let's watch together. good evening. we are from ukraine. glory to ukraine. this is the verdict program. my name is serhiy rudenko. i congratulate everyone and wish everyone good health. for the next two hours, we will talk about ukraine, the world, war, and peace. today in the program. minutes were counted to react. the occupiers fired eight rockets at kyiv. consequences of a ballistic attack on the capital. sticks are inserted into the wheels. ukraine's path to the eu. how can hungary put an end to the accession negotiations? the situation at the front. did the lack of funding from the us undermine the combat capability ukraine to repel russian aggression?

we talk about this and other things over the next hour with yevhen magda, executive director of the institute of world politics, general ben hodges, and yevhen dyky, a veteran of the russian-ukrainian war. in the second part of our program, which will start literally in an hour, we will have political scientists volodymyr fesenko, viktor boberenko and igor reiterovych. however, before starting our big conversation, let's watch a video on... the consequences of a missile attack by the russian invaders on the ukrainian capital around four in the morning the russians directed eight ballistic missiles at kyiv, all the targets were destroyed by anti-aircraft defense, we didn't hear anything, it was quiet, we slept peacefully the night we slept, and it hummed somewhere , bare heads were flying around, naked, then we looked, we found rags.

you have such a job, i can say, they left , everything is destroyed, there is nothing , there is now a stove on our sariky, one took a scythe, nothing else can be taken from there, and what to do here, i just don’t know, we have to ... it's time to make a roof, make a roof, and completely fill the wall to do it, that's how we do it comrades helped us last night and we didn't dream anything.

friends, for those who are currently watching us live on youtube and facebook, please like this video, follow our pages on these platforms, and also participate in our vote. today we are asking you about trust in the verkhovna rada of ukraine, in the current composition, do you trust the current verkhovna rada of ukraine, right? no, everything is quite simple on youtube, if you have any thoughts about the current verkhovna rada, you can write in the comments under this video. if you are sitting in front of the tv, please pick up your phone or smartphone and vote if you trust the number 0800-211381, no, 0800-211-382, all calls to these numbers are free. and we are in touch with the executive director of the institute of world politics. yevhen magda, mr. yevhen, i

congratulate you and thank you for being with us today, congratulations, mr. serhiy, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes, let's start very briefly with a message from the sbu regarding the liquidation of kyiv, because last week there was a lot of talk about the murder of a collaborator in moscow suburbs, and it happened today it is known that the sbu. very correctly commented that there are still many successful operations in russia, and in particular those that bring deserved punishment to war criminals and enemies of ukraine. and the message of the security service of ukraine literally says the following: vasyl malyuk, the head of the security service of ukraine, repeatedly emphasized that the enemies of ukraine will definitely be held accountable for their crimes before god and the ukrainian people, both according to the law and morally. liquidation situation. ilya kyly

only confirms these words, the society will learn all the details of the special operation later of our inevitable victory, the security service of ukraine emphasized. in your opinion, mr. evgeny. the elimination of kiva, a media figure , such a powerful media figure of russian propaganda, will influence what they say and how the traitors of ukraine are used in russian propaganda against ukraine, that is , for them it should be a revealing lesson, a shock, or they will consider it on the contrary , that now they can demand much more from russia than they asked before. protection, money, there are apartments, houses, i think that there is no death of ilya kiva humanistic aspect, and i think it is understood quite well by everyone who followed

the political path of this character, he was a rather prominent fixture with a pulp pit of his own, somewhere in poltava oblast, if i am not mistaken. but now the point is not that, the liquidation of kiva, the liquidation itself is a signal to almost all collaborators who went over to the side of russia, that the chances of meeting the death of znenatsk are directly proportional to how active they will be in terms of information, how much they will climb on the first plan tv shows and... will actively cooperate with russian propagandists, that is, it is clear that it is difficult to completely stop those who want to go over to the side of the enemy, but for those who have money, i think it is enough to see all these footage in order to

understand , what happened, and as for the reaction of the sbu, well, this is a classic reaction in the principle of special services to a civilized special service anywhere in the world. they confirm similar things, and this is a clear and well-known fact, so beyond any doubt, because we talked with sbu general viktor yagun, he said that there is no official confirmation that if this happens, then this is how it happens, in a word with collaborators, mr. yevgeny, putin has already started his presidential election campaign on march 17, from march 15 to march 17 , 2024 , putin will fight for the fifth time, well , how to fight, run for president of the russian federation, of course there will be no fight there, but there is such an important nuance: the occupied territories,

