014. The Ukrainian diaspora has quadrupled. Yet, the language issue, which became one of the manipulations used by Putin's propaganda, remains debatable. Many residents of Estonia know Russian. Ten years ago, it was the second most spoken language after Estonian, although now English has taken its place.
On the one hand, it contributes to a faster adaptation and integration of Ukrainians in the new country. The Russian language unites Ukrainians and Estonians, who generally seek to reduce its presence. But then your interlocutor needs to understand Ukrainian, and you need to understand Estonian. If you do not speak English, Russian is the only way to get along, especially for the older generation.
Using Google in Ukrainian, out of habit, won't work either. Sites with a .ru domain will return to one’s search results as soon as you open Google in Estonia, and the amount of content, for example, in the English version of the page, will be much less than in its Estonian version.
On the other hand, speaking Ukrainian is a clear position that is consciously chosen by those who arrived in 2022 and those who came to Estonia a long time ago. One can look for "their people" with the help of concerts, photo exhibitions, film screenings, sightseeing trips, events supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and initiatives for adults and children, which occur every week and sometimes even compete with each other.
Efforts of Ukrainians to learn Estonian cause great support both at the state level and among Estonians, who respond positively to Ukrainians’ attempts to practice the language.
Media landscape
In the information space of Estonia, Estonian, Russian and English languages dominate, and the peculiarities of media consumption are different from Ukrainian ones.
According to the 2022 report prepared by the European Policies Initiative of the Open Society Institute — Sofia, Estonia is among the five countries with the most significant potential in countering the negative impact of fake news and disinformation due to the quality of education, free media, and a high level of trust among people.
According to the Eurobarometer survey, in 2022, 66% of Estonians considered television the primary news source, followed by online publications and radio in third place. Social networks occupy the second to the last step (30%), being ahead only of print media. Facebook is the leader among social networks, and the Russian-speaking population of Estonia also actively uses VKontakte and Odnoklasniki.
Comparatively, social networks became the most popular source of information for Ukrainians last year, ahead of television: 69% of Ukrainians receive news from social networks, and 59% of respondents view social networks as one of the two most important sources of information for them.
War and the information space
The full-scale war in Ukraine affected the number of Russian-language media in Estonia. Since February 25, 2022, the broadcast of the Russian TV channels RTR Planeta, NTV Mir, NTV Mir Baltiya, Belarus 24, Rossiya 24, and TV Center International has been banned. It was frowned upon by the local Russian-speaking population, but eventually, everyone found other ways to watch Russian news and war-justifying political talk shows via the Internet or satellite connection. Now it is almost impossible to estimate how many people in Estonia bypass the ban on Russian propaganda channels.
The news agency Sputnik Meedia (which until 2019 was part of the media group "Russia Today", and since 2021 existed as an independent media) and the newspaper "Komsomolska Pravda in Northern Europe" also ceased their activities.
After the full-scale invasion, the Russian-language versions of the Estonian media Postimees and Delfi—one of the most popular media outlets in Estonia—created its sections "Ukraine" (on the rus.Postimees subsite) and "For a Ukrainian in Estonia" (on rus.Delfi). The Postimees portal also launched the page "We are from Russia", in May 2022; it restored a printed weekly in Russian and also launched a Ukrainian-language version of its page ukraina.postimees.ee. However, it existed only until the end of 2022, just like the aforementioned weekly edition.
"Materials for the Ukrainian section were prepared by the correspondent Dmytro Moroz (the correspondent of several Ukrainian media in Estonia before the big invasion), who was in contact with representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and experts from Ukraine. Moreover, Estonian journalists who went to Ukraine were also the providers of information," says Yan Levchenko, a journalist, culturologist, and specialist in cultural and visual studies. Since 2022, he has been a permanent author and editor of the Postimees publication in the Russian language.
"Why did they stop filling the Ukrainian-language page? Firstly, the materials were read less and less. This decision was not made inside the editorial office but rather one related to the reader's beliefs. Secondly, Postimees is an Estonian media. It was worth much effort for Postimees to launch a Russian language space. Over time, this version grew and became full-fledged, but it took time to do so. Moreover, it was a purposeful, often politically charged effort that, to be fair, was not directly related to the struggle with the imperial past. It was simply an attempt to serve the local Russian-speaking reader, to connect them to possible money-making tools.
