sober and that the world is really watching, so i think that they had a certain kind of sarcasm in it, but not very positive. you can dream, the main thing is what you are ready to sacrifice and what you have in order to realize these dreams, and the main thing is to realize them not only at the expense of others, but also at the expense of yourself. therefore, we will see if he will be able to realize his dreams, so that they, as they say, come thru , well, but in any case, everything is in the hands of volodymyr zelenskyi, a year has passed, ukraine has survived, despite everything, he has a chance to change everything, well, at least try it now. after finishing the conversation about volodymyr zelenskyi, we will move on to events outside ukraine. in fact, every day, you heard how yuriy fizar talked about it, and in fact the most important thing, the most important thing, what happened outside of ukraine and what affected the events in ukraine, we will look at it now, and then we will discuss it. a year of extremely important decisions for the future of ukraine. this is how 2020 will go down in history. the third. we saw real

support from our allies and partners around the world, but the most important thing is that ukraine is one step closer to nato and the european of the union the doors to these institutions are not just open. in the north atlantic alliance and the european union, we were invited to become their full members. first there was the nato summit in vilnius. his main achievement is the cancellation of the requirement for ukraine to implement an action plan regarding membership in the north. to the atlantic alliance, instead we received real guidelines, as well as assurances that everyone is interested in ukraine joining nato as soon as possible. i hope that at the summit you understood how much we support you, this support is real, and so am i i hope that we have finally put an end to the conversation about whether ukraine is waiting for nato, you will become a member of the alliance, we are all moving in the right direction. this summit was important

both for ukraine and for nato, general secretary jens stoltenberg concluded. the decisions made in vilnius mark the beginning of a new chapter in relations between nato and ukraine. today we meet as equals and i look forward to the day when we meet as members of an alliance. and then there was the summit of the european union. in the middle of december the leaders of the eu member states adopted an extremely important decision on the start of negotiations with ukraine. this is a historical moment. it shows confidence in the european union, the strength of the european union. the decision is made. we are starting negotiations with ukraine and moldova. we want to support ukraine. this is a very powerful political signal, it is a very powerful political decision. today i want to tell the people of ukraine that we are on their side.

the efforts of the prime minister of hungary, viktor orbán, to block the adoption of this invitation in the eu has proven that they can find the right, and most importantly, legal solution for the desired result. that's how it works, and it's really a very strong result for ukraine, for all of europe, another step towards ukraine's full membership in the eu. i thank everyone who supported me and did exactly what we agreed on. thank you to everyone in ukraine. to our team, who did everything necessary, we fulfilled the recommendations of the european commission, we removed the doubts. there is still a lot of work ahead, we need to continue to implement reforms, but most importantly, the finish line is visible in the distance line, and how quickly we cross it and become members of the eu and nato now depends on us. actually, is it possible on the front of international politics, i don't want to say a word on the front, let us

write this year as an asset in ukraine or a liability on the front of international politics? yury, please, well, you know, vasyl , you know, colleagues, the 23rd was a difficult year, and it was difficult for each of us, in those headings, in those industries that we are talking about, it was a difficult 24th , who will be the 24th, maybe even more difficult, maybe easier, i don't know, but the 24th was remembered, at least in the field in which i work, after all, by the decision, well , such historical ones, i would call decisions and decisions and... what i, what i want to emphasize, these decisions were not adopted thanks to our government, rather contrary to what our government was doing. in the story, we saw that these two landmark decisions were made at the nato summit and the european union summit, and the nato summit was in july, the european union summit was just a few weeks ago in december. so we were not invited to nato, but we are clear they said that we will become a member of nato even now. we need to go for it,

we need to do it ourselves to be accepted into nato, so we were not invited to the european union and they say that we are still a long way from the european union, 2030 is just such a reference point to which we need strive, but at least at this summit we heard that they want us there, and again one condition, we have to prove that we want to go there ourselves, we have to be ready, we have to make the changes that are expected of us, and we must become a real european country that wants to join this european family and a nato country that wants to join, so that is ahead. a lot of work, but these are historical, these are really historical decisions, and i think, i will repeat myself again, these decisions were made, probably in contradiction to what our politicians were doing . yes, well, colleagues, who has a question? please, yuri, you said that historical

