the director of the information and consulting company defense express was with us, thank you for the conversation, and now we are approaching 9:00 a.m. , the time when we honor all those who died in the russian-ukrainian war with a moment of silence. we will observe a moment of silence in memory of the ukrainian military and civilian citizens of ukraine who died in the war. no, it was unleashed by russia.

to the viewers of radio svoboda, this is svoboda ranok, my name is kateryna nekrecha, and further on in this morning stream we talk about such topics. president zelensky denied. the existence of a conflict with commander-in-chief zaluzhny and categorically denied the possibility of ukraine's defeat in the war against russia. he also commented on polish-ukrainian relations and the border blockade and disclosed the details of the conversation with orban. we will discuss the political aspect of zelenskyi's press conference further. the general staff of the armed forces declared the need to mobilize up to half a million people into the ranks of the armed forces. this was announced by the president of ukraine. however , zelenskyi says that he needs justification and uah 500 billion for this. and only then he will... make a decision: women

they will not be mobilized, and ukraine's partial accession to nato is unrealistic. what is important - said zelensky about the war, we will discuss it further on this broadcast. and we will start the issue with the situation at the front. russian troops continue their offensive in the east. the enemy's goal is an attack on the settlement of chasiv yar, then on kostyantynivka, druzhkivka, slavyansk, kramatorsk, with further access to the borders of the donetsk region. this was stated by the commander of the ground forces of the ukrainian armed forces oleksandr. the enemy has an advantage both in weapons and in the number of personnel, he says he. all details are on the air in a few seconds. join our issue in the comments, ask your questions to the speakers of this broadcast, discuss important topics and also do not forget that each of your likes and subscriptions to the radio liberty channel is important. and today, from the very morning, users of the kyivstar mobile operator are again complaining about the lack of communication. and access

to the mobile internet, the company itself confirmed the problems on the official facebook page, where it was noted that the quote, now there are difficulties with voice communication and the operation of the mobile application in a number of cities in the west and south of ukraine, and the company's specialists are working on restoring services. i would like to remind you that for the first time in the work of the kyivstar mobile operator, a technical failure occurred on the morning of december 12, and later the company was informed of a large-scale hacker attack. at the same time, the security service of ukraine opened criminal proceedings. due to a cyberattack on one of the country's largest mobile operators. one of the versions, which is currently being investigated by sbu investigators, is that the special services of the russian federation may be behind this attack. we are trying contact the representative of kyivstar to get comments and more information, but so far they only respond with a statement that they published on their page, so we will follow this topic, and you can write in the comments where you are from and what is your situation with mobile communication, if kyivstar is your operator? we continue to talk about

the situation at the front: the russian military has slightly advanced to the northeast of kupyansk, and this is what the american institute for the study of war says, referring to the geolocation footage published on 18 december but on the svatov kremin line, neither side is moving forward, there are ongoing positional battles, analysts say. the american institute for the study of war also has not yet confirmed either the capture of the horticultural society southwest of bakhmut, or about... russian troops northwest of the city, as reported by some russian pro-war publications. but the commander of the ground forces of ukraine oleksandr syrskyi said that russian forces are advancing in all three directions of the east. they prevail in armaments and in the number of personnel, the situation is difficult - says syrskyi. the bakhmut direction remains extremely important for the russian invaders. they concentrate their main efforts on it and use it the most for conducting assault operations.

combat-ready units of landing forces, marines and formed from ex -criminal units storm z and storm v. the purpose of the enemy in this direction is clear. this is an attack on the settlement of chasiv yar, then on kostya. druzhkivka, slovyansk, kramatorsk with further access to the borders of donetsk region the russian ministry of defense declares that in the last day they repelled attacks by ukrainian forces in the kupyan, lyman and bakhmut directions and inflicted damage on their positions. volodymyr fityo, lieutenant colonel, head of the public relations service at the command of the ground forces of the armed forces of ukraine joined our broadcast. congratulations volodymyr, thank you for joining. good day, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes, tell us, first of all, what is the situation in the east, we heard that the commander of the ground forces oleksandr syrsky announced the day before that russian forces are advancing in all three directions. yes, of course, the commander wrote this in his telegram channel. the past day