There is no better or worse language, no preferred language. There is a dominant national language and a minority language, and the second largest national minority in Estonia is Russian-speaking. There were not so many Ukrainians before, and now it has changed. Of course, this means that Ukrainian-language media and materials must appear in some format. But when the state appropriations, the main reason why Ukrainian columns began to exist, ended, the publishing house said: "We will not do this with our money."
On the other hand, the web page "For a Ukrainian in Estonia" on Delfi (a network of online news publications in the Baltic countries, and until 2014 in Ukraine) continues to work in the Russian language. There you can find information under the headings such as "News", "General information", "Employment", "Education", "Medicine", and "For parents", as well as how to contribute to support Ukraine.
According to Andriy Shumakov, editor-in-chief of rus.Delfi, "This section has now taken a back seat. When we launched it about a year ago, it was a really well-visited section, with many people finding information there. We were aware that people come and may need help understanding where to go and how everything is arranged, so we tried to help as much as possible. The materials for the section were handled by a separate editor who either ordered the texts or created them himself. We were in close contact with the Ukrainians who came to Estonia. Even the Kovalevski family (21-year-old Polina Kovalevska survived in occupied Mariupol and left for Estonia through the occupied Donetsk region and Russia. Her diary was published by the online publication meduza.io . — "DM") from Mariupol, for example, lived in the house of one of our editors. We were also very involved on a personal level. However, the situation is changing now. We were slightly derailed by the elections (parliamentary elections in Estonia on March 5, 2023, as a result of which the Reform Party won, and its leader, Kaja Kallas, formed a new coalition government. She was already the prime minister in 2021. — "DM"). Therefore, we dropped the issue of the arrival of Ukrainian citizens to Estonia. Currently, we need to return to this, and I think we need to introduce people and tell their success stories."
1 million euros for Russian-language content and other media features in Estonia
According to Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the closure of Russian propaganda channels in Estonia helped the Russian-speaking population to join the Estonian Russian-language media (ERR, Delfi, Postimees, ETV+, Raadio 4) and be in the same information field with the rest of the people. Meanwhile, in 2023, the Estonian Ministry of Culture allocated 1 million euros to private Russian-language media in Estonia for their content production.
The Estonian and Russian versions of both Delfi and Postimees are different but translated content. rus.Delfi and rus.Postimees have their audience, their readers of printed and online versions.
"Postimees today is primarily an online portal because electronic media dominates the world. Although historically, its print edition is dominant. Postimees is the oldest publishing house, publishing Estonian-language press since 1857. Yan Levchenko assures that Postimees will be the last printed newspaper published in Estonia (unless there are other obstacles). Readers of rus.Postimees are Russian speakers living in Estonia and oriented towards integration and peaceful coexistence. We construct for ourselves a partly idealized, partly deferred, but existing in some nuclear sense reading horizon, where a person, even if they speak Estonian imperfectly, perceives what is happening in the cultural and political space of the country. There are no alternatives. Previously, many readers watched Russian channels because they were not banned, and I am not inclined to blame these people for the fact that they turned out to be the fifth column of Russian propaganda. We are counter-propaganda now. Our reader is a certain product of a certain historical development, and we want to offer some relevant products and media content that will not immediately repel them with its radicalism."
Andriy Shumakov notes that more than half of the Russian-speaking population of Estonia consistently reads rus.Delfi — "except for babies and people of a respectable age." The ban on the broadcasting of Russian-language channels was not reflected in the portal's traffic:
"No one has canceled Russian-language television, and Estonia is very different in this compared to Latvia. Broadcasting of Russian propaganda channels was banned because they promoted international enmity. In general, these TV channels are a big evil. But the problem is that the fight against evil is a little more complicated than in fairy tales. If the government has decided that the providers will not have these channels, it does not mean that the dragon was defeated. For example, there is the city of Narva, where propaganda channels were and are still being watched. Since these TV channels have disappeared from the ratings, we have stopped understanding: how many people watch it? Narva newspapers still publish the Russian "1st Channel" TV program - we write about it and pay attention to it. But we cannot come and forbid it.