decisions were made against, rather, the actions of our government. how would you rate it and why? criticized the efforts of the ukrainian authorities on this diplomatic international platform. if we are talking not only about president volodymyr zelenskyi, who is required by the constitution to implement international policy, in particular foreign policy, if we are also talking about the ministry of foreign affairs, if we are talking about the office of the president, in particular, who is taking over these functions in some places, perhaps too much, yes , on the international platform, and also about the ambassadors of individual countries, we know that in great britain, in particular with this problem of the czech republic, great britain still has no ambassadors. answering your question, you said it very well, there was no effort, no effort, there were some efforts, and these efforts were crowned with some success, and again, contrary to what this government was doing, because why were there not very often the minister of foreign affairs of ukraine, but was

the head of the president's office, why do we not have ambassadors in very important countries for ukraine that help us, great britain, the czech republic. why such questions, why, why, why, why, as you rightly said, the office of the president of ukraine is taking on responsibilities that he should not have at all, not that he should take care of, but that he should not perform, and all this leads to the fact that in europe there are some such skeptics , sometimes there were skeptical opinions, skeptical positions regarding ukraine, regarding our european future, and this is manifested in the position of, for example, viktor orban, who uses all this very well, informs his citizens and shows that ukraine cannot be included in the european union. for example, the same, some leaders who said that ukraine is not ready to join nato. yes, we are not ready, but it is only about the fact that we, even in nato, were not given a formal invitation, but we were told: here is a signpost to which you

will go, and you must come there, or were you attached to it there was no maximum diplomatic effort, there were some efforts. fortunately, thank god, thank god, we have this historic result, and i will call it historic. serhii has a question, please, i would like to ask what is happening in the the united states in terms of the reality of getting funding for ukraine 's defense needs, because this relationship between the democrats and the republicans, it's becoming such an intra-american war, and do they feel that this is of significant fundamental importance to our nature of warfare in terms of to the fact that we are very... expecting this help. the key word in your question is what is actually happening. no one knows what is really happening in the american political world, because the american political world is closed to american, in the united states of america. and even the americans themselves probably do not fully understand this, but i will try to answer your question about aid

to ukraine. yes, you really said that for the americans ukraine is very far away and the allocation of large sums of money to ukraine in order for it to defeat one of its own. rival russia, which is just as far from the united states of america, it's kind of, you know, it's kind of utopian for many americans, i want to say, but not for all. thank god there are conscious people in the united states of america and among american politicians who understand that the victory of ukraine is the victory of the entire civilized world, and therefore it is important to help ukraine. are they going to give us, are they going to give us money to support us, to buy weapons that we... we can speed up this victory, my personal opinion is that yes, they will, they are delaying by using their own internal political squabbles, domestic american political squabbles, the two american parties, the democratic and the republican, are quarreling with each other now,

for example, about the southern border with mexico and about migration legislation, they just want to earn some dividends on this issue, but they also... understand that the money that will be allocated to ukraine of 61 billion dollars will be the lion's share of it to go and stay in the united states of america. the lion's share of this money will settle on military american... enterprises, the lion's share of this money will go to the salaries of people, americans, who work there, and yes, they are pulling, they did not approve aid to ukraine until the new year, i hope very much, but no, i’ll say it differently, i’m sure that after the new year they will unblock this aid, because they understand where the evil is, and this evil is in russia, i’m just making a remark and i’ll give it to you now, and i very briefly what really. the distance between the usa and russia is 13 km , so on the one hand it is far, if it is across

the atlantic, and if the east is not very far, well, it is just a word, i remember this phrase , what the americans do, they go through many options, then they do this , as it should be, i hope that it will be the same this time, please, sasha, yuro, questions about european integration, especially for business, for small and medium-sized enterprises, and for many consumers, a difficult situation turned out to be with the blocking of the polish, romanian and... hungarian border, that is, in the european union , the ukrainian economic side reacted sluggishly to the problems, indeed a dialogue took place, but our state continued to lose huge amounts of money due to the blocking of the border, while at the same time receiving these funds from, well, european partners, here business is questioning european integration, perhaps speaking, talking with investors, with entrepreneurs that it is necessary to step towards the eu. but don't forget about the position of ukraine , ukrainian business, you need to defend some

of your rights, and not to cancel the european transport visa-free regime, which ukraine has been working towards for a long time, so i have a question for you, you know, there is another question here, the question in because if we talk about the issues that you have raised now, europeans think about themselves, we are not yet in the european union, we have not arrived yet, but economically we are integrating, we are integrating there, but we are first... another european union thinks about the european union and therefore in europe are more on the side of poland in this matter, the only thing that pleases me is that the government has changed in poland and that this new government of prime minister donald tusk will now make every effort to make this situation change. donald tusk, by the way, why did this happen because there was poor communication between the polish government and brussels. the polish government has accused the central government in brussels. there was no such understanding between them. as a result there was the situation you're talking about, now donald tusk came to power, and i really hope

