stay tuned to our channel, we'll be on air just after the bbc news. volodymyr zelenskyi's visit to the united states, does the ukrainian president manage to convince the american congress to provide military support? this is bbc news ukraine, in the dzaferov studio. the president of ukraine personally convinced the congressman. in the need to allocate a multi-billion-dollar military aid package to kyiv as soon as possible, has ukraine not become a hostage to inter-party strife in the usa and will volodymyr zelenskyi's visit be able to unblock the aid? over $60 billion for of ukraine. this amount must be approved by the us congress by december 14, and zelensky is already in

washington, where he went after argentina. there are plans to hold a number of meetings and convince the congress that financial assistance is needed for ukraine now, and not after, for example, the christmas holidays, which in the usa should begin in mid-december. therefore, zelensky's meetings with american government officials took place behind closed doors without journalists. but why is this help important? because of russia's full-scale invasion of ukraine. caused damage to billions of dollars, and a day of war with russia costs ukraine almost 100 million dollars of state funds. oleksiy reznikov said this in september of this year. and the money left over, for example, by the usa from the previous aid package, is about 6 billion. the pentagon announced this last week. and, for example, next year's budget in ukraine lacks almost 30 billion dollars. that is, a new package of life support. important for ukraine.

not only ukrainian diplomacy, but also joe biden himself have been saying this for a long time. he said that blocking the financial package aid to ukraine by congress - this will be a gift to putin. and in his speech at the national defense university in washington, zelenskyi emphasized the need for this help and said that the united states can count on ukraine, and ukraine hopes that it can... count on the united states. putin must lose so that everyone else who sees russia's war against ukraine as a private lecture at the so-called university of aggression gets the message loud and clear: putin must lose. the whole world is watching us, watching us what fate may befall other free peoples, live free or be enslaved. have not

given up and will not give up, we know how to act, you can count on ukraine, and we hope that we can count on you in the same way. voice of america correspondent yulia yarmolenko is in direct contact with us, she works in washington. i congratulate you, julia, this is an unexpected visit after argentina, in your opinion, what is the reason for such a hasty visit? greetings jaffe. in fact, this is an extremely important week here in washington and in the united states in general, and this is an important week for ukraine. we know that there are literally a few days left before congressmen and senators go on christmas vacation, and therefore there is little time left to approve extremely critical funding for ukraine, and president zelenskyi obviously believes that he can somehow convince the legislators, everything do not delay and help ukraine as soon as possible, and we know from previous visits that... but the effect of the appearance of the ukrainian

president, he still helped promote extremely important things for of ukraine, and maybe it will help this time. still, we know that today he met with all the senators in the morning, later with the leaders in the house of representatives, both democrats and republicans, and it was mike johnson who was the first to say that it is worth tying funding for ukraine to strengthening the security of its own american border, and this is the topic that dominates now. as a result of these meetings, we ... heard from chuck schumer, the leader of the democrats in the senate, that the meeting was very powerful, that the president zelensky very clearly explained why it is necessary to help ukraine right now, and republican leader mitch mcconnell said that he understands how important the security of the ukrainian border, the israeli border, but for republicans the most important thing is the american border. let's see today whether something has changed as a result of these meetings. at the moment, we here at the white house are waiting for the press conference, which will begin in literally two hours. perhaps there we

will hear something more, more clear about the results of these meetings. that's exactly what i wanted to do to talk about the press conference, we know that it will be soon, but... sir, for now, do you know what this visit changes? you know, that's a very good question, and we've talked here with both legislators and experts, and now they agree that in reality, whoever comes, whether it's the president of ukraine or someone else, actually probably won't be able to convince that much to change their the position of the republicans who have decided that what is extremely important to them right now, to the voters, and the issue of immigration and the issue of ... border security, and that's the issue that they want to promote, they have certain appeals and demands to president biden, they want the construction of the wall to resume, to have stricter migration laws for those seeking asylum in the united states, this may also affect ukrainians, but the white house says that the demands are too radical,

