election statements and when a person takes office are slightly different things, but they are somewhat alarming, somewhat alarming, they need to be analyzed, watched and so on, and there, if trump said that if he puts our president and putin together, so that they negotiated and agreed on peace and so on, if putin doesn't want it, you remember his phrase, i will give ukraine so many weapons that... putin will feel sick, that's it, today we are working with the american side and asking the question: give us as many weapons as putin has bad, especially after today 's bombing, and why can't biden give us so many weapons that putin is sick, i have a question, we should ask not only the administration, but also the voters and colleagues from the state department, that obviously the time has come to give ukraine so much. wants putin

to be put in his place, because this is a threat not only to ukraine, but to the entire democratic world. ugh. mr. oleksandr, please tell me what should happen, relatively speaking, from a political and diplomatic point of view, to give us everything. so, relatively speaking, biden is ahead elections, in order to raise his political rating, he can give us everything, or can he increase aid before the elections? well, subjectively, yes, subjectively. but the budget is already being determined, we already know 61.4 billion, well, there is a plus or minus there, maybe they can still raise funds from some reserves, but even this amount has not been voted yet, but the amount that will drive putin into a corner, to be honest, it is much more than 61.40, thank you, you heard, let's add more topics, and here is the president of the european council

charles michel reacted to russia's massive shelling of kyiv, wrote on the x social network. i quote: for those who believe the rumors that russia is really interested in peace talks, the record number of drones launched over ukraine in the last 24 hours testifies to moscow's true intentions . we will ask the correspondent of radio liberty, olena abramovych, what are brussels' plans for kyiv next year, she is in direct contact with us. olena, glory to ukraine, here... glory to the heroes, colleagues, good evening, well, your priorities actually outlined by both belgium and hungary, which will chair the council of the european union after belgium, in the second half of the year, which the european parliament actually, i.e. hungary , the european parliament called on not to preside at all, but i will start with the priorities of belgium itself, the six-month program of this country is quite ambitious it has many

points and several of them concern ukraine itself. actually, this is a decision about 50 billion macro-financial assistance to kyiv for 5 years, which they want to try to pass at the extraordinary summit, which is scheduled for 1 february, as well as the issue of the start of negotiations on ukraine's accession to the european union. at the last summit in december, the leaders managed to make a political decision on the start of negotiations, i will remind you that the hungarian... viktor orbán then, at the request of the german chancellor , went out to drink coffee in order not to block this decision, but now for the actual start of negotiations, it is necessary to gather as well called the first intergovernmental negotiations, this is a standard procedure that also requires some time and some preparation, and belgium actually took it as a priority to have time to do it, that is, to carry out this standard procedure by june this year, by the end of its presidency, that is, because the hungarian government, that is... which will be the next

to chair the eu council, openly said that it would block ukraine's path to membership, the same if belgium does not have time to convene this meeting, then hungary will definitely not deal with it, next will be the european elections and the change of the leadership of the european institution, that is, the belgian prime minister alexandre decro promised to advance this issue, he also promised to stimulate the discussion reforms of the european union itself, but he has no ambitions to achieve the abolition of the right of veto, said that he will fight for simpler ones. tackle simpler, more real issues, belgium currently has a leadership role in the field of using russian frozen assets for the benefit of ukraine and will make efforts to spread this practice and find a solution for the entire european union. i would like to remind here that last year belgium was the first to introduce the mechanism of using income tax from frozen russian assets, i.e. not of the assets themselves, not the income from the assets, namely the tax on this income in favor of ukraine, and this is... a considerable sum of 1.7 billion euros,

and now belgium is looking for a broader legislative framework within the european union, the european commission is also engaged in this in order to force itself and to introduce this system to others. force russia to pay for the damage and destruction of the task to ukraine, belgium will also help strengthen the register of damages given by moscow to ukraine, which were launched last year in gas, and finally, the security of the european union is one more urgent issue, it is inseparably connected with ukraine, in the eu countries they are now increasingly talking about the possibility of russia entering the borders of the eu member states. and now the bloc is actively discussing how to unify the defense complex, how to unify production, and this is the concept and the principle that the european commission should present

to the member countries for discussion in the coming months, and this is the question itself, according to ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, kyiv repeatedly raised at the beginning of last year and... actually finally colleagues came to this. thank you, thank you elena for this meaningful information. olena abramovych, a correspondent of radio liberty, joined our broadcast and talked about the presidency of belgium in the eu. well, let me remind you that with us in the studio is oleksandr levchenko, the extraordinary plenipotentiary ambassador of ukraine to the republic of croatia from 2010 to 2017 , a ukrainian diplomat. mr. oleksandr, well, we heard from our colleague, in particular... about belgium's priorities during its presidency - this is support for ukraine and about what in europe are already talking directly about the danger coming directly from the russian federation to them, should we expect increased support from ukraine in this case? well, we hope, we are working, we