has passed with the fact that our defenders repelled nine attacks in the lemano-kupinsky direction, three in the kupinsky direction, six in the lymansky direction, synkiv, katerna. serebryan forestry was hit by two airstrikes of the enemy. kamikaze used 19 drones in this direction. we see that kamikaze drones are being used actively, if weather conditions allow, they are used immediately is applied 205 artillery shells were fired at ukrainian positions, but nevertheless, our defenders managed to destroy 247 rockets in the lamano-kupin direction and destroy 43 ones. of military equipment, including six tanks, five bmps and two bmp-3s, this indicates that this amount of destroyed equipment indicates that the rashists are already actively using the equipment during their assaults, accordingly, they still try to achieve some goal, at the moment they

do not succeed in this direction, but combat operations nevertheless, they continue and our defenders repulse them, the day has passed in the direction of bakhmut. that our defenders repelled 12 enemy attacks, these are bohdanivka, ivanivka, klishchiivka , andriivka, 38 kamikaze drones were used here, the number of drones is greater, on average, somewhere drones are used, precisely in the bakhmut direction of the enemy, somewhere such varies from 30 to 50 pieces , and a large number of drones, let's say, increased in this direction, 485 attacks. it is almost twice as much as in the lamano-kupina direction, and here we are managed to destroy 122 russian occupiers and 32 units of military equipment, one bmp, five mortars, two anti-tank missile systems, fighting almost 24 hours a day, we see that the rashists do not

give up their plans in the bakhmat direction, they are trying to advance in the direction of the temporal ravine, in the direction of kupinsk , the city of kupinsk, they are trying... to capture the sinkivka to create a further bridgehead for the development of an offensive directly on kupinsk. general syrskyi said that the plan is obvious and as a result the output on borders of donetsk region. but tell me, is it clear what time frame russian forces expect to meet, taking into account the intensity of the offensive with which they are now going, or are they in a hurry? yes, they are in a hurry, because they started their offensive at the beginning of october and since the beginning of october... there have been more active combat actions in all directions and, accordingly , now they have plans , they have short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans, but those plans are all time is postponed because they forgot to put a mark opposite them in those plans

there is the armed forces of ukraine, which of course will not allow them to do this, so for the 100-500th time they put plans in front of their military leadership, what needs to be done there... it is necessary to seize time and so on and the like, and already for the third month practically they there they move from place to place. i will turn again to the quote from general syrskyi. he said about the advantages, that the advantages are on the side of the forces of the russian federation, both in terms of weapons and in the number of personnel. here , can you tell us what kind of weaponry we are talking about, what is currently preferred by the troops russian federation in the east, and if we talk about manpower, who is fighting on the russian side in these areas? we can see that now, in terms of equipment , almost the entire arsenal of equipment is used there, these are tanks, and t-72 and various armored fighting vehicles, bmp-2, bmp-3, this is all that is currently going according to the statistics of destruction, everything is active is used, in addition,

artillery is actively used and kamikaze drones are used, i want to emphasize that we are not fighting with some random people or bums, we are fighting with a well-equipped army, an industrial complex of this country is working at full capacity, and a large amount of weapons are still in storage, it is being de-conserved, accordingly, it is all coming to us ironclad. to ukraine and is fighting against us here. as for human resources, we can see that different units are being recruited in different directions, it is like personnel units in the bakhmut direction, there are representatives of paratroopers, there are marines, there are even representatives of the northern fleet , there is only one brigade, and besides all that, it is the same units storm units which formed from former prisoners, this is storm z, storm-b, which are now... in the composition of the armed forces of the russian federation. volodymyr, thank you

for joining our broadcast, informing the viewers of radio liberty about what is happening in the eastern direction of the front, volodymyr fityo, lieutenant colonel, head of the public relations service of the command of the ground forces of the ukrainian armed forces, was a guest of our broadcast. thank you. i would like to remind you that some of kyivstar's subscribers are experiencing communication problems today, and the company has officially made a statement on its facebook page. we are trying to get comments and maybe during the broadcast we will inform you about the further actions of the company, nevertheless, comments are already coming under this broadcast from you, dear viewers, and now ms. valentina writes that she cannot check the account, she replenished it for a certain amount and does not know whether it has been replenished, write in the comments where you are from, whether you have problems with communication, we will definitely follow this topic during this broadcast. and then we move on to the analysis of what was said by the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyi during the final. conference, already this winter ukraine will be protected by several new patriot systems, and this

