Trump's unpredictability makes us nervous, says Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov

Talking Europe

In this episode we take a look at life, war and politics in Ukraine, through the eyes of its most celebrated writer. Andrey Kurkov rose to international fame with "Death and the Penguin" more than 20 years ago, but he has many other novels to his name, including "The Silver Bone", which has just been published in English. It's the first book in his new series, the Kyiv Mysteries. Kurkov is very active in promoting the literature and culture of his country around the world, and he was travelling around Europe as he recorded this interview.

Kurkov reminds us of the human cost of the war in his homeland. "Ukraine is a very different country from 2021, because we are talking about 6 or 7 million refugees abroad, 6 or 7 million displaced persons, and 30 percent of the territory destroyed and empty. So people who are displaced or who are abroad very often don't have a place to come back to. And, of course, the other issue is 400,000 Ukrainian children who attend schools in Europe and outside Europe. I don't believe their mothers will interrupt their studies, or will take them away when the war is frozen or ended. Because they are already integrated in the societies where they live."

Kurkov says there are "lots of parallels" between 1919, the year in which his latest novel "The Silver Bone" is set, and the present day. "The aim of the Bolsheviks is the same as the aim of Putin today. He says that Ukraine does not exist, that Ukrainians don't exist. And he wants to take Ukrainian territory, with or without Ukrainians, back into a new Russian empire. And this was actually the aim of Lenin. This was the aim of the Bolsheviks. And they captured Kyiv four times between 1918 and 1921, showing incredible violence, just the same level of violence that you could see in 2022."

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Kurkov writes in Russian, but he admits that people don't feel like buying his books in Russian in Ukraine. Instead, they read him in Ukrainian translation. We ask him about this hostility towards the Russian language.

"I accept the situation because it's the Russian language which was used over centuries to suppress and remove Ukrainian from the Ukrainian territory," Kurkov responds. "Russification was also the policy of the communists in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, etc. I grew up in Russian-speaking Kyiv, where if you heard Ukrainian on the street, you would think this is either a nationalist or a peasant. So the Ukrainian language should come back and it is coming back now."

Still, Kurkov would like to see "the return of Ukrainian tolerance", he concedes. "We have Russian-language poets and writers who are keeping a low profile, and who are marginalised or ignored by the majority. But they do exist and this enriches the culture."

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Kurkov also comments on President Volodymyr Zelensky's recent visit to the US, and his seemingly awkward meeting with Donald Trump, in which the latter reminded Zelensky that he has "a very good relationship" with Vladimir Putin.

"Trump will try to reject everything that will come from Zelensky because he wants to have his own plans and he wants to force Ukraine to accept his plans," Kurkov says.

Asked if people around him are worried about Trump potentially winning the US election and returning to the White House, Kurkov answers: "I would say that the intellectuals in Ukraine are very worried about this. Of course. They are more sympathetic to Kamala Harris. Although Kamala Harris recently didn't answer the question about membership of NATO for Ukraine. But she is predictable. Trump is completely unpredictable. That makes people nervous in Ukraine."

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero