Europe Today: France counts cost of violence as Ukraine hits St Petersburg, Leningrad

Name: Europe Today: France counts cost of violence as Ukraine hits St Petersburg, Leningrad
Uploaded: 2026-10-19T06:54:27+00:00
Duration: 19 min 42 s
Channel: euronews (in English)

00:14Good morning, it is Monday the 19th of October. I'm Maeve McMahan and this is Europe Today.

00:21Your morning update of European news and analysis live here on Euromuse.

00:26Coming up from Lyon to Paris, Marseille to Rennes, France is still cleaning up scenes of devastation

00:33following the worst nationwide protests in years. Buildings were attacked, shops set ablaze and more

00:40than 2,400 people arrested. Our very own Euronews correspondent Estelle Nelson-Julien and her

00:46cameraman were also assaulted and attacked. We'll be crossing to Paris for the latest.

00:51Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have struck an oil terminal, a data centre and a bridge

00:56in St. Petersburg in a large-scale drone attack over the weekend. It comes as the European Union

01:01officially advances new negotiation clusters to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union,

01:07alongside the creation of a joint task force to tackle corruption and rule of law reforms.

01:12For the View from Kyiv, we sit down exclusively with the EU ambassador to Brussels, Katerina

01:18Mathernova. Plus, 1,000 aid workers killed in three years. And now new warnings that modern

01:25conflict zones are turning into AI atrocity labs. We speak to UNA chief Tom Fletcher, who warns that

01:31with so many cuts to overseas aids in his sector, more people will die. But first, to Paris, where

01:37student-led demonstrations over the cost of living and school conditions that began weeks ago have

01:42spiralled out of control, with violent groups hijacking the marches this weekend. The mayor of

01:48Paris said whole streets have been devastated, cars burnt out and shopfronts destroyed. In the

01:54address to the nation last night, the French president Emmanuel Macron pledged to catch all

01:58those responsible for the chaos.

02:02Tonight, we all feel anger and shame. Seeing the streets of our cities ransacked like this

02:07is unbearable. Those who have destroyed property must pay. Those who have looted must make restitution.

02:13Those who have sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.

02:16And just this morning, France's Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, has handed in his resignation,

02:21but the French president has refused it for now. For more on the 10th situation, we can go straight to

02:26Paris, where Euronews international correspondent Valérie Gaurier is standing by for us.

02:30Good morning, Valérie. Now, our viewers know you as often reporting from war zones for Euronews.

02:36How does this destruction compare and what could the final cost be?

02:42Well, if we compare to wars, we have to keep things into proportions. But it's true that

02:49some of the scenes I've seen over the weekend are reminiscent of things I've seen in Ukraine,

02:57for instance, the destroyed buildings, the burned cars, buildings like this one behind me,

03:04this restaurant that was completely devastated on a Saturday night. So there is this feeling of

03:10desolation, the overturned streets and things. Things are quite gruesome throughout Paris since

03:19Saturday and piles of burned bikes everywhere. So, yes, there is desolation and people are stunned

03:29by the sight of their city in this neighborhood around the Place de la République, for instance.

03:35And now the situation is still tense. As you know, the looting went on last night. I came back to

03:43the

03:43Place de la République early afternoon and was surprised to see the amount of police that was

03:48deployed there. And they were confronted and confronting groups of youth who had gathered

03:56on the square again. And it's, you know, continued with pursuits and tear gas grenades being thrown,

04:05more arrests. So tension is still running high.

04:08And President Macron spoke to the nation last night, Valerie. Has the government regained

04:13control of the situation at all?

04:16Well, the government is far from having regained control of the situation. We'll see what happens

04:21today. But the president was very focused on being firm towards those who perpetrated the looting

04:33and the destruction in France over the weekend. But he was also, you know, criticized for not

04:41saying anything about the solutions. He would bring the answers he would give to the demonstrations

04:50as demonstrators as concerns, as concerns the cost of life, the high cost of life, or the issues in

04:58education and health. So people are still waiting for those answers. He was also blamed for not

05:05saying a word about the young people who were wounded during the protests. There is a crisis cell that is

05:13being, that is being organized and it starts its meeting this morning. It will continue for several

05:21days. So the solutions are yet to be, you know, discussed and revealed to the wider public, which

05:29is getting quite impatient.

