Each month, in partnership with Display Europe and Krytyka Polityczna, we publish Paulina Siegien's press review of news from Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. A selection of carefully chosen topics and articles from the local independent press to give an insight into what’s happening in the ‘New Europe’.

Belarus has become Russia's accomplice in Ukraine. Dictator Alexander Lukashenko is to blame – but so is Europe, for its inaction and its indifference to the protests and demands of ordinary Belarusians. Katja Artsiomenka, a Belarusian journalist in Germany, describes their sense of abandonment and helplessness, their despair and fear.

Mid-September, 35,000 Jewish pilgrims gathered in Uman, halfway between Kyiv and Odesa. On the Jewish New Year, they were taking part in an annual homage to the tomb of an 18th-century rabbi. The event has a particular symbolic resonance as war rages with Russia.