which russia has now annexed to itself, part of zaporizhzhya, part of kherson, though they fully announced that these are all these areas. are supposedly russian, they will take part in this pseudo-voting, so tell me, is there a reason for our diplomats to start talking about the legitimacy of putin on the next fifth, because if they hold elections on the territory of the ukrainian state, then in any at the moment , the legitimacy of putin, what he is doing, those decrees can be questioned in general. signs the instructions he gives, well, with all the consequences there for putin, virtually, who participates in the big 20 or in any another summit. i think there are a few points to note here. the russians have already announced that they

will hold putin's re-election in the occupied territories of ukraine, this is understandable, because they need to, as much as possible, you know... mark these territories and ensure accordingly what they consider to be loyalty, but i'm afraid, that the world community does not have the courage not to recognize putin's election, and this is the fact that this farce, which will take place next year, cannot be called otherwise, not recognized putin's election and declare that he is an illegitimate president, as , say, they did with... lukashenko, that is, the world in this sense, i think, will remain on the old positions, they say, well, we still understand that putin exercises real power, so we will not say anything like that. unfortunately, the weakness of this position is quite obvious,

it is obvious after february 24, 2022, when various politicians tried to flirt with the russian president. they ended in the biggest war in the 21st century, in which we are currently as a matter of fact, we are, and that's why we need to understand that we need to in... now look for an argument in order to look for precedents in order to fight at least for the non-recognition of these elections as legitimate, even if it is a number of countries that will our allies , who are our allies, who, for example, will demonstrate clearly enough that they will not accept putin at all on their territory, the rome statute naturally comes to our aid here, because after the issuance of the arrest warrant for putin on march 17, 2023 , his international activity has significantly

decreased, but in any case, well , the situation, of course, i would say, is far from ideal for ukraine. well, and against this background , these presidential swings have already begun, i mean putin's supporters, who talk about the fact that putin is the best, the greatest, in general, in 23 years , everything has changed so much in russia that no one can do anything... recognize already, because, because such a country is completely different. patriarch kirill gundyaev said that russia has generally become a free country. let's listen to what gundyaev said. despite sorrows that exist, we live in prosperous times, but this prosperity should not distance us from god, on the contrary, we should thank god for every day we live. thanks god for the fact that we live in a really free country

, i counted five such countries in total, maybe a little more, but all the rest are not considered really free, we live in a really free country, well, it’s just some, sorry, hell ryasi, not the patriarch of the russian orthodox church, considering... what kind of influence he has the roc in russia and ukraine, and against the background of what gundyaev continues to do now, there is only one question: why is there still a branch of the roc in ukraine? i believe that this statement of mr. gundyaev, it is by and large an argument for the fact that the russian orthodox church, or as it is called in ukrainian realities, the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate, its activities in ukraine should be banned,

quite clearly, when because the church is indeed separated from the state in ukraine, and no one, i think, disputes this fact of secularization, but the fact that the russian church is an instrument of russian propaganda, an instrument of russian peace, seems to me sufficient to ban it. the longer ukraine plays these games with... with representatives of the russian orthodox church, the worse it is for all of us, unfortunately, and they simply created a sufficiently powerful lobby in the environment of the verkhovna rada and, unfortunately, actively use it. i am saddened when the ruling party en masse claims that there are not 226 votes to ban the russian orthodox church, even after such words. this is not a question of freedom of conscience in this case, it is in this case... in the case of a matter of national security. there is no doubt that

the activity of a foreign church of an aggressive state and an aggressor country is and remains in ukraine, this is a political issue, it no longer concerns the religion there or what freedom of thought there is or anything else, because in fact, you said about... that there are not enough votes in the verkhovna rada, today, you must have seen this statement by davyd arahamia that he said that there are some people's deputies of ukraine who want to draw up mandates, but we are holding them back, because we have to vote , and it is necessary for the verkhovna rada to be effective , and there is nothing for us to do, but we keep them all there, but he did not add that they are kept under lock and key somewhere in the cinema hall of the verkhovna rada, that in order for them to... vote on time, how are these revelations of arahami, how do you perceive