president biden has said that he's willing to meet somewhere in the middle, find some kind of compromise and still resolve this situation, and we know that this week a... the biden administration is getting more involved in these very talks to help still to move the question of assistance to ukraine from a dead point. therefore, at the press conference, i personally expect to hear from president biden what leverage he has and whether he can personally help move this position of the republicans from the point where it is now. we know that president biden has a lot of experience on capitol hill, maybe he will come in handy and maybe it will make a difference. i will remember you. previous visits of zelenskyi, this is not his first visit to the states during the war, last year he was perceived as a rock star, has something changed in a year? i think what has changed is because a lot of the narratives that are being promoted have changed, in particular, you know,

personalities like tucker carlson, and these are people who don't support ukraine, think that it's not worth helping ukraine, and so the narrative is a little bit change, and still appears. a little tired, but all the same, there is a tremendous amount of attention to this, and a lot of americans still believe that ukraine should be supported, and that it is in the national interests of the united states. thank you, voice of america correspondent yulia yarmolenko was in direct contact with washington. during the full-scale war, ukraine received military or financial aid from more than 40 countries, but the united states was the largest donor of this aid. since january 25, the united states has provided military aid in the amount of almost 44 billion euros. the united states is followed by germany. berlin provided military aid in the amount of more than 17 billion, and great britain, which even before

the start of the full-scale invasion on the side of ukraine, provided more than 6.5 billion euros. further the european union, as a separate institution, norway, denmark and others. a number of european countries, that is, the usa is the leader in military aid, but the european union is the leader in providing financial aid. brussels, with the joint efforts of european countries, provided ukraine with more than 77 billion. in second place is the united states - 25 billion in financial aid, followed by great britain - more than 6 billion euros in aid, in fourth place is ukraine's ally from asia. ponya provided almost 6 billion euros. so for ukraine, the support of the american congress is now extremely important, according to western analysts. without financial help from partners, the country can simply get stuck in the war, and

it will be impossible to advance at the front. will american politicians, in particular the republicans, make concessions and still vote for the aid package for ukraine? here is the opinion of an investment expert from britain. help is crucial here, when you look at what is happening in the us and to some extent in the eu, it is striking how self-absorbed and even isolationist they have become, focused on their own economies and not on because of what is happening in ukraine, while ukraine was winning a terrible war with russia, everything was great, everyone believed that the hostilities were going in the right direction, but the summer ended, the weather worsened, and there was no breakthrough. although it was extremely difficult to do, everyone somehow lost interest in ukraine, and now the question is whether ukraine will be given two more large aid packages, this money is needed, they have no one else to turn to, because although the growth indicators in ukraine are quite good, let it sound

suspicious, but at the same time good, but all the same there is no way to pay everything on your own in ukraine. of course, the americans do not want a repeat of the scenario that was previously in the middle east. or in other parts of the world , when they were trying to support other nations' wars, it's easy now, especially for republicans, to say, look around, at what 's happening on our own borders in the... primarily on the mexican border and so focus on domestic issues, demonstrating their own patriotism, as it has happened more than once in american history. on the other hand on the other hand, ukraine needs such support, especially from the americans, because even with the support of europe, the largest sums come from america, without money, big problems will begin. this year, unexpectedly for themselves , ukrainians found themselves at the center of disputes between democrats and republicans about... the border between mexico and the united states.