are informing our partners, they have their embassies here, every country and actually the eu itself has one, that is, they all know about today's shelling through information. we know that in the bundestag there has been a discussion again about eur, that is, medium-range missiles for the ukrainians, discussions are about the fact that russia can seize the baltic states, strike finland and partly for poland, that this is not just talk, all this can be a reality if ukraine falls, all this is holding back while the russian troops are all here, and in other directions, they don't just have. physical ability to leave, but god forbid something happens here, everyone understands that this is a pan-european danger, that is why faren has placed its units in lithuania, in latvia, in order to protect these countries from a preventive, from a possible russian strike, and actually saying, most importantly, we say

to our partners: strengthen ukraine, and so on ukraine will do the lion's share of deactivating the entire military. the potential of russia, and we know that those who attacked us on february 24, 2022, there are less than 85% of them left, that is, they are destroyed, all these 15 percent are left, all other troops are actually recruits, it is not so much prepared units and so on, this indicates that russia's power is melting here, in fact it is believed that half of russia's power has already been destroyed here on ukrainian territory. but our task is to completely deflate russia. this is not ukraine can do by itself without the help of the european union and nato, and this is a common interest, not ukrainian, but pan-european. mr. oleksandr, thank you, and finally, we have one more topic to discuss, that china

will probably not try to annex taiwan by force, this is the forecast from the analysts of the financial times for 2024. beijing will hope for the so-called reunification this year. without armed conflict, the financial times publishes forecasts for the coming year every year. mr. oleksandr, right here one simple question, we have literally a minute left, won't the situation with china and taiwan be a distraction from ukraine? well, you know, the issue with israel, there was a distraction, putin is trying to start a war in the balkans, in bosnia, there in kosovo, this is also a distraction. of course, if the situation worsens and the army moves. the plane between taiwan and china, this is very, very serious, of course the united states will be involved there and so on, of course it will be a distraction, it is good that in the 24th year they are betting on political, diplomatic solution, then no one gives a guarantee from the 25th year, but in the extreme case 24,

because in taiwan there are elections in the usa, there are possible changes, policy adjustments, so this year will obviously be relatively quiet and peaceful. in sino-taiwanese relations, and may i remind you that the usa recognizes taiwan as a part of china, and ukraine, by the way, does not recognize it. in general, too, we generally hold this line, also, because in 1971 taiwan left the security council, from the prc, the people's republic of china took a place in security council and so on, all this is clear, meanwhile, washington insists that all this should happen peacefully, and obviously pikin says: propose peacefully, let's resolve something peacefully, maybe that's how it will be, huh. thank you, mr. oleksandr, for joining and helping us analyze these

topics that are happening in the world, but are directly related to us, to ukraine, and, i would say so from myself, to our survival. oleksandr levchenko, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of ukraine to the republic of croatia from 2010 to 2017, and ukrainian diplomat was a guest of our studio, we are adding to our broadcast. dmytro kuleba of foreign affairs of ukraine. mr. dmytro, glory to ukraine. congratulations glory to heroes. thank you for joining. mr. dmitry, please tell me in the context of the massive missile attack that russia carried out today, and not only today, and on the 29th, let's remember, yes, what kind of reaction do we expect from the world to this, i would say, the terrorist act that happened today, what are the practical steps we take for this. we are already doing tonight's night attack

unprecedented in scale, and by the way , i think that today we became the first country in the world that was able to repel such a missile-drone attack, and this will really go down in the textbooks of military art, so kudos to our soldiers, kudos to our air defense, but for everyone for ukrainians today it was... this air alarm, it became such an alarm clock, but we also made it become an alarm clock for the whole world, so that it was an alarm clock, a reminder that already today we need to work on five very specific things, firstly, to supply it to ukraine more air defense systems, more missiles for air defense systems, more artillery shells, secondly, to increase jointly. and the supply of drones of all types of combat drones, of all

types, especially fpv drones, thirdly, of course, well, there are no longer any arguments against providing ukraine with missiles with a range of 300 km plus, and here we are definitely talking about taurus and atakoms, and we have resumed active work on this, on these issues, the fourth time to finally resolve the issue with the freeze. russian assets in order for russia to use its own money paid, well, to continue the successes of last year, when we managed to arrange for russian diplomacy, black november, when they were not elected to a number of international bodies, when the ground was burning under them, so we need to continue this and isolate russian diplomats everywhere, and we are working, although today only january 2, but you see, the president had a phone conversation yesterday, today he had a phone conversation with the decision-maker. a lot of things are happening behind the scenes, the work is all boiling over the issues that i voiced. mr.

