you are watching the chas time program of the ukrainian voice of america service. my name is maria ulyanovska. congratulations. at least 15 people have been killed and dozens injured in a shooting at charles university in prague. the attacker opened fire around 3 o'clock in the afternoon local time in the vysh building located on jan palah square in the old part of the city. the police... liquidated it, and the white house has already expressed condolences to the families of the victims. we know about the horrific shooting that happened at charles university in prague, as a result of which at least 15 people died and dozens were injured. the president and first lady are praying for the families who have lost loved ones and for all others affected by this senseless act of violence. on behalf of the united states, we offer our condolences. and we also wish those who survived

this tragic event a speedy recovery. federal authorities are in contact with czech law enforcement who are investigating the incident, and we stand ready to provide additional support as needed. we will talk more about this event from the place of events from by radio liberty journalist rostislav khotyn. rostyslav, i congratulate you. please tell us what is currently known about the incident? well, it is known that... the person who committed this , who is suspected of committing this crime, he is 24 years old, he left his village near prague in a knapsack, went to charles university itself, which is the largest and most prestigious university in the czech republic of the republic, and opened fire on students there at the faculty of philosophy, lectures were taking place at that time, of course, but 15 died, at least 15 people, according to the police, more than 20 are still there. under the medical supervision

of doctors, he had a weapon with automatic optics, and he was dressed in black, he is assessed as an unstable person, emotionally, because in the village where he left his home in the morning, his father was later found killed, apparently he was suspected of having killed his own father, the police eliminated, as it was said on the social media account of the prague police, the police eliminated the attacker, according to some reports, he was killed. with other data, he fell from a height on the fourth floor, those people who were there inside the premises say that all the stairs, when the students were running away wounded, all the stairs in this one were covered in blood, that is, it is a terrible scene, i spoke with the czechs, people are just shocked, the country you understand , a calm , stable, quiet country and suddenly such a tragedy with one and a half dozen people died, as the minister of the interior of the czech republic says, vitrakan, this incident will have serious on... consequences obviously in terms of some kind of

protection, security measures, but he does not connect it with any and the attacker with international terrorism, the prime minister of the czech republic, petr fiala, interrupted his trip to the regions, returned to the czech republic, right now, at this very moment, an extraordinary meeting of the czech government is taking place, which will discuss this tragedy, this incident. thank you rostislav, you said that the police are not connected with any terrorist attack, do you know why the attacker did it? it is unknown, obviously there is a suspicion. which the czech press writes about the fact that he mentally, so to speak, psychologically, mentally, had some kind of disorder, a mentally unstable person, that's it first of all, the czech press is also already speculating that he allegedly introduced some account in russian in social networks, he used such hate speech, so to speak, the language of hatred, some kind of hatred, but nothing more is known about him, he was 24 years old, and he took the lives of so many young people people, students of prague.

university, so this is in principle a very shocking event for the czech republic, where there is no population, as in other european countries, weapons in their hands, where, where, where is stability and, so to speak, calm, and here suddenly such an incident where else in such a period , it is in the very center it happened in prague, where there are a lot of tourists, there was panic, people fled through the bridges that are located nearby, now this place is surrounded by the police and there is no way to get there. rostislav, tell me what, what does prague look like? is there any panic, is the evacuation continuing, or have people already been released, that, as far back as you know, i was, i was two blocks away from that , i drove through this place two blocks away, police cars are already there, they don’t let people in there, you understand , prague has become a place of year-round tourism in the last 10, maybe 20 years, that is, it is not only in the summer, people, a lot of tourists in the center of prague, and in the winter also a lot of people come for the christmas period, panic, people