I didn't see it reflected in our attendance. People who watched "1st Channel" and read Delfi at the same time — consumed different content. Before the war, "1st Channel" was full of entertainment shows. I even watched "The Voice", or the program "What? Where? When?", which I loved dearly and took part in its Estonian version. But people did not come to Delfi to learn about entertainment shows or the opinion of Kiselyov, Solovyov, or Skabeeva. On the contrary, they were coming to learn some local information. For example, how the bus schedule changes."
How synchronized is the information on the Estonian and Russian portal versions? According to Andriy Shumakov, now the Delfi portal has the resources not only to make translations from the Estonian version but also to develop its own topics:
"Since we live in Estonia and our holding includes 11 Estonian-language media (this consists of the daily newspaper Eesti Päevaleht, Maaleht, and Eesti Ekspress, a certain number of magazines, and the Estonian-language portal Delfi), we translate certain news, articles from Eesti Ekspress and Eesti Päevaleht. But I wouldn't say we're in sync. After the government of the Republic of Estonia decided to help Russian-language media in the market, we significantly increased our editorial staff: we have more than 20 people and many topics of our own.
Plus, sometimes we help our Estonian colleagues. We translate when you need to communicate with people from Narva or with Ukrainians, not all of whom know English. Yes, we understand that sometimes Ukrainian refugees are reluctant to speak Russian, even if they speak Russian. I know that very well. In some cases, a person even has psychological trauma related to this. But there are situations when there is simply no other way out. A person must explain something, and it's easier to do it in Russian."
Translations are also available on Postimees:
"We translate some materials, but we shape our agenda. We do not have a mandatory requirement; for example, this is our decision regarding the percentage of Estonian-translated materials. Sometimes Estonians translate our materials - more and more often, I should note. Previously, they ignored Russian-language content, shrugged their shoulders, and said: "Russians write articles, wow. They know how to do it? Have you heard?".
About 300,000 Russians and about 70,000 Ukrainian refugees came to Estonia. As a person who lives in Estonia with a family and a son here, I want everyone, regardless of nationality, to coexist peacefully. Therefore, we should show that people are people and somehow influence the xenophobic sentiments broadcast by Russian television. But it is a significant simplification to say that the Kremlin has blown the brains out of the Russians, and the Estonians are ready to help. Everything depends on people, and they are different, - Andriy Shumakov shares his thoughts. — I would like us to overcome xenophobia and for people who come to Estonia to become full members of society. For this, people need more information not to feel abandoned. We are trying to do that."
The first Ukrainian-language media: “Struny” newspaper
"There was simply no Ukrainian-language information space since the establishment of the Ukrainian diaspora in the late 1980s," says Vira Konyk, who moved to Estonia in 1986 and began to engage in social activities in the Ukrainian Community of Estonia immediately after its creation in 1988. From 2003‒2010, Vira worked as a correspondent for the Ukrainian edition of the BBC television and radio company, and from 2003 to 2017 - as a journalist for the foreign edition of "Ukrainian Radio". Now she is the head of the Congress of Ukrainians of Estonia and the vice president of the World Congress of Ukrainians.
According to Ms. Konyk, "Even during the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian community began to issue an information sheet called "Struny". Later, in the early 2000s, this paper turned into the Ukrainian-language newspaper Struny, which was published with a circulation of about 1,000 copies once a month, and Vira became its editor.
"In 2000, we decided to continue making printed media. The Internet was born then, and there was a strong hunger for Ukrainian-language content. We continued to issue an information leaflet, but it was already the newspaper "Struny". As its editor, I wrote materials mainly about the life of the Ukrainian community. It also printed news from Ukraine because there was no Ukrainian television in Estonia then. We decided that this newspaper would fill a niche. Struny was published with the support of the Integration Fund, but it could not constantly support this newspaper. We thought it could be self-sustaining, but there weren't many subscribers. The work of the editor and publisher was free – we only spent the money on paper and printing. There was a lack of specialists and funds. We hoped to be able to restore the newspaper later, but it seems that paper publications are playing a smaller and smaller role."
