In today’s conflicts, some of the fiercest battles are not fought with weapons, but with information.

In this episode, MEP Reinis Pozņaks and MEP Petras Auštrevičius are joined by Sarah Wheaton, Chief Policy Correspondent at Politico Europe, to explore the role of journalism in times of crisis and the growing pressure on independent media.

Together, they discuss:

• How disinformation and polarisation are reshaping public debate in Europe
• The challenge of verifying truth in an era of AI, deepfakes and viral content
• Why trust in traditional media is eroding, and what that means for democracy
• How foreign influence operations fuel division
• Whether governments should regulate information in wartime
• The uncomfortable reality that journalists themselves are now targets

It is a candid, timely conversation about power, perception and the line between information and manipulation.

Europe faces a strategic reality: deterrence requires more than political will — it requires the ability to finance it.

In this episode of the Eastern Frontline podcast, MEPs Reinis Pozņaks and Roberts Zīle speak with Rob Murray, the CEO of the Defence, Security & Resilience Bank, a former Head of Innovation at NATO and architect of the NATO Innovation Fund, to unpack why Europe’s defence financing model is no longer fit for purpose.

Murray explains:

• Why the defence industrial base cannot scale without access to credit
• How regulatory constraints block SMEs from entering defence supply chains
• Why the Defence, Security & Resilience Bank could be a game-changer
• The limits of the EIB’s mandate — and why complementary instruments are needed
• The strategic risk of defence inflation and multi-year procurement uncertainty
• How a transatlantic, Indo-Pacific coalition of shareholders could accelerate production

A clear message emerges: Europe needs new financial architecture if it wants real deterrence.

In this episode of the Eastern Frontline Podcast, MEPs Reinis Pozņaks and Virginijus Sinkevičius speak with Prof. Ilse Derluyn about the hidden side of resilience.

The discussion explores the long-term challenges Ukraine and Europe must prepare for — covering the mental health of youth, the post-war reintegration of veterans, and the role of diaspora. Prof. Derluyn warns that winning the war is only the beginning — healing society will take generations.

She discusses why:

- Veteran reintegration will be a decades-long challenge, requiring therapy, jobs, and community dialogue.

- Children and youth will carry war trauma alongside the scars of COVID. Mental health must be a pillar of Ukraine’s recovery.

- Different survival choices (fight, flee, freeze) are normal — but can fracture cohesion.

- Diaspora and returnees will bring both skills and tensions — policies are needed to manage reintegration.

- Post-war “blame cycles” are inevitable. Societies need mechanisms to evaluate mistakes without tearing themselves apart.