was announced by ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky during this press conference, which lasted, by the way, for more than two hours. in addition, he spoke publicly for the first time about his relationship with commander-in-chief valery zaluzhny. my colleague, oleg galev, analyzed all the main points of this press conference, which are related to the topic of war, and now he will tell more. oleg, hello, i'll give you the floor. congratulations katya, greetings to the radio audience. freedom, and i immediately propose to dwell on the topic of mobilization, which is actively discussed by ukrainian society, and which was also mentioned by the ukrainian president. there are several important points here. the first applies to conscripts in general. thus, according to the president, the military leadership during the supreme commander-in-chief's rate meeting proposed to mobilize an additional 450-500,000 people. volodymyr zelenskyy calls this figure seriously and adds that in order to support this direction, he wants to have more arguments, and the mobilization itself - says the president. rests on money, according to zelenskyi's calculations, the recruitment of such a number of people to the army will cost 500 billion

uah, and it is not known where the money will come from. in addition, the president said that he wants to understand the details regarding the rotation of the military, demobilization, their vacations, so he is waiting, i quote, for a concrete plan. if we are talking about additional mobilization forces, we must find demobilization processes, and it will... must be carried out objectively, with specifics and with great respect for the soldiers. that's why i asked for a lot answers as for the mobilization of women, he will not sign such a law, says zelensky, but if there are arguments for lowering the mobilization age of men to 25, the president notes, he is ready to support it. i would like to remind you that the bloomberg agency previously wrote that president volodymyr zelenskyi still has not signed the draft law on news adopted by the verkhovna rada. mundane age for men from 27 to 25 years old, despite, i quote, pressure from the military. when

asked by foreign journalists about the defeats of the ukrainian army, and zelenskyi instead responded with a story about the lack of success in the russian army in 2023, when the war will end, according to the president, no one knows, not even ukraine's western partners, who predict that the war will allegedly continue for many years. the strategy of the war - zelensky emphasizes, is unchanged, it is the return of the territories to... the borders of 1991 . the strategy cannot be variable, according to our constitution, these are all our territories. as for tactics, tactics may be changed after taking into account the results of our actions in the south of ukraine in the 23rd year. to at the end of the year we get an understanding and our next plans, the following. steps, sorry, will remain only with us for now. and answering france-24's question about

strategic military goals for the 24th year , zelensky refused to voice them. he says that previously too much was said about the south and it did not work, so he did not disclose any details about counter-offensive and defensive actions for the next year. i can't tell you about the goals. we had difficulties in the south, because everyone around, everyone on... around said what our goals were, well i'll tell you honestly, well, to be honest, all months everyone talked about where we were going, and most likely everyone considered in detail how we would get there, how... maybe we won't get there, how better, it will work out, this will be enough, and this it’s not enough, it’s okay, it’s better to go to the south, it’s warm there, it’s possible later, because it’s winter there , it’s okay, let’s wait for some ammunition, winter is coming later there, well , sorry, well, it doesn’t take off at all with the russian federation, in which weapon is more

currently, ukraine is not invited to nato, about that zelensky also said, although it is the north atlantic... alliance that remains , i quote, the most powerful option for ukraine, however, there is no question of partial accession at the moment either. let's imagine what will happen if a part of ukraine is in nato. i think that these are high risks for us, because i am sure that if part of ukraine will be in nato, then you have also heard signals about finland, well, it means that it will enter and war with us will begin. and here there will be a question whether nato countries will join to fight for a part of ukrainian territory, which has one or another status in nato, not completely, but some status. zelensky also spoke about his relationship with commander-in-chief valery zaluzhny. the western press has repeatedly written about the misunderstanding between zelensky and zaluzhny. the

ukrainian president's office denied the conflict, calling it work-related issues. zelensky himself has now publicly stated. he has such a working relationship with zaluzhny, and zaluzhny as the commander-in-chief together with the general staff must be responsible for the results on the battlefield, then i suggest listening to zelenskyi’s answer to clarifying to journalists whether he plans to fire the commander-in-chief, i plan to work, i'm waiting for a decision from them regarding mobilization, i'm waiting for a decision from them so that we help people at the front, i'm waiting for very specific things on the field'. fight the strategy is clear. we have an understanding of our actions. i want to see the details. i think it is fair. also, according to zelenskyi , ukraine will produce a million drones next year, adding that he does not like, i quote: the bureaucratic soviet process remains. for example, there was a situation, zelenskyi clarified, when on the 26