fled across the charles bridge, fleeing from the scene of the incident, through the manes bridge, which is located nearby, there was also panic, they fled, now this place is surrounded by the police, do not drive there. you can't go by car, and public transport, public transport is also, so to speak, redirected to other routes, so that there, in principle, all the police are surrounded. thank you, rotsislav, we know that this event is already called one of the most tragic the last time in europe, you also be careful. i will remind you that radio liberty journalist rostyslav khotyn told us about the events in prague. meanwhile, the european union handed over the last tranche of macro-financial assistance to kyiv in the amount of €1.5 billion. this was announced by ukrainian prime minister denys shmyhal and president of the european commission ursola fondelain. in total, this aid for 2023 amounted to 18

billion euros. this year, the eu became the largest donor of direct budget support to ukraine and it covered more than 45% of external needs financing. ursola fonderline called on eu countries to come to an agreement. to continue to provide ukraine with the support it needs for recovery, reconstruction and reforms. we stand by our friend, neighbor and future member, she emphasized. in turn , european trade commissioner valdis dombrovskis also stated that the next step should be to implement the financing program for ukraine for 2024-27 as soon as possible . eu leaders intended to approve this monetary support of 50 billion euros at the summit in december. however, hungary. such a decision blocked at the same time, at a press conference in budapest on thursday , hungarian prime minister viktor orban said that he had accepted the invitation of ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyi to hold a bilateral meeting. this will happen for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale russian war in ukraine. more about the influence of hungary and how the eu

helps ukraine and whether orbán's policy will change, we spoke with dmytro tuzhanskyi, director of the institute of central european strategy. see more about it in the briefing program on youtube and the voice website america. ukrainian as for consideration of the issue of financing for ukraine, the eu will return to it already in january next year. thus, it turns out that aid for ukraine for the next year has not yet been approved either in europe or in the united states. meanwhile , the managing director of the international monetary fund, kristalina georgieva, called on allies to immediately unblock economic aid for ukraine. in an interview with the financial times, she warned that long-term delays could harm the economy. countries and force the ukrainian authorities to print funds to cover the deficit from the budget, which may in turn accelerate inflation. we will ask my colleague oksana bodratenko more about how long ukraine can last without foreign aid and how to maintain the stability of the economy. oksana, hello. greetings, maria.

tell me, please, how long the ukrainian economy can last without financial aid packages from donors, how will it affect people's lives? yes, indeed, maria, as you stated, at the end of the year ukraine... received 900 million dollars from donors, and this from international monetary fund tranche, as well as 1.5 billion euros now from the european union, but large aid packages have not yet been approved either in the eu or the united states, and in the united states congressmen cannot yet agree on aid to ukraine due to domestic political issues in the european union, hungary is still opposed to aid. however, the international monetary fund is convinced that both the eu and the us will approve significant aid packages already in the first quarter of next year, that is, soon, and the packages the need for this money is huge, it is 40

billion dollars every year, the director of the european department of the international monetary fund shared with me about such estimates, about the prospects of approving aid. you will be able to watch the interview on voice of america soon, but now let's listen to what he said specifically about aid to ukraine. both the us administration and the european union are committed to getting these packages through the budget process and making funds available. it is very important. we also emphasize that allocations must arrive on time. obviously it is the question... will come at the beginning of the year, but we also see that donors are making extraordinary efforts to approve packages and deliver funds on time. and the private sector believes that the ukrainian economy can avoid significant problems and remain

manageable even without international funds for another six months. such assessments were shared with me by a ukrainian financier currently based in australia, serhiy butkin. look, if she's late, that's not a problem, but rather yes, the extent of the problem will be how much she's behind... will be delayed, because ukraine has gold and foreign exchange reserves, and if it is delayed for a month , after the holidays, the americans, the american legislators will come back to congress, to the senate, back, vote on an aid package for ukraine, connected with other conditions that ukraine has there do not have relations, but if they come, they will vote and everything will be fine, for example, yes, well, okay, that is, it will be unpleasant, moreover, if it will be and if european legislators