washington's assistance to kyiv depends on financing the strengthening of the us southern border. correspondent sarah smith went there and saw the scale of the problem. don't push, just stand in line. that's not what it's for american border guards are used to. illegal immigrants who have sneaked into america line up to surrender. stand in line, carefully, calmly. there are so many of them that the authorities do not give advice to hundreds of people who are waiting for an opportunity to ask for asylum in america. this man came from afghanistan, but he does not want his face to be seen by the taliban, from whom he was actually fleeing. his journey through central america was tough. it was very horrible and very bad, they treated all people, especially from asia, yes, i don't know how to say, as if to dogs. but as soon as we crossed the border , we felt that... nothing else, we felt safe, we really feel safe,

migrants can no longer claim asylum at official border crossing points, so they nail illegally, and the infamous border wall it's not scary, there's a giant barbed wire, but here it suddenly ends, and if you look here, you can see that here you can walk from mexico right into america, but then these non... people have to wait up to a week to be processed by the immigration service . all food and water are brought by volunteers. the border guards told me that the only way things will change is if we stop doing it and people start starving, suffering, getting sick, probably dying here, and then it will change. i understand that you will not stop feeding people in the hope that the authorities will take responsibility. i just don't trust them. the entire border crisis is a huge political

problem for president biden, undermining his chances for re-election and even putting aid to ukraine at risk, because republicans in congress don't want to agree to more money for ukraine until joe biden gets tough on immigration and essentially stops it . it's a makeshift mess, and the landowner here thinks that... it's time to make the border a priority. well, we want our government to do something to stop this, because it cannot last forever. it's okay with us. is this the issue joe biden should focus on? he should step up, instead of worrying about ukraine or anyone else, he must come here and visit these people. children play with mud and sleep in the open air. it's very unusual to see this in... within america, and it can only increase the pressure to address this migration

emergency. bbc correspondent sarah smith, the southern border of the us about the scale of the problem. and in order not to miss the most important news of analytics and history, subscribe to our pages on social networks, we are on facebook, instagram, tiktok and youtube. and if you liked this one. then i advise you to subscribe to ours channel on youtube, like and leave a comment under this video. by the way, we read all the comments. so, soon there will be a joint press conference of the president of the usa and the president of ukraine in washington, where volodymyr zelensky is trying to convince the republicans in the us congress of the need to urgently allocate blocked aid to ukraine. and that's all for today, look for more stories on our website bbc.ua. see you tomorrow the 21st. take care,

congratulations, friends, the live broadcast of the espresso tv channel continues with the verdict program, my name is sergey rudenko. the last window of opportunity for zelensky in the us congress this year is whether his visit will affect the increase in financial assistance to ukraine. the summit of hope or disappointment, whether negotiations on ukraine's accession to the eu will be postponed. they want to draw up mandates, but they don't let go. why many people's deputies in the council want to leave the parliament early. friends, during our broadcast, we will ask you about whether you trust the local government, yes, no,

if you vote on youtube, everything is quite simple there, if you sit in front of the television. pick up your smartphone or phone and vote, if you trust, then 0800-211381, not 0800-211-382, all calls to these numbers are free, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote. i would like to introduce the guests of today's studio, they are people's deputies of ukraine. oksana savchuk, non-partisan. ms. oksana, i welcome you and i am glad that you are with us today. good evening. iryna gerashchenko, european faction. solidarity, mrs. iryna, good evening, thank you for being with us, good evening to the audience. oleksiy kucherenko, batkivshchyna faction. sir oleksiy, i congratulate you and thank you for joining our broadcast. greetings, good evening to you, thank you for the invitation. that's enough, ladies and gentlemen, today is such a big political and diplomatic evening, because zelenskyi already met

with congressmen in the congress, talked about money, about support, about ukrainian victory. so far, there are still no clear answers from the speaker of the house of representatives johnson regarding the support of ukraine and regarding the support of the bill, which provides for the allocation of 61 billion dollars to ukraine, we are still waiting for the press conference zelenskyi and biden, because in about an hour this press conference should take place, that... two leaders in principle can be imagined, because both zelenskyi and biden have already declared their positions, biden said that help to ukraine is necessary, and it is necessary in including the united states of america, zelensky said that it is necessary to defeat putin, and this help is also very necessary not

