results of the year from president zelenskyi. the us congress is on vacation, when to wait for help. ukraine and poland agreed on unblocking the border. about this and much more in today's issue. greetings, iryna koval is in the studio, and this is the news, the results of the week on the espresso tv channel. the counteroffensive on... did not achieve its goals, however, in the past year, there were victories, and that was for two hours in a row, the president told journalists at the final press conference. how our soldiers continue to hold the defense, despite the fact that most of the they have been fighting for 22 long months. the security service of ukraine is actively engaged in moving the war as close as possible to the kremlin. where in russia was on fire this week. finally.

divorce from the moscow church. this year , most of the faithful of ocu and ugc will celebrate christmas on december 25. results of the second year of the war from the president. this week's top topic. volodymyr zelenskyi's third major press conference since the beginning of the full-scale invasion caused a lot of emotions, discussions and again disagreements in ukrainian society. expected. the main topic was the situation at the front. on one of the most painful questions about rotation and mobilization, the president emphasized that he needed a stronger argument to support this decision. a comprehensive plan that includes issues of rotation, demobilization, business trips, vacations and finances, because the mobilization of such a large number of people is an additional 500 billion uah from the budget. the press agencies paid a lot of attention to issues

of international relations and assistance to our state. more about this in our material. two hours of communication with journalists. fatigue, irritation, jokes. good and bad. three quarters of all questions about the war. results of 2023 and plans for 2024. the counteroffensive in the south did not achieve its goals. however, in the past year, there were victories - the president claims. throughout. in ukraine, who knows, abroad, everyone highly appreciates the deprivation of the russian fleet, their almost total, total dominance in the ukrainian black sea and the imposition of constant what to us, what to do, what to export, what to export. according to zelenskyi, russia did not achieve any goals in 2023, zelensky rejects the assumption that ukraine will lose, which can be found in the western press. no, i don't think so, we were in

the most difficult situation, and we were almost completely occupied, at least, at least the central regions of our state, we were under a complete blockade, we left, people, god, partners, i don't know who else. it all helped. now we have a different situation. the plans for 2024 are the construction of fortifications and the increase in the production of weapons, in particular drones. the president talks about a million domestic drones next year's production. but in addition to weapons , people are needed. there are plans to mobilize up to half a million more people. parliament is preparing amendments to the relevant law. the document is planned to be adopted at the beginning of next year.

they will probably be mobilized from the age of 25, but women will not be drafted, the most painful question is demobilization, what will happen to the million- strong army of ukraine, which is very powerful, i believe that what will happen to those guys who are there every day, at least what will happen to those who he has been defending our state there for two years, i have not seen it yet there is demobilization, although i believe that this is the number one issue, the relationship between the president and the head... and one more point of tension: valery zaluzhnyi recently became the object of regular attacks by the people's deputy from the servant of the people maryana bezuglai. when zelenskyi is asked about this, he does not defend the chief, but familiarly equates him with the scandalously famous deputy. as for maryana, valera, and they have several other people there, it is very difficult, they all like to comment, like, on facebook, they...

communicate there very often, they have dialogues, they are from the first days, then they go to the front together, then they fight, these are difficult issues , to be honest with me, the support of the event from the ... united states, here the president exudes confidence, despite the fact that congress has not been able to pass the package aid in the amount of more than 60 billion dollars this year, zelensky has no doubt that the decision of the americans will be positive, and it will be a signal for the european union as well. i am confident that the united states of america will not betray us and that what we have agreed upon in the united states will be fulfilled fully. i think i found it. understanding with president biden and the senators, and we have met with both parties, the question again is the dates. finally, the question that most worries ukrainians today: when will the war end? will the war end in the 24th year? i don't think anyone knows

the answers. even those respectable people, our commanders, or western partners, when they say that this is a war of many years. they don't know zelenskyy emphasized once again: ukraine will not give up its territory, therefore the issue of negotiations with russia is not relevant today. so the president confidently declared that the us will not betray us and fulfill its promise of support. meanwhile, the us congress went on vacation. the leader of the democrats in the senate, chuck schumer , asked to extend the work of both houses of the congress for a week in order to have time ... to pass additional funding for ukraine before christmas, and the speaker of the house of representatives, mike johnson, did not support such a proposal. the vacation should end on january 8, and as the reuters agency points out, after returning to the us congress,

difficult tests await. legislators must decide on the financing of military aid to ukraine, israel and taiwan, as well as agree on changes in... migration legislation. white house national security representative john kirby also spoke about helping our country this week. he told reporters that the white house plans to provide another package of military aid to ukraine by the end of the year. but he warned that it could be the last until congress decides on the allocation of additional funds. the white house once again emphasized that they understand. importance help, since it is impossible to liberate the territories occupied by the russians without it. the situation around avdiivka, which is in donetsk region , is difficult. battles for the city continue. the occupiers have changed their tactics and now it is extremely difficult to evacuate the civilian population in a day.