will come there after the new year and find some kind of solution, which it will also bring back, if you can say so, the predictability of the money that the ukrainian budget receives, otherwise it will also be normal, i.e. a month, let’s say, a month is not a problem, but two or three months... these are theoretically not a problem, but it will really have a strong impact on the country's gold and currency reserves. in fact, the ukrainian minister of finance, serhiy marchenko , says that it is necessary to rely more on domestic resources due to such uncertainty regarding assistance among partners. what exactly does he mean? yes, maria, it says it is primarily about tax revenues on... revenues, that is, revenues to private enterprises, to the private sector, and

in order for the private sector to work, to create jobs, and this macroeconomic stability, which is provided by the money of international donors, is needed, many investors are now looking at ukraine is being evaluated, they are planning their investments for the post-war period, but some of the investors are already investing, investing in... we see the interest of those who are already in ukraine, such companies that have been present in ukraine for a long time, who already have a big business here, by the way, they are even interested in investing now. the best example, i think, is nestlé, which has started building a new factory in volyn, and this is the first major investment during the war, and the second one will be announced in... early 2024, i think in 2024 and

greenfield investments, that is, the construction of new production and investments in the purchase of existing companies, and by large foreign companies, but for 99% it will be only those that are already present in ukraine. oksana, we really see that companies are already investing in ukraine, but how do they reduce these war risks for their investments, please tell me. yes, probably the risk of war is the most unpredictable thing that can be faced, now international organizations have launched a number of programs to insure these war risks, these are the programs of the american development finance corporation, and the world bank, the european bank for reconstruction and development, however not all of them are already working and giving results - says the ukrainian financier. unfortunately, there is none now some system program where it would be clear: there is a window, you went there, you

paid x, y, z, there is some money depending on where you are located, where your production is located, and where it is in general, and after that you got some kind of insurance policy that will protect you from the troubles that will be connected with the war, starting from the shaheds, ending with the fact that you can break down in... the whole chain of how you just sell your products or you get some of your components for your production in the country, and there are individual cases, and the first case is actually the carriers who received, were the first in general to receive military insurance, it was from the swiss government, and they said that this was the start of their insurance program in general, those companies from... switzerland, which will invest in ukraine. thus, the state funds that ukraine will receive

and expect to receive from state donors, from the european union, the united states, must be supplemented by internal sources of financing, which are based precisely on the private sector, on the development of real of the economy that currently exists, talking with this ukrainian financier also raised the question of which... exactly the sectors of the economy can develop now and develop after the war, and of course these are traditional sectors, such as iron ore mining, plains for metallurgy, this agrarian economy and agriculture has now somehow received a new lease of life, after the export of grain through the black sea was unblocked, and it is also the it sector, where ukrainians fulfill orders, and even international companies, and the military-industrial sector cannot be ignored

a complex that is beginning to develop, and according to serhiy butkin. right now there is this new wave, when we see the real development of the military-industrial complex, however, when i spoke with international financiers, with the international monetary fund, the world bank, they all emphasize how important macroeconomic stability is and how much the ukrainian government deserves , as i was told, in particular in the imf, it is precisely that this stability of the exchange rate and the reduction of inflation was ensured. thank you. thank you very much oksana for this professional analysis, i will remind you that my colleague oksana bodratenko told us about financial aid for ukraine and the economic situation. thank you, maria. meanwhile, at the front , the city of avdiyivka in the donetsk region continues to be the site of the most intense fighting between

the ukrainian armed forces and the russian occupation forces. about the situation in the city and why. the kremlin is trying to seize it, despite heavy losses, zsu officer myroslav gai told hanna tverdohlip. american intelligence says that the russians have gathered a lot of forces and are preparing, possibly a powerful one offensive operation, how does it feel on the spot? near avdiyivka, there are constant fierce battles, and they have not stopped and are constantly gaining different intensity, so it can be said that there are some pretsevniks gathering there now. force is impossible, we see that avdiyivka is a certain such main direction of attack, i see personally that the military-political leadership of russia has set military-political goals, that is, political goals that are achieved by a military goal, military means, the russians every day carry out offensive actions