Publication of the Ukrainian-language newspaper Struny was ceased in 2003.
1990: "Chervona Kalyna" - a radio program that lasted for 33 years
Viktoria Melnyk moved to Estonia in 1998 from Kyiv, where she worked for UT-3 (the third channel of the National Television of Ukraine). Then, she started working for Raadio 4 in the "Chervona Kalyna" program. Raadio 4 is part of the Estonian National Broadcasting Corporation and has the largest audience among Russian-language media channels in Estonia.
"I have been working at Raadio 4 since 1998 when the Internet was not as widespread as it is now. I made radio broadcasts, tried to find topics that connected Ukraine and Estonia, and covered the life of local communities, the most interesting of what was happening in our country. On the air of each program, we also covered news from Ukraine for five minutes - details of a week. It must be said that since this radio is in Russian, it is believed that it is for Russians. But it is generally for the residents of Estonia who do not speak the Estonian language - Georgians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs - so that they have information about what is happening in Estonia. Information is provided in the language they understand, and I really didn't want Ukrainians to join this cohort that consumes Russian-language content."
In the 1990s, the children's program "Lyusterko" was also broadcast in Ukrainian on Raadio 4 every Wednesday evening to help children preserve their native language.
"These were broadcasts that we received from Ukrainian Radio (there was an agreement between Raadio 4 and Ukrainian Radio). I personally visited Kyiv several times and chose the most interesting programs. It was quality content made by professional actors, reading fairy tales, for example. We adapted them and could edit them at our discretion with the reference that the program was prepared by "Ukrainian Radio". If I'm not mistaken, it was airing until 2014, but the program wasn't in great demand.
Viktoria Melnyk hosted the "Chervona Kalyna" program for about ten years (with some interruptions). Then, in 2008, Olena Khusainova became its permanent host, and she has continued to host until now. "Chervona Kalyna" is currently the only Ukrainian-language traditional media in Estonia, which Ukrainians created on the basis of the Estonian channel.
As reported on the "Ukrainian Radio" website, the program "Chervona Kalyna" was broadcast for the first time on Estonian Radio in 1990, and the initiator of its creation was the head of the Ukrainian Community of Estonia, Boryslav Kulyk.
2022: Ukrainian woman in Estonia
Until February 24, 2022, Inna Gordienko lived in Kyiv and worked as the head of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future press service. She has more than 20 years of experience in cooperation with the media in Ukraine and it was formed due to her work at "Ukrainian News", the Gorshenin Institute, the head of the press service at the Ministry of Regional Development, as the PR director of the Fund for Effective Management, the head of the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine, and the communications coordinator of the press service of the UKROP party (Ukrainian union of patriots).
"After arriving in Estonia in March, I was invited to an interview. At that time, all the Estonian mass media were interested in how Ukrainians were experiencing this situation. At first, I gave a big interview for the newspaper Äripäev, and throughout the year they invited me several more times, following how my life in Estonia was changing. Following the interview with rus.Delfi, the editor-in-chief suggested making a "Ukrainian woman's blog" for their portal. I was usually not limited by the questions to be raised. I wrote about the war and how this war is reflected here, how Ukrainian immigrants feel in Estonia. I showed the events in Ukraine through the prism of what is happening in Estonia. I also conducted interviews with immigrants, and then I realized how unbreakable as a nation Ukrainians are. For me, it was a shock and, simultaneously, a pride that, despite the difficulties, we are ready to do our best, learn the language, work, and open businesses. We all try to continue living here, pay taxes, and develop the state."