05:33Okay, Valerie Gourier, thank you so much for that live update there from Paris and beyond France. The cost

05:39of living and housing crisis has been sparking unrest all across the continent. From Albania to

05:44Portugal, Italy to Spain, thousands have been taking to the streets this weekend, declaring that

05:49soaring housing costs and inflation have left them suffocating. For more, we can bring in Professor

05:54Alberto Alamano. He's a professor in EU law at HEC Paris. Good morning, Alberto. Thank you so much

06:00for joining us. Just did you see these protests coming first and how long do you think they could last?

06:06I would say Europe's youth protests are not one movement at the moment. They reflect

06:12shared anxieties about job, living costs in the future, and they are becoming violent, at least in

06:19some corners of Europe, which is complicating the ability of the youth to convey their message to

06:25political leaders. However, treating these protests as a teenage revolution or as a pan-European

06:32movement might be inaccurate and even misleading by fooling an image of Europe that is destroying

06:38itself, which I don't think is entirely accurate. You're right in pointing out that these protests

06:44are spreading across Europe, but I think their immediate calls differ from one another, and that's

06:51why I don't think we should treat them as one phenomenon. We are probably talking about different

06:56situations, different reasons that spark this protest with some imitation that is occurring

07:02among them, fueled by media coverage. Well, how can politicians catch hold of the situation? As you've

07:07seen in France, the political response has not been adequate. Well, by now it is pretty clear that the

07:15French protests have not been foreseen or treated with due of care. They were largely anticipated,

07:22and yet the police and the public authority were not able to handle, to prevent, and to mitigate

07:27disaster. And there is also evidence suggesting that there has been some abuse of power with many

07:33thousands of arrests, some violence and accidents that could have potentially been foreseen. And that's

07:40why we've been hearing in the past few hours quite strong calls for inquiries in order to find out

07:47exactly what went wrong, and to avoid this to happen in the future, should this protest continue

07:52across countries in Europe. And have EU heads of state and government been too focused on issues

07:57like defence and security, far away from people's real-life struggles? Well, there are many instances

08:05in which we've been hearing students, the youth, and even trade unions and workers claiming that there is

08:11something broader than the school issue here. We see that the capacity of most countries to spend

08:17for welfare state has been reduced, reduced by this major rush towards rearmament of Europe,

08:24and this is causing concern, concerns among different peoples of Europe who feel affected,

08:29in particular the younger ones, because they know that their future will be bleak compared to that

08:34of their own parents. We have a lot of polls suggesting that more than half of the youth in Europe

08:39believe that their future won't be as right as that of their parents.

08:43And that, of course, is a very important message which has been perhaps blurred out because,

08:47of course, it's the violence in those images that are, of course, dominating the headlines this

08:51morning. Professor Alberto Almano, thank you so much for joining us here. Now moving on,

08:55Ukraine has reportedly launched a major drone attack on St. Petersburg, striking an oil terminal

09:01and targeting a data centre and a bridge. The attack comes just one week after President Donald Trump

09:06announced an energy ceasefire which has failed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. For more,

09:12we're joined now here in the studio by our Ukraine correspondent, Sasha Vakilina. Good morning, Sasha.

09:17Just tell us, what more do we know about this overnight attack and what does it mean for Trump's

09:21proposed energy ceasefire? Well, reportedly two of the city's oil facilities have been struck by Ukrainian

09:26drones and one of them indeed is being St. Petersburg oil terminal. It is important to know that this is

09:31indeed one of the largest oil terminals in Russia. Now, this attack over the weekend seems to put

09:38sort of an official end to Donald Trump's unilaterally declared energy ceasefire because Kyiv did pause

09:45its strikes on Russia's energy facilities for a couple of days while Russia did not do that. And including this

09:51night now, there are ballistic missiles launched at Kyiv and Ukraine. And Volodymyr Zelensky said that over

09:57just the past week, Russia deliberately attacked Ukraine's energy and oil and gas sectors 76 times,

10:06launching almost 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles made. Now, but that certainly would not

10:16please Donald Trump. And we've heard overnight from him. He posted on Truth Social another post saying

10:22that he is willing to put an end to this war in his own way. He still believes in the

10:27energy ceasefire.