on in the main directions, here is the main blow from... in our estimations, this is avdiyivka, well, it can be seen simply from the forces and means that are used, but there are also problematic issues near bakhmut, kupinsky, well, and rabotino, where our, relatively speaking, offensive took place , but, from those issues that i know, you understand that every soldier sees, the trench, as it were, the situation of his trench, yes. i see this widow and bakhmut, there are constant offensive actions every day, there are counter-offensive actions, such constant luck with the use of artillery, a large number of drones and, well, a lot of things. what does the situation look like? with munitions, do you already feel the lack of them because of the fact that the aid packages of the american,

in particular, are smaller, what the united states of america can produce in a year is an estimate. for the past year, this is what the armed forces of ukraine spend for two weeks, that is, all the capacity of the united states for the manufacture of ammunition, for example, caliber 155 for the past year, ah, this is actually our expenses for two weeks, as well as the countries of europe, we take, for example, the bulgarian countries, which produce the most of the european countries soviet-type ammunition. they can produce in a year with all their factories that manufacture ammunition, what we do in an average of two weeks a month, relatively speaking, well, this is on average, but the russians also have problems with ammunition, but they also have large stocks of soviet of the union, which they exhausted quite a lot according to my data, they spent more than 7 million calibers, calibers

mean shots. soviet- style, large-caliber artillery, that is why i think putin did not look for an opportunity to somehow replenish in north korea and china stockpiles, and they are now trying to manufacture it, it is not a high-precision weapon, but there is a lot of it, does the war now look like a transition to the defensive, and i would like to, it is logical, it was the right decision at this stage of this war, so the transition to the defense and preserving... one's army, one's armed forces, cutting off the russian army on the defensive lines, it was right, but surprisingly, it is easier to conduct defense, according to all the nazi books. that of the soviets, defense is easier to carry out than offensive actions, you need fewer means, fewer maneuvers, and especially if it was an active defense, then you

need less means, and therefore now it would be logical to enter a state of defense and hold it, because the russians also have really limited potential, they have human potential, but we see that there is no dominance in the air now. here we have a certain parity and a certain parity in terms of artillery shells has arrived, well, not in every direction, but we see that it definitely exists, now the question is what russia is winning at, it has a greater human potential, i wanted to ask about people, because everywhere your phrase about the collapsed institution of mobilization, how it looks today, well... look, in general, the institution of mobilization, it has been collapsing for a long enough time, here are the first

proposals to switch completely to a contract army, to abandon conscription, i criticized it, well, from the 19 18, because in a country where total war is going on, this is a mistake, we see that germany... has not been able to renew the institution of conscription for four years, four years ago i spoke with a representative of the german ministry of defense, and we were talking it's about warnings eh possible cancellation of conscription, and he clearly told me at the time that germany still cannot transition, return conscription, because the institutions are broken, they do not have military hospital commissions, they need changes to the legislation, they... have problems with infrastructure for mobilization, but this applies to all of europe in fact, they have no experience of war, this is a problem, the experience of war

plays a role, and here, unfortunately, russia also has a certain advantage, because they also did not have such experience for a long time, now they have thanks to the russian-ukrainian war, that is human a resource, and the most important thing is absolutely... the leveling of human life and they do not take into account the issues of human life , there are no problems for them. i wanted to ask you one more question, the whole autumn here, the snakes talked about winter, about the weather, about what is coming, how the ukrainians are fighting in the winter now, what it looks like , now we have better winter uniforms, now we have better ammunition, but again after all, battles are sometimes fought in such... conditions of complex logistics that there are questions about, relatively speaking, such things as heating, for example, are very relevant now chemical heaters, we have problems with heating