the removal of residents from the city was forcibly canceled several times. ukrainian positions are shelled hundreds of times a day by the occupiers. continue to carry out active assault operations with the support of armored vehicles, have increased the number of airstrikes and artillery fire. since the beginning of october, the russians have been active assaults in avdiivka district. they are trying to surround the city and take it under their control. for these few months, ukrainian defenders have been defending the city and preventing the plans of the occupiers from coming true. more about... the situation at the front. see further. the operational situation in the east and south of ukraine remains difficult. in the kupyansk direction, the combined forces repel enemy attacks in the area of ​​senkivka settlement, kharkiv region, where the invaders tried

to break through the defense of our troops. settlements near the contact line of rashisti covered with artillery and mortar fire. over the past few days, in the bakhmutskyi direction for... harbniks have almost constantly attacked klishchiivka, they are trying to break through from the north and in the direction of the road from ivanivskyi. the sections of the front near avdiivka and maryinka in donetsk region remain the most difficult. this week, the russians entered the avdiyivka industrial zone and consolidated their positions. there they entered the fortifications that our military had previously received, and then tried to move towards avdiyivka itself, but since... the last two days of this week, i can talk about a certain let's put it this way, the situation where our military received reinforcements, and the enemy's intention to encircle avdiivka did not come true. in the zaporizhzhia direction, the defense forces of ukraine repulsed all the attacks

of the western recruitment and robotyn, where the enemy tried to dislodge our units from the occupied lines. on the kherson direction , artillery shelling was reported in kherson, lviv, tyaginka, ivanivka, and ochakiv of the mykolaiv region. the enemy also carried out an airstrike near krynyk in the kherson region. the invaders tried to... to knock out our units from the left bank of the dnieper, however, the ukrainian troops gave a decent rebuff and inflicted significant losses on the attackers. in recent weeks, ukraine has been on the defensive along most of the front. this is happening in response to the calls of the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyi, to speed up fortification works in key sectors. at the same time, the enemy conducts aerial reconnaissance, which makes it difficult for ukrainian fighters to build. we are talking about the lines of the second there and

the third, which are, let's say, behind our troops in certain directions, because we we can take into account different scenarios of combat operations, and there may be scenarios that , in particular, on such directions as avdiyivka, there maryanka, bakhmut, there, in particular the same kupyansk, there may be situations when we have to withdraw to positions, which from the point of view of defense will be more advantageous, and there we will ... have sufficient protection. our soldiers continue to hold the defense steadfastly, despite the fact that most of them have been fighting for 22 hard and long months. according to dictator putin, the russian army is improving its position on front, and kyiv did nothing with the counteroffensive. the president of the aggressor country also recently held a press conference on the results of the year. his main message. there will be no peace in ukraine until it is de-nazified and demilitarized. there will be peace

when we achieve our goals, he said. so it is clear that despite the heavy losses of soldiers on our territory, putin will continue the bloody war. also, in his characteristic manner, he once again accused the west, which, in his opinion, uses a strategy of deterrence in relation to russia and sets the aggressor. goals in ukraine, so we are not going to give up our svo goals, - said putin. meanwhile, the security service of ukraine does not let the invaders relax and sends them surprises. it was hot this week in the bryansk, rostov, kaluga and moscow regions. so more about cotton in russia and the temporarily occupied territories. see our review. where did it burn in russia? on the night of december 17, the security service of ukraine and the armed forces struck

a russian airfield in the rostov region with drones. russians are traditional lied that all the drones were shot down, but our forces inflicted significant damage on enemy equipment. it is known that there were up to 20 su-34 aircraft, three radar stations and other equipment at the airport at the time of the attack. it is also located there. bomber aviation regiment of the refian aerospace forces. moscow airports were covered with a plan - kavior. allegedly due to mass drone attacks. on tuesday, departures and arrivals were not accepted at three airports of the capital of the russian federation. vnukova, damadedova and zhukovsky. also, a kamikaze drone was shot down in the morning over the bryansk region russian federation on friday, unidentified drones flew to kaluga. at the local airport temporarily. did not accept flights, the propagandists reported that all the drones had apparently been shot down. friday

, december 22 brought good news. in particular, in the south, ukraine destroyed three russian su-34 fighters at once. there are dead people among the occupiers. the wasteland of guided aerial bombs, which they considered to be remote, that is, the planes did not approach the area of ​​​​the counterattack. defense, but did damage by sending these guided air bombs. today they received a powerful signal that this distance of 50-60 km, from which the cabs were released, is no longer safe for them. also, on friday, unknown drones were spotted in several regions of the russian federation. they allegedly attacked an oil storage facility in bryansk. the russian media wrote about it. of course, the occupiers. they cheerfully announced that everything was shot down, but later drones were spotted in the rostov region, in particular in taganrog.