Later, Inna began to blog her "Ukrainian woman in Estonia" on the rus.Postimees portal. The blog focuses on the integration of Ukrainians into Estonian society. As during cooperation with rus.Delfi, Inna writes texts in Russian:
"The Russian-speaking population of Estonia reads these portals. Therefore, although it was a dissonance with my inner self, and I wanted to write in Ukrainian, I understood this was part of the information war. Telling the truth about what was happening in Ukraine or with Ukrainians in Estonia, I addressed the local Russian-speaking audience. They took it differently, writing nasty comments under my blog pieces every time. Yes, it was unpleasant for me, but I understand that this is an important job - to tell what is really happening.
According to Yan Levchenko, materials about Ukraine are popular and collect comments on rus.Postimees both from actual readers and from presumably fake ones:
"In Estonia, there are media that tend to emphasize differences, draw such demarcation red lines that divide communities. We are trying to unite them, overcoming the terrible wave of hate in the comments. It is worth writing something complimentary about Ukraine - it is an immediately popular material and catches much hate, although it is always the same people. I suspect that there are very few such haters who come to each new material every time. There are bots out there, but there are also real crazy people who do it.”
However, according to Yan Levchenko, the audience's attitude, and reaction to topics related to Ukraine have changed over the year:
"The attitude has changed a lot since the start of the full-scale invasion and blackouts of the Russian-language media. I will give you an example. At the beginning of summer, in June, our Postimees newspapers were distributed in the north-east of Estonia, in Ida-Virumaa (a region bordering Russia, the center of which is the city of Narva - "DM"), and no one wanted to read them. They believed that this was "a colonial Tallinn paper by some Russians who sold themselves to Estonians, underdogs, Estonian nationalists who wear the clothes of the Russian mass media. We will not read it. We will boycott it." At the end of the year, the newspaper was already completely sold out, and we were asked when it would be available. And there were always materials about Ukraine. That is, this topic was not a toxic threshold for these people, on the contrary, they accepted it in themselves, among other things.
On the Postimees air
Many Russian-speaking people arrived in Estonia in the 2010s. Moreover, political emigrants started creating their communities here. The attitude of these people to current events is drastically different from those who have always lived here. They have a more balanced, consistent, less controversial, and emotional position. In any case, they will overpower and indoctrinate those who, at first, smearing angry tears, emotionally disagreed with them and said: "No, Putin is good, don't destroy my world." I see a difference between the end of the 2000s and now.
On the "For a Ukrainian in Estonia" page of the Delfi portal, the word "refugees" appears in most of the headlines, in contrast to, for example, the page of the Lithuanian portal, where more often just "Ukrainians" are written. A series of publications about women from Ukraine usually begin with the phrase "Ukrainian refugee woman". How does the audience of Russian-speaking Delfi respond to these topics?
"There are people who would like to help, but there are also those who openly troll Ukrainians who find themselves in a difficult situation. We face this all the time, - answers the chief editor of rus.Delfi Andriy Shumakov. — You can leave comments on our portal without registration. It is both good and bad. A person without registration seems to bear no responsibility for their words. But it's better to let people spill everything in the comments and not go out and say it to one’s face. It will be much worse if a person says the same thing to this Ukrainian refugee's face.
Yes, I understand it is not pleasant for the people about whom such posts are written. We are trying to clean up these comments, we are working on it, we hired an additional moderator specifically to work with the Ukrainian topic. We blocked all comments on posts directly related to the war because trolling is not a good idea. But yes, the situation with comments remains quite tricky."
New realities — new media
Karina Gand created the Telegram channel "Estonia — information for Ukrainians" on March 3, 2022, when she was helping Ukrainian refugees at the volunteer headquarters. Now it is the largest Ukrainian-language channel for Ukrainians in Estonia by the number of subscribers (3,270 as of April 12). The Telegram channel is a volunteer project. As Karina says, "I spent about 100 euros on its development - targetted ads on Instagram and Facebook, because in the first weeks of the war, the goal was for Ukrainians to have access to information 24 hours a day and even offline, if suddenly there was no connection."