thousands of drones were lying in one of the warehouses and did not reach the front. katya, at the moment i have everything. thank you oleg, oleg galiv with an analysis of zelenskyi's main statements during the final press conference of this year on the topic of war. we will talk about the key points that relate specifically to the military situation in a few seconds on our air, about the political aspect, we will also talk on this air a little later. oleksandr kovalenko, a military observer of the information resistance group, has now joined our broadcast. i congratulate you. good morning. for i will ask you at the beginning, have you felt it? such a mismatch, perhaps, of the political and military vision of the war strategy between zelensky and zaluzhny, for example , during this conversation, how did you feel, well, i will say this, we have the same goals, whether military, political, military-political, let's say , the country's leadership, and these are the goals of the liberation

of ukraine according to the borders of 1991, and here , with all due respect to mr. president, he is... a military man, although now he actually performs such functions, some points that are related to military affairs, and he does not quite understand, just as the military does not always understand some political things that politicians do, that is why politicians should help the military to liberate our territory, which is exactly what our political leadership was doing. during all this time, negotiating the supply of weapons and equipment of the range that our army needed, so this is the main symbiosis of the military-political leadership, and considering that we have the same goals, of course the vision can be different, how to achieve them , but

the general main thing is that the goal is the same if we talk about guarantees. of security , the president said, a lot depends on us, the military component, our vision must be conveyed to partners, this is a verbatim quote, and this is not about nato, now, yes, but this is the core for guaranteeing security, he said, and what should be the plan , a strategic vision, why the military has not yet provided it, if it is so important, to support partners, and whether such a plan can be shared at all, and whether it can be in conditions and a situation where we do not know what the russian federation will decide tomorrow, months, we see, we observe that there is an offensive along the entire front line, in principle, from the russian army, but what will happen next year, next year we will... the mobilization of the russians immediately after the so-called elections, and for this period they will have an operational pause, because before the so-called elections, they

will be exhausted due to this offensive campaign of theirs, and this is expected, and as for the plan, well, the question is very interesting, a lot of people are now talking about the plan, the plan, who should provide the plan, at first someone said there constantly about the defense plan of ukraine, although this... questions to the general staff of ukraine, the defense plan is already dealt with directly by the ministry of defense, there is a department that deals with it directly allocated for this purpose. so, i want to see a plan, yes, well, we can present a plan to our partners, some sort of defense or other, but it's not a fact that it's going to be exactly the plan that's going to be implemented during the... 24th year, that is that is also a very interesting moment, because among our partners, as we can see now, there are those who really support ukraine, and there are those who

which we are not sure about. well, for example, how much can we trust the components of the north atlantic alliance from hungary, officers from hungary, how much can we now trust the military, from their word. for today or some other countries , because let's say it as it is, spy scandals , they periodically arise in germany, and in austria, and in france, even in great britain, and again, all these spy scandals, they also connected either with officers, military, or with political figures, who in one way or another, but have relations with the north atlantic alliance. and therefore i will say, it will probably be a bit paranoid, but today you can’t trust anyone, if we talk about nato, we are not invited to

nato, says zelensky, neither partially nor fully, the conversations are generally about this, well, these are vain hopes, how can we currently use real cooperation with nato countries, that is , as much as possible, without waiting for the moment when there will be an invitation? no, it is logical that we will not be accepted into nato until the war is over. and until we liberate all our territories, we will not be accepted into nato, until we have at least 1 km of disputed territory, which will be captured by the enemy and will not be controlled by ukraine. so, this is the main reason for joining the north atlantic alliance. but on the other hand, this does not affect the possibilities of political communication between ukraine. for example, if we're talking about accession, simplification, expansion of the very steps to

accession under an accelerated program, super-accelerated, even, i would say so, all things considered, among other things, assistance from the north atlantic alliance, we need from nato today, not their soldiers, yes, not their protection, we need weapons. and equipment in sufficient quantity so that we can defend ourselves and liberate our territories, this is the most important thing, and it is precisely on the speed of making relevant decisions in the north atlantic alliance that how quickly we will become part of this organization depends, because today nato is no less interested in ukraine than ukraine in nato, even i would say more. but there is no invitation, this is a fact, but tell me, the topic of mobilization, demobilization, reducing the age of conscripts to 25 years, why can't the political and military leadership come to an agreement here, and can the ukrainian army,