10:28And he actually said that Russia, and I'm quoting him here, is doing very little if anything to help Iran.

10:34And instead, he said that Russia is helping the world and the United States when it comes to

10:38diesel. And he again blamed Ukraine, said that Ukraine is deliberately using diesel

10:44refineries as target, knowing how much they hurt the world diesel market. He also blamed once again

10:50Volodymyr Zelensky saying, quote, he does not care and he does not want to end this war, Donald Trump said.

10:56Now, I spoke also exclusively to the EU's ambassador to Kyiv, Katerina Matanova, who has a very different

11:01view on that because she actually lives in Kyiv and lives through every single Russian attack in Ukraine's

11:07capital. What happened since the end of August of this year is that Kyiv became a true frontline city.

11:17And this is the not only the nighttime attacks that we are almost used to, but the daytime attacks that

11:25started on the 27th of August are relentless. And they people can't really imagine when they're outside

11:32that when you have an alert, kids have to stop studying, go to the shelter, doctors stop carrying

11:40out medical procedures, metro stops.

11:43With the intensified attacks by Russia since the end of August, Moscow has been using more and more

11:48as well of jet powered drones, which are much harder to intercept. And very often, the targets have nothing

11:54to do with the military.

11:55I think this is quite a specialty of Russia is the attacks on civilian targets. And let's remind

12:03ourselves that attacking civilian targets is a war crime. It goes against the laws of war. So apart from

12:12aggressing peaceful country in the first place, the war crimes are happening on a daily basis.

12:20There is also diplomatic escalation happening these days between the United States and Ukraine, which is one

12:26of the important topics regarding how much more Europe can step in to help with your experience, first

12:33hand experience of living through all of that in Kyiv. What do you communicate with your colleagues,

12:39diplomats and the European leaders here in Brussels?

12:42LESLIE KOSCHEK

12:43Europe has been and is proving itself to be really the steadfast, the most reliable supporter of Ukraine,

12:53both on the financial side and the military side. President Kostov was very clear that we are certainly

13:00not going to release any sanctions on Russia until the war stops. And also, you know, right now,

13:10the European Union is carrying about three quarters of the financial support for Ukraine. And I think there is

13:20determination to continue. But we also will be talking to our like-minded partners to step up their effort as

13:27well.

13:28One of the aspects of Europe's bigger support and more of the European Union stepping in also comes to

13:35supporting Ukraine when it comes to Ukraine's right to strike Russia's oil facilities, refineries,

13:41to target Russia's money-making machine, the one that is financing the war. We have heard from Kaya

13:45Kalas, who told Euronews that Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, on Russian. But this support of

13:51Europe can also put Europe and Brussels at odds and in trouble in its relations with the United States.

13:58Well, I would prefer not to comment on that. I look at it from the perspective of Kyiv and living

14:07there. And I

14:08certainly support the view that the High Representative expressed, because it's the

14:14fossil fuel industry that is fueling the war on the Russia side.

14:23And moving on from Gaza to Congo, South Sudan to Myanmar, attacks on humanitarian workers are on

14:29the up as funding for their day job is going down. And as the EU prepares its long-term kitty

14:34from 2028 to 2034,

14:37a fight is unfolding over how development, humanitarian aid and geopolitical priorities

14:43can be financed. For more, we sat down with the UN aid chief, Tom Fletcher, who passed through

14:48Brussels for the EU's first-ever conference on the protection of aid workers. And we started by asking

14:53how bad their plight was. Take a look.

14:56Oh, it's been terrible. I mean, we've lost a thousand colleagues in the last three years. And so the

15:01question being asked at this conference is, how do we stop people killing aid workers? We shouldn't have

15:06to ask that question. I mean, the protection, the law is meant to be there to protect us.

15:10We've got our humanitarian neutrality. We should be able to go and deliver food,

15:14medicine, shelter without people killing us. And yet a thousand dead colleagues in three years.

15:19And the way people are being killed as well is even more vicious, more sophisticated.