"The channel is in the Ukrainian language, and it is a principled position. Initially, it was unclear how the refugees would react to information in Russian. There was a desire to give people hope and help them overcome the fear of a foreign country through language. The information for the channel initially came from charitable foundations and organizations - the Association of Ukrainian Organizations in Estonia, the Estonian Council for Refugees (Pagulasabi), the Refugee Center (Niine 2), representatives of the police department, and the Embassy of Ukraine in Estonia - which helped people reach Estonia and knew where to go. Now the information is mostly from Pagulasabi."
Karina makes sure that the channel does not contain irrelevant information, as well as advertising. People who work with IDPs and are driven to do valuable things are essential for the channel.
"For a year, the demand for the channel's information, specifically for refugees, has decreased. More relevant and needed are adaptation programs, language learning, and the opportunity to join volunteer activities. The channel has a chat where activists help with information and sometimes solve extraordinary questions (how to get to Estonia, find an apartment or a job)."
For Ukrainians in Estonia, Telegram channels and Facebook groups are an opportunity to receive current local information in Ukrainian and communicate and become part of a new community abroad generally. However, using Telegram channels among Estonians is rare, as is Instagram or Facebook in the format used in Ukraine. Is it because the level of trust in traditional media, especially television, is high?
Chief editor of rus.Delfi Andriy Shumakov believes that "it's not only a matter of trust, but also that Estonia is a rather conservative country. A daily newspaper is still published in Estonia. The market as a whole is very small, and no one considers it a market of three countries — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania."
"Telegram channels in Estonia are read by Ukrainians who live here. Local Russian-speaking population also reads them, - Yan Levchenko shares his observations. — Estonians do not read and use Telegram. For them, it is an unfamiliar form of communicative exchange. Russians outside Estonia often note that Estonian Facebook influences local Russians. Facebook in Estonia is not for clarifying relations or expressing one's political position, as in Russia, where it replaces civil society. In Estonia, it is a platform for, for example, the exchange of children's things, a marketplace, and a place where you post your ads for services, jobs, etc. If someone starts to express his civic position on Facebook, it will look strange and silly. Unlike Russia, the Russian-speaking Estonia residents, who are pro-Russian, do not read "patriotic" Telegram channels. Such channels are read in Russia, but it does not reach the Estonian locals, who do not subscribe to it."
Are Ukrainian-language media needed in Estonia?
The head of the Congress of Ukrainians in Estonia, Vira Konyk, follows the news from Ukraine on the Ukrainian TV channels "Espresso", Channel 5, and Pryamiy. I know many journalists personally. From the Estonian media, she watches Aktualna Kamera (in Estonian), visits the ERR, and Postimees portals in Estonian and Russian, listens to Raadio 4, Raadio Kuku:
"Yes, perhaps now is the time to create a Ukrainian-language media in Estonia. We are already taking certain steps for this. I think it should be a Ukrainian-language portal filled with content from Ukraine and news about community life and getting to know Estonia. I would like Ukrainians to be in a Ukrainian-speaking environment, to use either Ukrainian or Estonian. It would be nice to have a Ukrainian program on Estonian television, but it is more difficult because there must be specialists in the production of television programs and qualified journalists.
Regarding media funding, I think radio and television should be on the same basis as it is for Russians — that is, public media should be financed from the state budget. Our experience shows that it is complicated to rely on financial support from the community. Although now, the diaspora composition is qualitatively different compared to Soviet times. At that time, the diaspora was satisfied with the Russian television, and only a small part aspired to the national one."
Viktoria Melnyk, who works in an Estonian school, now prefers Estonian-language media and believes that if one decides to make such media, then it should be only in a modern format:
"I wouldn't say that Ukrainian-language media is needed. All the Ukrainians who arrived spoke Russian. Russian-speaking rus.Delfi, rus.Postimees, ETV+, Raadio 4 — all of these are available. Estonians expect Ukrainians to learn Estonian and integrate into the Estonian-speaking environment, they are not interested in creating another "bubble" here. You can make your own Internet channel, YouTube, and radio if you want to. But I have no idea how popular it can be."