that now, first of all, this communication between poland and brussels will change, and if it changes, then the situation will also change , and it seems to me that certain european legislation, into which we have already integrated, must be observed here i'm talking about visa-free transport, you can't bring back the old soviet legislation, these permits, because it will essentially undermine the economic basis that we are moving towards together with the eu, that's right, ms. natalya. please, you mentioned the change of government in poland, well, in general political change, and it's no secret, many people said that this situation with the blockade on the border, that this is not an economic issue, but a political one, well, what do you think, will something change in this regard in connection with the arrival of, well, a new political power, because it's no secret that even in poland there are very divided opinions and... and such an aggravation is definitely happening, how will it affect ukraine? natalka, i'm sure things will change,

you know why, one of the first countries to which the new polish foreign minister, radosław sikorski, arrived, was ukraine. give god, that's why i think that everything will change now, we will find these points of contact, and we will find ways out of this situation in which we got into, sometimes because of this, because of ourselves, because of our own mistakes, and sometimes because of some the position is wrong on the part of our neighbors, i think that we will solve these mistakes, but the new government has already come to fulfill its duties, the situation has not changed radically yet, well, i, natalka, will not, i do not know how this i don't know how to change this situation at all, purely practically, so i can't to answer this question, but i really hope that it will change, well, i 'm only the one, i'll just say briefly, in conclusion, that really, in ukraine now, in a short time , a lot of things are changing in relations with the west, which did not happen. tens of years, so it is probably a very painful disease of growth, well, but i believe that once again we will manage to survive it, and now we will talk not about

disease of growth, but about the fight against a sick state, which is the russian federation, about the situation in the front, how it changed during the year, and the key moments that may have positively or negatively influenced the course of events, what we expected last year and what we have at the front, mainly at the beginning of the 24th? let's see. on the battlefield, 2023 was a year of hopes, successes and losses for ukraine. in january, orders. about the fact that ukraine should not lose in the war with russia. the us and partners supported us in creating an offensive group of 12 brigades for 60,000 soldiers, which was supposed to be the basis for breaking through the enemy's defenses in the south of the country. but the preparation was slow, weapons were also arriving, and russia, after the defeats of 2022, began to build

fortifications and mine captured territories along the entire line of confrontation. especially densely in the south. also, since january, the russian army switched from defense to offensive actions on the line from kupyansk to ughledar. this was the second battle for the east, where the enemy sought to push ukrainian troops out of donbas. this hostile plan collapsed with the epic annihilation of the russian forces at ugledar in february. however , the enemy concentrated on the capture of bakhmut, where he used wagner's tactics for the first time meat assaults. this rush. lasted until may. the enemy paid a colossal price for the ruins of bakhmut. the political and military leadership of ukraine considered the exhausting defense of bakhmut expedient, despite the advice from the us to concentrate all forces and opportunities on conducting a concentrated offensive in the south. according to the plan, the two breakthrough corps were supposed to break through the enemy-occupied territories in the donetsk

and zaporizhzhia regions and reach the azov coast, or at least tokmak. since may , the armed forces of ukraine have shaken the enemy's defenses by several points directions, from velika novosilka to vasylivka. the active offensive in the south began on june 4. however, the maneuver doctrine, which our partners too optimistically relied on when simulating offensive actions in the south, did not work in the conditions of extensive enemy fortifications, extensive minefields, active operation of anti-tank weapons, drones and helicopters. at the same time, the attack took place without a domain. in the air and without an advantage in manpower, and the concentration of forces for a breakthrough was simply impossible due to the transparency of the battlefield, thanks to reconnaissance drones and the rapid use of enemy means of destruction, the newly formed brigades gained experience in combat operations in conditions where no nato army would launch such an offensive at all. there were

losses. in view of the harsh reality, the leadership of the armed forces of ukraine decided to switch to tactics of small-scale promotion. corpses with demining and artillery support. instead of expectations for a rapid advance of almost 100 km, from summer to autumn, the advance in the south in the robotyny zone was up to 12 km. there will be no deep breakthrough - valery zaluzhnyi wrote in famous article in the economist. the war has become a war of attrition, because defense prevails over offense. as in the first world war, ukraine and russia have reached the level of technological development. which leaves us in a quandary. in order to get out of this impasse, we need to invent something fundamentally new, as the chinese once invented gunpowder, - noted the zaluzhny. on land, the results of the offensive campaign of the armed forces and defense forces, despite the self-sacrifice, dedication and courage of our military, in 2023 turned out to be less