dmytro, those five steps that you announced will they be enough for russia to finally understand and stop its terrorist activities in relation to ukraine and the war in general, and what should be the reaction from the western partners in general, so that the russian federation stops armed aggression, in fact, what should be the response? we have been in this story for a long time for two years, and a number of historic decisions have already been made, and about which our partners, for the sake of supporting ukraine, once did not even dream of such things, but now no one will tell you that let's do this, that's it and that's it victory, we will do as much as is necessary to win, and the victory in this war will be won on the battlefield, so our task today as ukrainian diplomats is to continue

to do everything so that the soldier, the ukrainian soldier in the trenches, does not feel a lack of why should there be a full supply of shells, drones, bullets, all types of weapons, and we will work on this and fulfill all these tasks, and at the same time, of course, no one cancels the tasks on sanctions, on the integration of ukraine, in eu, in on. and the like, but i'll say it again when we we will win with you, that's when we will go on all the live broadcasts and say, thank you all, everything you did was enough to win. and while there is no victory, it means that everyone is not doing enough, and we need to do even more, and this is exactly what we are doing, mr. dmytro, and how exactly in this situation can we mobilize the world on this issue, how can we, well, speed up this issue , i don't know how to do it correctly, with daily work, i always

repeat to my colleagues in the diplomats when we work on fulfilment. certain tasks that victory consists of two things: the first is unconditional belief in victory, and the second is daily hard work for victory, therefore, daily work, belief in the inevitability of victory, it will definitely give its result, i think that i emphasize once again, over the past almost two years, was adopted by the partners as a result, as it was the result of the work of president zelenskyi's diplomatic team, were adopted. decisions about which we did not even dream. we got all the weapons we needed, we got the status, we opened negotiations on membership in the european union, we shortened the path to nato. russia is the most sanctioned country in the world. ah, this is all history, such things have never been done before, but

i will emphasize once again that we will do even more until we win. ugh. mr. dmytro. the financial times writes that the united states has proposed to the j7 working groups to study ways to confiscate frozen russian assets worth 300 billion. in general, mr. dmitry, how is this issue progressing, so that these confiscated funds are transferred to needs of ukraine? there are already concrete developments in the united states, there are concrete developments in the european union, there are decisions, for example , by belgium, which... transferred income taxes on russian assets to the needs of ukraine, there are legislative acts adopted in some countries that create these transfer mechanisms money, so now we are already in the second phase, when all these efforts must be consolidated into a single legal framework, that is

, uniform rules must be created for the countries of the european union, for the countries of the group of seven. and literally starting last year, we accelerated as much as possible, let's say, stimulated partners to speed up work on this issue, this will be one of the key issues this year, and we have already passed the first stage, and now we are in the second, third stage - this will actually happen, when will this regulatory framework be adopted on how it will work, and the money will go to the benefit of ukraine, and what are these frameworks, what is the deadline, is it summer, autumn, winter, mr. dmytro, what year , 2024, thank you, watch, when decisions are made, then everything will work, we were, let's say this, last autumn, very far from even

adopting this framework, and now it is already being discussed at the g7 level, at... at the level of the european union, the approval of specific legal norms, so we came close to creating this legal regulation for the transfer of russian assets. heard, heard. thank you, mr. minister, for being able to participate. dmytro koleba, minister of foreign affairs of ukraine, was in touch with us. they talked about the possible reaction of the event to these shellings which they carried out tonight. we started this broadcast hour with the topic. of energy, in fact, we continue at the moment, because russia has not given up the idea of ​​destroying the ukrainian energy system, the confident minister of energy herman galushchenko, a few days before the new year, even before the resumption of massive russian shelling, in an exclusive interview with my colleague anna cherednichenko, he explained , why russia needs these strikes, already today during another attack in kyiv the lights partially went out, about

strengthening the ukrainian energy system, transit russian gas and what will happen to tariffs this year, let's see. russian strikes, threats of shutdowns, tariffs, restoration of the energy system, what was the year 2023 for ukrainian energy workers, we will talk about this further with the minister of energy herman hlushchenko. i am very glad that you agreed to summarize this year with us. so, mr. minister, if we start talking about the results of the year, maybe a little early, because we met a few days before the new year, but less so. which can already be named key challenges and key achievements for 2023 ? you know, well, we actually had a challenge, it's definitely a war. well, this is a key challenge, and the war, as such, and strikes, first of all , on the energy power system, the next