ukrainian intelligence does not talk about targets and assures that all the birds arrived as intended. over the course of a week, almost every day , the bases of the invaders burned down several times temporarily occupied cities, explosions rang out in donetsk, dzhankoya, sevastopol, simferopol, karchi. december 20. drone struck the fsb border post near alushta. one man was injured. damaged equipment and satellite antenna. that morning, they hit the center with a rocket. of space communication in the village of vitene, saksky district. at the beginning of the annexation of crimea, the occupiers kept powerful equipment there. for russia , the space communication center is a strategically important base. the destruction of the center of long-distance space communication can cause that to return to the previous accuracy and loss

of orientation of missiles that. will fly to the territory of ukraine, there were powerful means for determining seismic events on the surface of our planet, which means that they cannot now accurately track the points they hit, where they aimed. the security service of ukraine is intensifying its work behind enemy lines in order to move the war as close as possible to the kremlin. among the priority targets are warships of the russian federation, military bases, logistical corridors for the supply of weapons, the head of the sbu said about this. vasyl malyuk to politico. already , the special service is working to push the black sea fleet of the russian federation out of crimea, and it is doing it with the help of naval drones, those that previously hit the crimean bridge, as well as several

russian warships. vasyl malyuk emphasized: sbu is always looking. new solutions and promised that bavov will continue to attack. ukraine and poland reached an agreement on unblocking the border. at a meeting in kyiv on friday, december 22, representatives of the polish ministry of infrastructure and the ukrainian ministry of infrastructure the ministries of community development, territories and infrastructure agreed on an action plan and promised to solve the problem in the coming days. meanwhile, according to the state more than 4,000 vehicles are standing in line at the bottom service on the ukrainian-polish border. on saturday morning , four directions were blocked: rava ruska, krakowiec, jagodyn and sheghini. the blockade of the polish border slowed down the growth of ukraine's gdp. according to the ministry of economy, the growth of the ukrainian economy slowed

to four in november 2023, compared from 10 in october a few days earlier, on wednesday, polish president andrzej duda held a meeting of the national security council, where he emphasized that ukraine's accession to nato is also important for his country. after all, such a step will push nato's eastern flank away from poland and increase its security. ukraine's possible membership in nato, as well as joining the european union, fully corresponds to the interests. poland - said duda and emphasized the need for joint actions with the new government to implement ukraine's intentions to join the eu and nato. the meeting was attended by representatives of the new government of poland headed by prime minister donald tusk. and already on friday in kyiv, the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi met with the new head of the

polish foreign ministry, radoslav sikorskyi. where he said that the polish side. is preparing the official visit of the head of the polish government, donald tusk. and this obviously increases the chances of unlocking the western border for our goods. the vast majority of ukrainians are going to celebrate christmas in 2023 according to the new church calendar, i.e. december 25. this is evidenced by the data. social surveys the prime minister of ukraine denys shmygal said that in 2023 christmas in ukraine will be an official working day on december 25. and it will be a holiday and a day off only after victory. as for the date of christmas itself, discussions have been going on for years, only this year, on the second year of the full-scale invasion of russia, ukrainian

churchmen reached a common decision. how the leading christian churches in... made a historic step, changing the church calendar, and how for the first time the majority of believers will celebrate christmas on december 25, my colleague will tell natalya starepravo. this year, believers of the orthodox church of ukraine and the ukrainian greek catholic church celebrate christmas together for the first time on december 25. a few years ago, the issue of transition to a new calendar remained at the level of discussions. this year it is not only a decisive step. non-religious character, but also geopolitical, because it means the final separation from the moscow church. nobochki got ready soryachki.

there are several reasons why ukrainian churches decided to leave the julian calendar. first, it is astronomically inaccurate. earth orbits the sun 12 minutes slower than the ancient romans thought. so in 1500 years. the julian calendar is 10 days behind. concerned about this, pope gregory 13 decided to reform the calendar in 1582. therefore, from october 4 , the 15th came immediately, and the new julian calendar was called the gregorian calendar accordingly. before the bolshevik coup, the russian empire followed the julian calendar. at a time when all of europe had already switched to the gregorian, as well as the ukrainian people's republic. russia did not take such a step due to religious and ideological reasons, and the orthodox church, which remained at that time the only orthodox denomination in ukraine, also followed only the julian