than expected, but the enemy was inflicted significant losses. according to us intelligence from... out of 360,000 invaders who invaded ukraine, russia lost 315,000 people on the battlefield. also, the russian federation lost 2/3 of its tanks and a third of the number of other armored vehicles. now russia is trying to restore what was lost. since october , the avdiivka detachment has again intensified combat operations along the entire front line, using its main advantage - manpower. the tactics of the wagnerites became the tactics of the russians. army, so now the enemy is making a third attempt to replay the results of the fighting for donbas. these attempts of the enemy break the stability of our defenses, but again and again we need weapons, equipment and ammunition. well, that's how serhii briefly explained how this year passed, well, mainly at the front. serhii, i

would like to ask you this, can we say that the actual status quo has actually been preserved or after all... what advancements in one direction and in the other were significant? well, first of all, i would like to start with what we talked about diplomacy, about the transformation of zelensky, but we understand that all these things are related to how our defense is courageously holding on to the front line, because now, when we are recording the holiday program there, some of the young men and women have basically been sitting in the trenches for two years and are now bearing the brunt of what is now affecting the... our present and for our future, so we must remember in what difficult conditions we actually exist now and what will happen to our state, so in any case the issue of the situation on the front line is decisive, it will affect everything, on the economy, on diplomacy, on our feeling and so on. now, when we talk about what happened on the front line this year, we really had a lot of expectations going into the counter attack, the expectation

of the counter attack, really, they were heated because everybody knew where we were going to attack, what we had to get. , that we have to go to the coast of the sea of ​​azov, how we will cut this transport corridor, and everything will seem to be fine, especially against the background of the statements of our officials that we can even drink coffee in the crimea in the summer, of course, this affected our expectations. maybe such informational support was needed on in the first stage, when our population was , let's say, taken aback by the russian attack, but when the reality became clear, we think, after all, that this is too much hope, they played a certain cruel joke on our population, and now we are a little bit back on our real land, indeed , the enemy has become much stronger this year, because the front line has shortened, it has become, relatively speaking, not 2 meters there but 800 km, the number of enemy forces on our territory has almost doubled, that is, they have actually dug themselves into the ground, they provided for themselves equipment, weapons, and in fact they

are now both offensive and defensive, using their advantages primarily in the number of personnel. it is much more difficult for us to fight them now, and we understand that now we have serious challenges, if we expected to reach the coast of the sea of ​​azov there, we have not succeeded so far, and this means ... that now we have such a significant year expectations of changes and transformations, first of all it is about the fact that we have to reformat the defense, provide fortifications, about which finally remember, we have to form reserves, we have to train our soldiers not only to fight, we have to finally train commanders as well, because one of our problems is that our brigades, commanders are not always ready to carry out large-scale operations, because this is a new experience , we have not yet learned to attack, we... have learned to defend well, but we have learned to attack, we are only just beginning, so relatively speaking, we have such serious challenges that no army in the world has faced, this

also applies to the preparation of the offensive operations, and provision and so on, that is, the next year will be extremely difficult, important, and in any case, we really hope for foreign aid, which is why i asked yuri about this issue, because now it is impossible to plan our actions for the next year not knowing clearly what means ... and forces you will have at your disposal during the next year, and this is the challenge that now faces our military leaders, when the americans ask what is your strategy for victory, your strategy for combat operations, and what is the strategy of the americans for that how we're going to be secured, whether we're going to have enough planes there, whether we're going to have enough ammunition, whether we're going to have enough guns and everything, that's just what will give us some understanding of how we 're going to fight next year, but in any in any case, we understand that both the population and all of us... ourselves and our military are really determined to ensure victory, no matter what difficult conditions it may be, and we think that the next year will be difficult, but it will be another step towards our victory

evgeny, please, do you have any questions? at the end of the year, you already told serhiy about it, there were fears about the future prospects of supplying western weapons to ukraine, at least in the volumes that were earlier, which were at the beginning of, say, this year, 2023 , but if we talk about... did it succeed should ukraine increase its own production capacity this year? it is clear that we need certain western-style weapons, certain weapons and equipment that we cannot currently produce, but is there anything to praise the ukrainian state for in this sense, and ukrainian defense and industrial complex. in fact, weapons will be an important component that will ensure the situation on the front line. we do have significant supplies of american weapons and european weapons, but during this time they really took a hit. positive changes with our defense industry, although at internal meetings everyone talks about the fact that now our defense industry can supply the ukrainian army with a maximum of 8-10