in your opinion, get by with the current pace and quality of mobilization? for today no, it is not the pace and quality that can satisfy the needs of our army, we need... but not only for today the appropriate number of servicemen, which could, for example, compensate for the losses, as they say, that is, killed, killed , wounded, captured, as it is, restore units, but the moment of rotation is also very important, and this is a much bigger problem than all the others, because a... rotation is needed by a huge number of people, huge, i will say this, for example, i do not say that these are the cause of reality, because i will not say the numbers that

you answer to them, but the president said about 450-500,000, so before the full-scale invasion of ukraine, there were 250,000 in ukraine , approximately the number of the armed forces of ukraine, and then it was increased and so on , so we understand that for this quantity, this is exactly the number that is constantly involved, both on the front line, in active hostilities, in covering the northern... northeastern, southwestern, border from the ground level, i mean, and so on, therefore, if only on at the beginning of the full-scale invasion we had 250,000, we don't count how much it was increased during the full-scale war, because the danes say about 100 million, well, i'm talking, i 'm not naming any numbers now, then we understand

that we at least... the rotation of those who have been participating since the first days of the war requires dozens thousands, and even hundreds, and this is not done very quickly, the president provided 450-500 thousand, well, how long will the mobilization of this amount last, for example, if 40 00 will be mobilized per month, a year, almost a year, training of one mobilized person, basic training - it's almost 3 months. plus at least a month of evil - a month of coordination and acquisition of basic skills of conditions immediately close to combat operations, so that he does not die in the first week when he finds himself in the combat zone, because it is in the first week that it is approximately 30% of all the first week that the mobilized is in the combat zone, so that 's four months, and when the mobilization starts, at least at 40 00 per month, that's plus 4 months, you understand how long

it is ... actually, therefore, this is really a problem that must be solved very quickly, but most importantly, not just quickly, but qualitatively, qualitatively, quickly and qualitatively. thank you, mr. oleksandr, for sharing your analysis and reacting in this way to president zelenskyi's statements. oleksandr kovalenko, military observer of the information resistance group, was there guest of freedom in the morning. let me remind you that during the broadcast we are also monitoring the situation with the kyivstar mobile operator. write in the comments what you have. i see that... there are comments, there are also problems, we will contact the representative office of kyivstar in order to understand how long such a problem can be during this broadcast, stay with us. well, let's talk about the political aspect of president zelenskyi's statements, because of the blockade, poland and ukraine began to lose political relations. orbán could not explain why hungary does not support ukraine in the eu, and military actions in the middle east distract

from helping ukraine in the war against russia. invasion, this is only part of the political statements at the press conference of president zelensky, against the background of the reduction of aid from allies, journalists were interested in whether the ukrainian president will be able to convince the world to continue helping ukraine, whether the aid will continue in the event that donald trump becomes the president of the united states. zelenskyi is not sure that the us policy towards ukraine will change, but the coolness of relations between the united states and ukraine can greatly affect the course of the war. i think he will have a different policy. he is a different person, if he will be the president of the united states, it is not up to us to elect a president, but to their people. i am not sure that the policy of the country will change to ukraine, the policy of the united states, but nevertheless , you and i must soberly look at the fact that the leader has influence. the military conflict between hamas and israel caused the world's aid to ukraine to become defocused in the information space,

he says. zelensky, in his opinion, this political success of russia. in the kremlin, i quote: they did not succeed on the battlefield in ukraine, but they succeeded through diplomacy in this track. as for poland, zelenskyi said that in addition to losing money, the two countries also lost in relations, and also called the blockade of ukrainian truckers at the border artificial and political. currently, zelensky hopes for the new government of donald tusk. i emphasize once again, i am grateful to your people, but you understand me, well, i am not some rag, i protect the interests of my country in time of war, i said, just let us get out, we were not given to bring out, and it was wrong, journalists also asked about orban, whether he is putting pressure on ukraine regarding negotiations with putin, but zelensky says that he did not talk about it, but during a short conversation with orban in argentina, he told him directly that his policy not very friendly towards ukraine, and also for...