the arms, it is very simple, when there is a dominance of enemy drones with thermal imaging cameras, when they are visible in every trench, in every hole, relatively speaking, individual place of protection. from the air they can be seen by drones, and you cannot, for example, put a stove for heating, you do not have the opportunity to heat yourself with a fire or any other means, and at the same time you have to spend three to five days or more in a position without the possibility of rotation due to logistical complications , then accordingly, you need alternative things, but now we have chemical heaters. which are massively needed by the front. download the voice of america mobile application. the application

allows you to bypass blocking automatically thanks to the built-in vpn service. read news, watch informative programs and videos, as well as listen to podcasts of the ukrainian service of "voice of america". returning to the news from the states... on the eve of the christmas holidays , ukrainian carols and christmas carols were sung on the main concert stage here in washington. together with the artists and the audience yury solonets and vyacheslav filyushkin caroled. washington, d.c. stages of the leading hall of the capital of the united states, the kennedy center sound. ukrainian carols, the gerdan musical group presents the magic of ukrainian christmas program to the audience. the repertoire includes hutsul carols, shdervkas from

the east and center of ukraine. and instrumental compositions. this is not the first time that gerdan has performed on the stage of the kennedy center, says somiya horokhovska, the soloist of the group and its co-founder. this year's magic of ukrainian christmas program for performers has special, symbolic meaning. and that's why we called it magic of ukrainian christmas, because we hope that this magic of ukrainian christmas will bring victory to ukraine, and that ukrainians will finally celebrate in full force, and not to the sounds. so that the audience can learn more about ukrainian culture, solomiya explains to them the content and meaning of the songs in english. carolers sing: on sunday morning, the sun rose and the cherry orchards blossomed. in order for carols and carols to sound diverse and correspond to their region, the collective uses a large number of musical

tools, themselves only nozzles. i am pleased to play our ukrainian music on such a big stage at our ukrainian soup kitchens, which, by the way, were banned during communism, it is our mission to convey our culture to americans. for the kennedy center, the performance of ukrainians is also... of special importance, because in the united states they want to learn more about ukrainian culture, - says rachel ward, manager of social orientation programs. at the kennedy center, in general, we're always interested in offering a wide variety cultures from all over the country, and we are constantly working on it, this is not a one-time event, we work and continue to work with representatives of different peoples. after the concert

, the audience shared their impressions. the performers are simply incredible. i learned a lot that i didn't know before about this beautiful country, its traditions and culture. i leave the hall with only the best impressions. we are happy to be at this concert, the artists performed, sang and played very well. she is surprised by our music, from the bottom of our hearts we thank everyone who was involved in this a miracle, because i can't describe it in any other way, this spiritual miracle was very pleasant. yurii sovanets, vyacheslav filyushkin, voice of america. friends, we will say goodbye to this, read breaking news and analytical

materials on the voice of america website. in ukrainian, watch live broadcasts, full versions of interviews and stories on our youtube channel, and also subscribe to our social networks to always be aware of current and true news. thank you for staying with us, good night, good morning, see you soon! we continue the search for 17-year-old nadia shishkina. the girl disappeared on the first day of the full-scale war, and imagine, for all this time there was no news about her. i know that when it all started, the child was in the kherson region, in the city of nova kakhovka, which is still occupied. maybe that's why hope doesn't get in touch. therefore, i am asking everyone who sees me to look carefully at the photo of the girl. remember this face, if suddenly someone sees nadia shishkina, or

someone knows where she can be from... now do not delay and call us at hotline of the makhnolia child tracing service at the short number 11630. calls from any ukrainian mobile operator are free, or write to the chatbot of the child tracing service in telegram. i also want to remind you that we are continuing the search for five-year-old anastasia tolstokorova, which has been going on for the second year, and all this time nothing is known about the girl's fate. i know that nastya lived with her parents in mariupol on zelinsky street. when the war started, the family was in no hurry to leave their hometown. aunt nastya told me about it, she also the godmother of a girl who also lived in mariupol, not far from her niece. we have not been in touch since march 2nd, that's for sure, so we went home, well,

to visit them. i see them on march 8.