them in general, how to react to them in general, because every public speech of arahami ends with some big questions, about him, about the party, about the president, about the monomajority. i think that the statements of david arahamia recently, they testify about the fact that he, as a politician, has already exhausted himself and he, too, probably needs to go on an early rest, but unfortunately, our legislation is not in the verkhovna rada. such a mechanism as in football or other game sports, when there is a substitution mechanism, when someone who is tired is simply replaced, there are some game sports where you can then reverse the substitution , but in this case, i think that , what is happening in the verkhovna rada is simply shameful, first of all, there is a war in the country, and when

the parliamentarians, the question here is not that they they don't... well, they shouldn't be mobilized, that's logical, but when parliamentarians say that they have already exhausted their possibilities and don't want to do anything more in the verkhovna rada for the country, well, it 's shameful, definitely shameful, definitely shameful when this is what the leader of the faction, which is the monomajority, which is the monomajority, then what perspectives, realities, what steps, where are they, can we talk about? what are they, how should they be implemented, i don't understand it, it's just shameful, you know, it's not it should be, it, similar phenomena, this is simply evidence of the ruling party's impotence, its inability to ensure the real work

of the parliament on a 24x7 basis and the adoption of necessary decisions, i want to remind you that at the beginning of february 22 , the existence of a victory coalition was loudly announced, which included all factions, except opzh, the faction of the deputy group, that is, it was a coalition in the format of a constitutional majority, i still cannot see traces, real traces of its work, that's what is scary, it shows that in the conditions when... ... hundreds of thousands of citizens defend the independence of the state with weapons in their hands, those who represent power, and ukraine is a parliamentary-presidential republic, and nothing in this sense could change during the war, they allow themselves to say that someone there is tired, can no longer work, can no longer interact.

how so? what is it, to publicly sign one's own inability? in the fact that these people are simply not able to really work for victory, they are not able to really protect national interests, it is shameful, and i am very i hope, and i'm not even that i hope, i'm sure that the voters in the upcoming elections, and the elections will be sooner or later in ukraine, will give their assessment to these words of mr. arakhamiy, well, they will give it with ballots, the voters have already given their answer. and in poland, because it just became known that a new coalition in the polish diet voted for the candidacy of the leader of the civil coalition , donald tusk, for the post of prime minister of poland, and with tusk's return, what can we expect, mr. yevgeny of ukraine? i think

donald tusk, who... really was the record holder of being in the prime minister 's chair, he was almost seven years, he is not just returning to big politics, but he is returning in sufficiently difficult conditions, and the principle of tusk will come, bring order, in this case it will not work, and i would not speed up much in his hopes on the topic that tusk will work... in the interests of ukraine and exclusively in the interests of ukraine, will immediately deal with the problems of ukrainian grain, before crossing borders by motorists, etc. no it is not. tusk will primarily deal with problems related to poland, polish economy, polish social policy, polish development. this is his

task as the prime minister. and he will be forced to work under conditions of poverty. powerful opposition, because 35% was won by the party of law and justice, which was in power for 8 years, it is promised a happy life, and many of its functionaries are promised a happy life, this is , so to speak, a practice that will be quite difficult, and it is obvious that for that , in order to fulfill his pre-election promises, we will need the necessary evidence, and we also need this. will learn, just like us we will have to learn from the fact that now we have to look for a new ideology with poland, a new promotheism, because only... by ascertaining the presence of a common enemy of russia, we can achieve certain successes, only by moving in this direction, we can ensure

a situation in which there will be corresponding changes in our state, that is, we have to change together with our partners, and poland despite the problems in our bilateral. observed in recent months, still has not lost the status of the main ukrainian strategic partner, we have this status to develop, we have to fill it with real content. thank you, thank you, mr. yevhen, it was yevhen magda, executive director of the institute of world politics. friends, we work live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. for those who are currently watching us on these platforms, please like us. videos, and also subscribe to our pages, in addition, we are conducting a survey today, we are asking you today about trust, do you trust the current verkhovna rada of ukraine? yes no please

