Zoya Sheftalovich

Zoya Sheftalovich is POLITICO’s Chief EU Correspondent and host of the Brussels Playbook Podcast, leading coverage of how the European Union’s institutions respond to wars, crises and power struggles around them. Her reporting pulls Brussels out of jargon and into concrete consequences, testing grand plans against the reality of implementation and the pressures of geopolitics. She treats the European project as something that must withstand Russian aggression, transatlantic bargaining and domestic political theatrics, rather than as a closed institutional bubble.

EU institutions under strain

As Chief EU Correspondent, Sheftalovich anchors POLITICO’s reporting on the European Union’s institutions and their internal battles over policy, power and priorities. Her work on the Ceuta and broader EU “reality check” stories examines how crises at the bloc’s borders and inside its institutions expose gaps between rhetoric and capacity. In coverage such as the piece on Magyar’s EU reset heading for a Brussels reality check, she dissects a member country’s attempts to reframe its relationship with the EU and shows how institutional constraints in Brussels narrow those ambitions. Her reporting on the State of the European Union and related episodes of the Brussels Playbook Podcast scrutinizes flagship speeches, asking what they mean for the balance of power in the Commission, Parliament and Council rather than treating them as set-piece theater.

Across newsletters and podcasts, she follows how major files move through the Brussels machinery - from AI regulation, to trade spats, to budget fights - and highlights the individuals driving these processes. She often returns to the theme of the EU getting a “reality check,” using that framing to test whether leaders’ promises can hold against economic constraints, political fragmentation and external threats.

War in Ukraine and Europe’s security

A defining strand of Sheftalovich’s work is long-running coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine and its impact on European security, diplomacy and domestic politics. Her reporting on the Kerch Strait confrontation and subsequent Russian moves shows an early, detailed focus on how military incidents in and around Ukraine ripple through European capitals and institutions. More recent work, including interviews such as “It’s war, not hybrid attacks, says Estonian foreign minister,” treats so-called hybrid operations as part of a broader campaign of terror and sabotage against Europe and asks how governments and the EU should respond. She uses explainers like “Why are Ukrainians mad at Zelenskyy?” to unpack domestic discontent with wartime leadership and connect it to decision-making in Brussels, Washington and other allied capitals.

On the Brussels Playbook Podcast and in newsletter pieces, Sheftalovich tracks Ukraine’s struggle to secure long-term financing, highlighting warnings about multibillion-euro funding gaps and the strain on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and keep its economy functioning.

Coverage such as “Ukraine reels in Trump with mineral riches” and “Putin offers to sell minerals to Trump, including from Russian-occupied Ukraine” illustrates how Ukraine’s resources become leverage in negotiations that involve not only Kyiv and Moscow but also the EU and the United States. She returns to the war’s linguistic, political and institutional dimensions, treating it as a structuring crisis for the EU rather than a distant conflict.

Trump, transatlantic politics and global summits

Sheftalovich’s archive features extensive reporting on Donald Trump, NATO, and the broader transatlantic relationship, placing European leaders’ calculations alongside U.S. domestic politics. Articles such as “Kremlin confirms Trump-Putin meeting ‘in the coming days’” and “Trump says it’s Putin’s fault Ukraine war isn’t over” track how Trump’s statements and diplomatic moves reshape expectations in Moscow, Kyiv and Brussels. Pieces including “Trump says NATO becoming ‘opposite’ of obsolete and collective defense is ‘fine’” and “Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief” examine how shifts in U.S. rhetoric and transactional demands hit European energy policy, alliance cohesion and internal EU debates.

Her coverage of “Trump slams ‘publicity seeking’ Macron as US president leaves G7 early” and “The 11 tribes of Davos” uses summit scenes to show how personal rivalries and elite networks intersect with institutional agendas.

Sheftalovich also follows the Indo-Pacific and AUKUS angles, with work like “Things are getting AUKUS-ward in the Pacific” linking U.S., U.K. and Australian security decisions to EU considerations about China, defense spending and strategic autonomy. This focus on summits, high-stakes meetings and long-running negotiations gives her reporting a panoramic view of transatlantic and Indo-Pacific politics, while keeping a clear line back to the EU’s own interests and leverage.

From investigative and technology reporting to Playbook and podcasts

Sheftalovich was a founding member of POLITICO’s European newsroom, beginning her career there as a technology reporter with a particular interest in Russia’s war on Ukraine. She later became editor of the Brussels and London Playbook newsletters, shaping POLITICO’s daily agenda-setting briefings on what drives politics in key European capitals.

Her investigative work includes a POLITICO probe into Canberra’s secret deal to take in Rwandan guerrillas from the United States, for which she was a finalist for Scoop of the Year at the Walkley Awards. Before joining POLITICO, she built a background in investigative and consumer journalism, editing a news site, working as a content specialist, and reporting as a foreign correspondent for a radio station.

That mix of investigative experience, technology reporting and newsletter editing informs her current work: she moves easily between deep-dive explainers, quick-turn news stories, agenda-setting newsletters and conversational podcast episodes. Across formats, she favors clear language, sharp sourcing and a focus on how decisions taken in Brussels affect security, trade and politics beyond the EU’s borders.