calendar, and it turned out that society had long since switched to the new style, while the church stuck to the old one. therefore, the julian calendar today is delayed by 13 days. since 2014, ukrainian churchmen began to actively talk about the transition to a new calendar. thus , in 2017, the verkhovna rada added a non-working day on december 25 for those ukrainians who celebrate christmas according to the gregorian calendar. in december 2020 , metropolitan epiphany of kyiv noted that the orthodox church of ukraine will switch to the new calendar only when the believers themselves are ready for it. not long after this statement , his beatitude svyatoslav noted that the ukrainian greek catholic church will switch to the new calendar only. from the orthodox church of ukraine. christmas should be celebrated together, together with your parish, together with your church, because christmas

is not a private event, it is very personal, although it has a personal dimension. christmas is a holiday of the whole of the people russia's full-scale war against ukraine accelerated transformations in society. therefore, the question of the transition to a new calendar has acquired neo-political features, as another way to get rid of the russian fraternal myth. therefore, from 2022 until now, many religious communities are transferring from the moscow patriarchate to the orthodox church of ukraine. the transition to the new julian calendar was announced at the synod of the ukrainian greek catholic church in february 2023. in the orthodox church of ukraine , they started talking about it in may, but finally made a decision. at the local council already in july. therefore, the transition to the new calendar became the decisive step that had not been taken for decades. in general, the majority of ukrainians

support the transition to the novylyan calendar. according to the opinion poll of the razumkov center, more than 80% of greek catholics and more than 60% of orthodox have a positive attitude to this. the statistics are somewhat lower in the eastern and southern regions of ukraine. however, even there, more than half of them feel good about it, and even the parishioners of the poskovo patriarchate do the same are preparing to switch to the new julian calendar, but this share is somewhat smaller: christmas on the 25th of march or on the 7th of january? no, on january 7, why, why doesn't it switch to 25 g? well, because this is how my parents celebrated, this is how my great-grandfathers, grandmothers, grandfathers celebrated, and i celebrate this way, now we will celebrate twice, because the children... just this year, and we, our generation, will still get used to it, i i think that it will change in our country someday, but it will take time.

there must be one holiday, right? december 25, there is no second one, it's about christmas. transition on the new calendar this year is not yet mandatory. the ukrainian greek catholic church gave time. adaptation until 2025. the orthodox church of ukraine did not set time limits. instead, it is known that 120 orthodox parishes out of 8.5 thousand remained on the julian calendar. one such community is known in lviv. well, festive services with the participation of the heads of the greek catholic and orthodox churches will be held on december 25. despite russia's full-scale war against ukraine, our military is also celebrating. christmas on the front lines. and for the second year in a row they do it on december 25. the day before, our soldiers recorded a touching video where they reminded that there is a transition to a new church calendar.

choice, this is a really powerful thing , this is what our team saw this week, despite the fact that there is a war in the country, they are preparing for christmas and the new year, but during the preparations, do not forget about our military, who need help every day, and also take care of your own security, because the enemy continues to shell our cities, do not neglect the messages about the air alert, merry christmas and watch the news, summaries of the week on the espresso tv channel every saturday at 9 pm and sunday at 9 am and take care.

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new christmas compositions and favorite super hits. on january 8, the stage of the lviv opera, tickets on the website of the organizer bigshoweua, information partners, espresso tv channel and radio fm halychyna. live sound. congratulations , you know, this week and last, in principle, also, drones flew not only over ukraine, they regularly flew over russia as well, and no matter how russian propaganda tried to hide it, they did not they talk about it in the news, they don't talk about it anywhere, but when in the end they have to close the russian airports in moscow, it's somehow very difficult not

to say about it, and as a result, you have to... tell what is happening. ukrainian formations made another request for a drone strike in the central territory of russia. today, even several airports on the southern outskirts of the capital stopped their operation for several hours, all because there was a threat of damage to aircraft that were in in the air thus, drones were shot down near bryansk, koluga, in the odentsovsky district at mid-flight. and it works. this is not the first time that ukrainians are trying to attack our territories in the central regions with drones, because if we look back literally 2 days ago, with 30 drones, the attack is again massive, again, that is, all the time there is an imitation, i emphasize, an imitation of attacks on russia , why, in order to present that we have moved the zone of action, why are you talking about imitations on the territory of russia, imitations in what, well... you know,

now they launched this, as if like a phrase, they say imitation, imitation of drone attacks, but the real question is, what is the imitation, if they do fly to their goal. on december 15, 16, 17, raids were carried out on kursk, on crimea, on volgograd region, on rostov region, this... we became objects of both the russian air force and the energy infrastructure, then 30 drones there, then 30 drones here, the same the most strikes on morozovsk, where our su-34s are based, several aircraft were damaged in morozovsk of tactical aviation, they can be patched, they can be fixed, but the question arises that this is being blown up by the media, that the russians are not protecting their sides again, from this point of view, because...