only for ukraine, but for the whole world. how do you, ladies and gentlemen, rate this one? the current period, because it is quite difficult for ukraine, the internal strife between the republicans and the democrats, the issue that concerns the southern border, that is, the border between the united states of america and mexico, but on kona, the money that we need, and the money without which, as biden said, could lead to the fact that putin could end up in the eastern . the border of nato, that is, the eastern border of europe. let's start with iryna gerashchenko. mrs. iryna, please. yes, we follow the news very carefully now, all from washington. indeed , there have already been meetings between president zelenskyi and the speaker of the house of representatives, after which mr. johnson said it was a warm meeting,

but at the same time emphasized his unchanged position on the aid peg. to the border , of course, we all sincerely wish the ukrainian delegation success, because the stakes are very high, and for ukraine this assistance is vitally necessary, at the same time, it is true that the stakes have been raised very high, in the united states the election has actually started campaign, and for republicans the issue of the border is fundamental, and i think they now see such a chance, an opportunity to push. this requirement of yours in order to get it here some compromise solution is possible, but i think that without a concession on the border issue it will still be very difficult to find a compromise, and here, of course, we thank the white house for such a tough and steadfast position and those friends of ukraine from the european union, who also

appealed to the united states to support ukraine, because... this military and financial aid will really be very, very difficult now, and i hope for a generally positive decision, but let's be realistic, there are a few days left before the christmas holidays in ukraine, and if such a decision is not made now, then these debates will indeed continue after christmas, but there will already be such an election campaign and preparations for the primaries of the republican party that it will be much more, thank you ms. iryna. mr. oleksiy , tell me, are there still people left in the congress and the senate who need to be convinced that ukraine needs this vi... help, because everything depends not only on ukraine and not everything converges on ukraine, we are talking about europe , we are talking about the world, and that, in

principle, a lot is at stake in kona. i offer let's be quite pragmatic, let's first of all understand, yes, that the united states is a very difficult country, well , excuse me, it's the number one country, they have their own way. domestic political life, its own history, its own history of the formation of the congress, communication with the president, i will just quickly remind you that lately all films are artistic, they are quite documentary, well , they correspond to the facts, i think that many ukrainians have watched this film about churchill in the 1940s th year, troubles, troubled times, yes, well, i... maybe he was called differently there, you noticed how hard great britain was fighting when the war with

germany broke out over there in europe, yes, how much support they got from a kindred country, you know what deep ties there are between great britain and the united states, and yet voting procedure, i really paid attention to it then, how difficult it all was. allocation, such as material, military, monetary support and so on. that is, what am i leading to? well, we all the time hoped that we still have bipartisan support, we have it, but they have their own problematic moments, they have entered the phase of their election campaign, we all understand, yes, that next year it will be a battle, a titanic battle, and it is clear that whether we want it or not, this ukrainian map has become... unfortunately, she became one of the trump cards in this struggle, i think i am all right, of course, zelensky’s trips and meetings are definitely positive, it is difficult

to deny here, and whether mistakes were made there at one time, and of course, ukraine has a lot of she made mistakes in her external plan, and this is all the time, if about 30 years to speak, it is clear that we had, well, i specifically reread it now and i will quote it, the speaker of the house of representatives, the material came out that the meeting with zelenskyi did not change the opinion of the speaker of the house of representatives. well, you see, it has not changed, but nevertheless, he admits, to us, here is his statement from the republicans, yes, we need specifics about what we are doing in ukraine, how we monitor the use of precious money, american taxpayers and transformational change at the border to... still there is nothing, that is, of course, they criticize biden, but these arguments look, well, at least they are these arguments, and they must be reckoned with