15:23It's terrifying. And remember, you know, these are people who wake up, they kiss their kids,

15:26you know, goodbye in the morning. They're going out to work. They're going into danger. They know the

15:30dangers. And somewhere else, there are other people thinking, how do we kill them? You know,

15:34it, I can't get my head into, into the mindset of the people who are killing

15:38aid workers. And there's no accountability, never investigations. And the weapons,

15:43as you said, becoming more and more sophisticated, including, I was in Kherson just recently in

15:47Ukraine, you know, the drones being used there, the AI drones that become more lethal as they get

15:53to the end of their battery life, because they're programmed to find a target and to kill it.

15:57What role will AI play going forward? As you say, it's already playing a role in Ukraine,

16:01also in the war in Iran, we've seen. In these new weapons right now, in Sudan, in Somalia,

16:05South Sudan, Lebanon, Gaza, so many of the places we're working, people are telling us right now

16:11that they are an atrocities lab, that these weapons are being developed, that they're,

16:15you know, like a lab. They're being experimented on with these new weapons. And it's been becoming

16:20terrifying because you're getting these kill zones in which nothing can survive.

16:26And meanwhile, that's happening on the ground. And here in Brussels, politically,

16:29just last week, we saw the EU summit. There was lots of squabbles over the EU budget. There's lots

16:34of talk of cutting development aid, overseas aid. What would that mean for these areas? And,

16:38of course, fragile and conflicted states? It would be devastating. I mean,

16:41we faced enormous cuts already in the last few years. And as a result, at least a third of the

16:47sector has had to be cut. Now, I then go out to the field, and I'm in places where I

16:52know that

16:53people will die because of the cuts, because of choices I'm then having to make. I was in

16:57Afghanistan recently where, you know, we've cut the clinics. And so, therefore, women are cycling

17:02much further to get to give birth. And as a result, they're losing their kids because they're dying on

17:06the road. You know, again and again, I'm holding children who I know will probably not survive

17:11because of the cuts I'm being forced to make. So we desperately need this to be a budget of solidarity

17:15and generosity for the people in the world who need it most. And that's one of the reasons I'm here.

17:20And when you hear messages like those coming from France, from Marine Le Pen,

17:23whose party is doing very well in the polls ahead of those elections next year, she's saying that

17:28she'll be cutting funds even to Ukraine. What does that make you think?

17:32I've been in Ukraine recently. I've seen how great the needs are. I was in Kyiv overnight when

17:37they had a terrible night. Ballistic missiles, huge missiles landing all through the night.

17:41I was in Kherson up on the front line. I drove down what they call the road of death,

17:46where so many of these drones are attacking, hitting civilians. So those needs there are

17:52massive. And I think, you know, there are many politicians in Europe who make the case for

17:58cutting aid. But actually, if you're not dealing with these problems at source, then these problems

18:02will come in your direction. You can't put a tariff on a on a pandemic. You can't build a wall

18:07large

18:07enough to keep out the waves of migration that the climate crisis and the aid cuts will drive. So,

18:13you know, we'll keep on making the argument and hope that there are enough people of solidarity

18:17and generosity there to to see it through. And just finally, we're coming. Well,

18:21it's already one year since the ceasefire in Gaza coming into the winter. What does the situation look

18:26like there? It's grim. And, you know, a year on from the ceasefire, we have managed to get the hunger

18:31levels down. So about half the number of people who were reporting going to bed hungry a year ago

18:36are saying they're still going to bed hungry. But that's still almost half the population going to bed

18:40hungry. You know, we're being blocked from bringing in the shelter materials for the winter,

18:45the the tents that people need. We're being blocked from all the work we need to do to clear

18:51the rubble in Gaza under which people's loved ones are still buried so they can start to rebuild their

18:57homes and their lives. So some things are improving. We've got 100,000 kids back into school,

19:01but those kids should never have been out of school. And now we're facing into a really,

19:07really rough winter.

19:11Well, that brings this edition of Europe Today to an end. For any longer reads, do visit

19:16Euronews.com, especially on that unfolding story and situation over in France. Any comments or messages

19:22for us, you can always reach us, Europe Today at Euronews.com. That is our email address. But for now,

19:27take care. Thank you so much for tuning in, as always, and stay with us here on Euronews.

Europe Today: France counts cost of violence as Ukraine hits St Petersburg, Leningrad

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