Eurotopics.net

More than 100,000 Russian-speaking Latvians gather each year on 9 May in Riga to celebrate the liberation of Latvia from Nazism by the Soviets. Now Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis is considering banning the celebrations because they also serve as a rallying point for Putin supporters. Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Kariņš has called the celebration a "glorification of the occupation of our country" and is not ruling out a nationwide ban.

Hungary will elect a new parliament on Sunday. Opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay will face Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in power since 2010. Until the war, Orbán was considered a close ally of Putin's. He agreed to sanctions against Russia but blocked arms deliveries to Ukraine across the Hungarian border. Europe's press sees various scenarios for the future.

Organisations such as the UN World Food Programme are sounding the alarm: the war in Ukraine is not only causing suffering for those in the disputed areas but also also threatens to unleash a global food crisis. Taken together, Ukraine and Russia produce a third of the world's wheat, for example. Europe's press debates strategies in this dangerous situation.