, i understand how we need this financial assistance, and it is even difficult for me to imagine, to simulate the situation, how it will be without it, but you see , and today this institution of war, the american one, which i consider a very authoritative institution. they give advice to ukraine for the military campaign of the 24th year, and there is no longer hurrah-hurrah forward-forward, crimea, tomorrow is ours, offensive and so on and so on, they predict a protracted positional struggle, in whose main task is to conditionally preserve the status quo that exists today , these are military issues, thank god, we saw a wonderful photo an hour ago, yes... the minister of defense, zaluzhnyi isirskyi, well, it is already positive in this regard there, you understand what i'm talking about, that's why i 'm watching

this very carefully and carefully and i wish both the president of ukraine and all of us success in this visit, we expect, of course, we hope for this support and for his success. well, by the way, you mentioned this photo, probably those who users of social networks have already seen this photo of the minister there. valery zaluzhnyi and oleksandr syrskyi, commander of the ground forces of ukraine , commander -in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, today, by the way , is the day of the ground forces, we understand the nuances are already positive, yes , yes, it is positive, because it gives an answer to the that, well, at least the military command is the only one, and no matter who wrote there, it shows that it... pumped up this topic, because one of your colleagues from the verkhovna rada simply flooded her with the fact that that she, well, she wrote like that, and it flooded from the fact that she saw three. commanders,

but they have to do their thing and we trust them, so there is nothing to talk about here. ms. oksano, on the eve of the visit of our delegation and the first delegation that flew there led by umyerov and yaermak and ruslan stefanchuk, there were many articles in the american press about what is happening in ukraine, about the internal situation, about as? civil and military command in ukraine behave during the war, a lot was written about corruption, what do you think, in in the current negotiations and in the current decisions, the americans will be guided by these facts as well, well, that is, this whole complex, which is unresolved problems and the complex with which the entire ukrainian government is constantly reproached simply, and since we have a monopoly, then in principle the government of zelenskyi him constantly.

they say that there is a lot of corruption, you can't, the military command, you can't talk to them like that, because they are fighting a war and they are responsible for it, does it affect the atmosphere of the negotiations and, as a result , the final decision or not? well look first of all, let's state the fact that we hoped for the announcement of financial support for ukraine earlier, that is, it was more than a week ago and... the delegation that went at the head, i would still say stefanchuk, because he is the head of the parliament, although i it was a little funny to read that it was led there by the head of the president's office, not stefanchuk, who is the speaker, but our ukrainian delegation that went to the states, in front of the president, i can say that it was such, you know, a little bit such a cold shower, because something that many told us happened happened somewhere

early. year, that more attention should be paid to communicating with both republicans and democrats. many friends of ukraine told us that there will be problems with funding at the end of the year, because the elections are not far away, because the positions have started to differ, because there is no unity, and therefore ukraine must have such, you know, a constantly operating landing force, diplomatic , including from people's elected officials and representatives of ministers. of foreign affairs, who have to actually communicate with those republicans and by the democrats, who already seem to be wavering. these little signals were not fully taken seriously in the president's office, as it seems to me, and as a result, now the ukrainian authorities understand that it is necessary to strengthen communication, communication, and these communications, yes, they take place at the level

of presidents. and this is very good, if last year it was enough, just as this communication was enough at the level of the presidents, poland, at the level of the heads of the leaders of the countries of the european union, america, britain, now we actually need to include additional the levers are actually what the presidents are talking to each other, that is, to move these processes, we hope that definitely as soon as possible we will be able to get the funds, or it will... happen from this year, i don't want to be there, you know, not an optimist, but eh , well, it will be very difficult, in fact, but if we receive at least the actual support, even this communication and public support of the united states, we still understand that we will receive these funds, perhaps even in the amount that we hope more 61 billion, maybe and well, we hope no less,

because... it's very important today, on the example of these events that have happened now, to understand the right, to draw the right conclusions for the next year and to strengthen our diplomacy, not only with such narrow, you know, very refined trips, but to expand them with a large number of people, to attract those diplomats who may not be in power now, but they have their own histories of relations, because so much is being done today in europe and america... precisely on these histories of relations that countries have, including with different people , that is, to attract the maximum amount people, so that we retain support and give us funds, first of all, with which we can equip our front with weapons, because first of all we do not forget that we have a key problem - this is war, to fight in war...