Karina Gand reads the official Estonian and Ukrainian Telegram channels (by the military, police, and rescue departments), listens to Estonian-language podcasts, and sometimes watches the Ukrainian unified telethon on YouTube. According to Karina, local newspapers and Facebook became her first source of information in Estonia three years ago. Answering the question of whether there is a need for Ukrainian-language media in Estonia, for example, television, radio, online platforms, etc., the founder of the largest Ukrainian-language Telegram channel in Estonia answers:
"The language issue is very complicated. And we in our country faced the consequences of Soviet rule, when the population was forcibly Russified. That is why in Estonia, I am for the Estonian language. It is enough to distribute subtitles and translations of articles in Ukrainian. Ukrainian media is good, but in a format which would remain in tandem with the Estonian space."
Inna Gordienko, in addition to the "Ukrainian woman’s" blog on Postimees, manages communications at the Association of Ukrainian Organizations in Estonia. She reads the news from "Ukrainian Pravda" and "Interfax", reads UNIAN Telegram channel, "Politika strany", Mykhailo Tkach channel, "Ukraine Online", Economy now UA, rus.Postimees, and views the page "For a Ukrainian" on Delfi. She also listens to "Radio Bayraktar", watches the telethon, and the "FreeDom" channel. To the question of whether there should be Ukrainian-language media in Estonia, the following answers:
"Of course, there should be one! I am convinced of this. There are now about 70,000 Ukrainians in Estonia, and they should receive information in the Ukrainian language somewhere about what is happening here. I think this question is overdue. Postimees has several Ukrainian journalists who write about events in Ukraine in Russian. On the one hand, it is good that this information is available. On the other hand, it would be better if we consumed it in Ukrainian. Therefore, there must be either an online publication or a slot on state television. For example, there is a Russian TV channel ETV+ on ERR. I believe we also deserve to have our own channel and voice in Estonia. I'm sure some people can do it. We can also assemble a team that will produce the news about the events in Ukraine and their impact on Estonia, about what is happening here with the help of Ukraine. From the experience of the Ukrainian film club, we see that Estonians are also interested in Ukrainian culture and language. It seems ideal to create a Ukrainian slot based on the Estonian state television, which will perhaps remove all questions."
The list of media monitored by rus.Postimees editor Yan Levchenko includes Telegram channels and foreign media in Russian (Deutsche Welle, Radio Svoboda, Current Time). Yan regularly visits his media website, follows the work of competitors such as Delfi, and reads such publications as "Stolitsa" and a newspaper of the Center Party of Estonia - to understand the context. Yan believes the Äripäev edition in Estonian is very high quality. We asked him whether there is a need for Ukrainian-language media in Estonia.
"It would be imperative if a Ukrainian slot appears on the Russian-language channel ETV+, which operates with state funds, and slightly shifts the program of Russian-language programs. It would be a powerful gesture that would be appreciated by media representatives in other countries where there are also large communities of Ukrainians. It has already been done in Poland - there are many Ukrainians there, and this country is the main "reception hall", a shelter for Ukrainians. However, Estonia is also in the first rank of aid to Ukraine, so they focus on it. Not surprisingly, Estonia became visible in Europe because of the war in Ukraine.
One can imagine that an opportunity for a Ukrainian-language portal will open. But the question is why? Ukrainians who will stay here are inclined to learn Estonian. However, if you are Ukrainian and came as a refugee, you cannot identify with the Russian media. Therefore, there should be a slot on television, some different materials, but most likely based on state resources. Commercial media won't go for it. They tried while there was a "scholarship" from the state, but it's hard to imagine that they will do it with their own funds."
The editor-in-chief of rus.Delfi, Andriy Shumakov, admits that he spends much time on social networks because of his work. Besides Delfi, he reads Postimees, ERR, tries to watch Estonian-language TV since he moved to Estonia six years ago, and follows some Ukrainian media. Is there a need for Ukrainian-language media, and can they become popular in Estonia, according to the editor-in-chief of rus.Delfi?
"This is a difficult question that I am constantly thinking about. We are a private media holding that, roughly speaking, makes a living independently. We need to look at the commercial component of any project. This time the government finances us, and we were given 300,000 euros annually. And perhaps now is the very moment when Ukrainian-language media in Estonia would have a good opportunity to launch."