vote you can vote on youtube or by phone lines if you are watching us on tv now you can pick up the phone and vote if you trust 0800 211 381 no 0800 211382 phone. all calls are free for you, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote. next, we have retired united states lieutenant general, former commander of the united states army in europe, ben hodges. mr. general, i congratulate you and i am glad to see you on our air. mr. general, over the past few weeks , we have been watching the united states of america decide the fate of future funding, or the continuation of funding for ukraine by the congress of the united states of america. biden convinces

the republicans and says that putin can be in europe. yermak says we may lose the war with russia if the united states of america does not resume funding ukraine. how do you assess the current situation, mr. general? ukraine and can putin really come to europe? if i understand your question correctly, i very much worried and concerned that if the financial aid is not extended, even the possibility or possibility of it. we understand that this will be additional oxygen for the kremlin. russia hopes to win this war. and

here are such efforts from the west, they help them, that is, there is no stability. of course, we do not provide help as quickly as we would like. but we are trying to see what threats this poses to europe, to the world and to the united states of america, because we are already at war, can putin scale the war and transfer it to others neighboring countries? i think so, if russia manages to win in ukraine, i... am sure that they will not end there, they, putin and his henchmen, they speak openly about moldova, about the baltic countries, so

there is not the slightest doubt about it, if we allow ukraine to lose, we understand that other countries will be at risk. is it possible for the united states of america, mr. generals, to stop putin at this stage and do everything to prevent this from happening? yes, i think so, but for this it is necessary that america's leadership has clearly stated that we are ready to fight for victory for ukraine, not only do we help ukraine to win, but we intend to do everything for ukraine to win. we will provide what is needed, but... the very fact that we haven't done it yet, we haven't said that it's within our policy, it's that, that kind of effort, that's the problem. mr. general, what is victory in the understanding

of the united states? america's victory of ukraine over russia, and what is the defeat of russia in the war with ukraine. what i hear from representatives white house, this is what they want ukraine to decide what victory is for ukraine. for me, this means that victory means knocking out all the russians. beyond the borders, that is, beyond the borders of 1991, as well as the return of kidnapped ukrainian children. of course, it is very important that a security agreement is signed. but again, i want to say that, unfortunately, the white house is not so committed to action, if only these

sectors were. i am not a supporter of this. mr. general, on the eve of biden's speech regarding the financing of ukraine, where he warned that american soldiers may also be drawn into the war, but already in europe from the russians. the washington post published a long text about the ukrainian counteroffensive, and this text is called correct calculations limited the strategic planning of the united states and ukraine. obviously, you are familiar with this text and know this outline by heart. are the publication's conclusions correct and what could be the consequences of incorrect counterattack planning? in fact, i am deeply. i was depressed by this

publication, such an article, and actually the people quoted there, yes, they tried to distract me somehow my own fault, yes, they tried to blame others, the ukrainian command, precisely for the wrong conduct of the counteroffensive, but i do not agree, i am sure that general zaluzhnyi, their military command, they did everything they could to ... still achieve the results they did. we would never, we would never succeed in achieving this, operating under such conditions, with such limited military resources. yes, ukrainian forces, they correctly analyzed and changed tactics on

the battlefield. of course, it is difficult. to act, when, when the delivery of the next equipment is expected, then when everyone is waiting for the fact that it is necessary to act, act quickly, but we can see, you can ask the commander of the black sea fleet what he thinks about the counteroffensive, he will tell you that it is going well, because we saw that happened with the russian black sea fleet when... they fled, fled because they were pushed out in the waters of the black sea, so this is the success of the counteroffensive. mr. general, i want to ask you as the former commander of the united states army in europe. if in front of you there was the same task as before zaluzhny and there was the task of a counter-offensive, whether you would go on a counter-offensive without air support and

without having. are long- range missiles enough? of course not, my command would never have given me such a task when we are talking about such limited resources that we have, but i want to say that if it were to happen in the end, i would do everything in my power to fulfill this task and complete it successfully. after all , what general zaluzhny did. yes, the usa expects that the armed forces of ukraine, they, they expected certain successes from the ukrainians, but did not provide f16 fighters. and that's why we see why the responsibility lies on our shoulders for such and such a result. mr. general, another edition of woll street.