%. this suggests that in reality the potential needs are much greater than what our defense industry can do, although before the war we had areas where we could develop the production of equipment, including armored vehicles, radar, and guided missiles, and there were even projects related to the missile industry. programs with ammunition programs, these two programs, the creation of missile weapons and the creation of ammunition, they are now a priority, in fact, now there are also people for this, partly there is money, and now these processes are taking place, i hope that next year we will have more of our own of ammunition than we had until now, there are also changes with drones, because we we see that this potential is related to the role of the ministry of digital in the processes, it gave a positive impetus to start manufacturing, in particular... it has drones at its core, but here a strange question arises, why is the ministry of digital transformation engaged in this, and not the ministry defense, now it is a paradoxical situation that the ministry of defense does not have money for the purchase of drones,

but there is such money. of the ministry of digital transformation, now the ministry of digital affairs will be a leader in these processes, in particular, as well as for some reason with fortifications, that is, in fact that the role of the ministry of defense should be strengthened and from the point of view that there should be integrated efforts, but the ministry of defense communicates well enough with foreign partners, now we have projects related to the transfer and localization of the production of foreign weapons in ukraine, we we know the arrangements in german prose there. with british companies, with french companies on the establishment of enterprises either in ukraine or in the countries bordering ukraine, or to ensure the rapid repair of that of equipment that is supplied to ukraine or was previously supplied, so there are changes from the point of view of weapons, but the needs of the next year will still be enormous, and so far the main challenge against the background of all ukrainian weapons is, first of all, ammunition, because we understand that that we need at least 200,000

munitions per month, and... not european companies, not american ones , can provide this amount so far, so this is still a serious challenge for our actions next year. sergey, but is it possible to enlarge this one production potential at the expense of domestic investments, at the expense of the creation of ukrainian enterprises, ukrainian companies, whether there are investments, whether there are people, whether there is a business desire and whether there is permission from the authorities, we will talk, well , in fact, what is the problem here, here we are trying. to transfer market mechanisms to the conditions of war, in conditions of war , prescriptive methods of building enterprises are primarily more effective, why now there is a lack of ammunition on the part of the americans, europeans, because they are trying to ensure the expansion of production through market mechanisms and that's why they usually don't have time to do it, in ukraine, so far, there are also variations with the fact that we will create joint enterprises, what we will create there, share shares and so

on, this... this is a long-term process, if we understand about the fact that we lack ammunition, that there is no gunpowder, and the rate of production of ammunition depends on this , i think that, after all, directive decisions in the conditions of war look more rational, and i hope, in fact, that the challenges of war are all - still they will force ours management to be faster and play less with market mechanisms, thank you, ugh, well, thank you serhiy, so we will believe that already on the 24th of the year news from the front. then they will be better, again, they will be better when many factors will work, when many who did not do something will do, those who did, will do better, those who did evil, will sit behind bars and not spoil us, as then they say, our path to victory will not work against the ukrainian army, the ukrainian people and the ukrainian state, then it is obvious the successes will be completely different, there is absolutely nothing to blame the ukrainian army, but many who join this war for one reason or another can certainly be blamed,

we hope that it is negative. the factors will be removed and, relatively speaking, no one will interfere with the army, and all those who helped and should have helped will help. well, now i will present the plot of my colleague, who was not with me in the studio during this year, he was in different places in ukraine, but most importantly, we saw him when he was or on the line the front, or near the front line, or where it is hot, where to fly, where the real war is actually buzzing and roaring. our military correspondent. war correspondent artem lagutenko, in his material the most memorable moments, the most painful, the most memorable moments of this year: the shooting of civilians, the destruction of critical infrastructure, the so-called carpet bombing of front-line cities and the abduction of ukrainian children. the terrible war unleashed by the russians in ukraine is nothing but a real genocide. this is the window, here...

everything is here, but i have borscht, but i want the cossacks to eat this borscht with chips, these terrible shots were taken in december 2022 in the newly de-occupied kherson, the rashists congratulated the residents of the city on christmas with mortar fire, killing one a moment of seven people, the espresso film crew was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy after the shelling, i was just lying down in the shade and everything was showered with glass. there was a strong explosion, very strong, very, not that, but very, i say, my ears were ringing, that's all, i just a little bit left espress correspondents visited all areas of the front and saw with their own eyes how the russians are destroying ukrainian identity, from museums and monuments to educational institutions. schools and kindergartens have been destroyed in every settlement near the front

where they have visited in the past two years.