Kyiv had long had reservations about interpreter caught taking illegal notes – Le Monde

Long before the incident at the European Council meeting, Ukrainian diplomatic missions had avoided working with a French-Ukrainian interpreter who was caught taking notes of the discussions in violation of the rules.

Source: European Pravda, citing an article in the French newspaper Le Monde

Details: The article mentions that the Ukrainian embassies in France and Brussels had for many years refused to involve the interpreter, referred to as Ms I., during events marking visits by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

One of the reasons for this position was that the interpreter "maintains professional relations with representatives of the Russian authorities". The article does not mention specific examples of such cooperation.

Ms I. was not on the official lists of permanent interpreters at NATO or the French ministries. A French diplomat said she had been invited twice in 2024 by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to events unrelated to Ukraine.

She was also occasionally invited by the French representation in Brussels. In preparation for the article, Le Monde spoke to French officials who stressed that they would "draw all the necessary conclusions from the incident".

Journalists discovered that Ms I.’s parents and sister, who is also a highly qualified translator, are Russian but lived in Ukraine. Ms I. graduated in philology from Kyiv in 2002 and later studied at the Institute of Translation, Interpreting and International Relations in Strasbourg. The sisters have worked as freelance translators for NATO, the European Commission and French agencies for about 20 years.

Background:

• This week, it emerged that the European Commission terminated its cooperation with a French-Ukrainian interpreter after colleagues observed her taking notes during sensitive discussions at a European Council meeting on 19 December 2024, which was attended by President Zelenskyy.
• The notes were seized, and the findings of the internal investigation were handed over to Belgian law enforcement authorities for further inquiry to determine whether this constituted espionage on behalf of the Russian Federation.
• In recent years, a number of espionage allegations have been investigated in the EU. Last year, European Commission staff were warned of a real threat from foreign agents.
• Last year, the European Parliament imposed sanctions on former Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka after she was suspected of working for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

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