challenge was the restoration, the maximum restoration of damage and facilities of electricity generation and transmission, and in general, we said, somewhere we counted that up to 50 % of the energy system a... knew the impact of such strikes, and there were a lot of things that, i would say, where ukraine showed itself as a leader in the energy of the world, and this, well, if about achievements, you know, these are very, very symbolic things happened, we , the westinghouse company, together with our specialists, made a new type, developed a new type of nuclear fuel, which... has already been loaded in ukraine and today this fuel is already functioning in ukraine, this the first in the history of the world, and with the help of this type of fuel we will be able

to actually, we have already destroyed rosatam's monopoly on the market for the supply of nuclear fuel, and at which power plants in ukraine it is now used in the 440 reactors of the rivne nuclear plant, but this opened the way for many countries in europe, such... finland, for example, the czech republic, which also operate such types of reactors, are now fully diversified, not overgrown, and this accordingly answers the question, where to get fuel except from russia, that's it there is, and this issue of sanctions accelerates, there is another issue that i think will also be resolved in the near future, and this issue of sanctions will work on which issue, this is... the importance of russia, or as it were, the role of russia in the uranium market in the world, unfortunately, today they still have somewhere around 30% influence on the market, which is very large

volume, you understand, this is a difficult question, because not many countries in the world extract uranium at all, but today everyone is focused on the fact that it is necessary to increase production, and to increase enrichment, and countries that previously stopped these programs in themselves, in particular, the united states ... for the next year, they, they laid down funds in the budget for the restoration of these programs, canada is starting to increase production, together with us, our uranium has already gone to canada, again, we have contracts with everyone, we are working to increase production, we also plan to increase received a loan from the british government for 200 million pounds to support our cooperation in the chosen industry, it is a matter of time when the world of their... civilization pushed them out of the market, i believe that it will be, you know, such a fat point, when we really the whole world, it 's not just us, because in fact the dependence

even on russian gas, it was huge, it has fallen dramatically already now, and when we put an end to this already and finish with their presence in the civilized market, nuclear energy, it will be a huge blow for them , it may not even be that much money yes, money is also important, but you know, influence is also, well, for them, this is a country that, in principle, they developed nuclear energy, and they have very good technologies, and all this must end for them. you mentioned russian gas, kadri simpson, the european commissioner said that, a few days ago, there was her statement that we are preparing for new conditions, we are renouncing russian gas, in particular, due to the issue of transit through... the country of the agreement that we concluded with russia for gas transit in 2019, it ends its operation on december 31, 2024, i.e. in end of next year, what are our plans for

this? ukraine will definitely not sit at the table for the russians. the question of how critical it is for the countries of europe must be resolved by them. i see an opportunity for them, if certain countries wish, it is also important, if certain countries wish. countries to secure themselves from the supply of russian gas, there is an excellent example, this is germany, as in fact a country that was totally, well, more than 50% dependent on russian gas, reduced this dependence to almost zero, we will definitely communicate with the europeans, as critical as it is for them, but it is definitely with the russians, so regarding the restoration of the energy system, you have already touched on this topic as well, 50% of the energy systems were somehow affected by the russian massive strikes, what was managed to be done this year for restoration, what percentage did we return to

that.. .what was the state like, well, before these massive strikes, and what are our recovery plans for next year? look, well , we, how is it, we count in gigawatts, yes, restoration, so, well, today i can say that more than two gigawatts have already been restored in the power system, it was restored exactly what, not what came out in scheduled repairs for repair, but what was significant damage during the last winter, and it is impossible to somehow translate, i don't know, into a percentage, just to make it clearer to the audience. well, i'll just say that today, for example, all winter at today's temperatures, we have peak consumption, it is up to 17.5 18 gw, up to 18, even a mouse is not 18 gw, conditionally we take 18 gw with a reserve, that's 2 g from 18 , this is to understand what the numbers are about, but we still plan to increase the export of electricity, and those attacks

which happened on the power system, i am absolutely sure that there is definitely a blackout, they definitely wanted to freeze us and that we were all without electricity, but also the premise was quietly that ukraine opened the export of electricity to europe during the war, and the issue of gas, it was it is the same for europeans when they have the choice to buy ukrainian electricity and save on russian gas, and they will always buy ukrainian electricity. therefore, it was also very painful for the russians when ukraine accordingly exported electricity, they understood that they are losing money before realizing their resources, that's why we want to restore , that's why we need more capacity, of course we will work to increase generating capacity, what are our plans for increasing electricity production, if we do not count the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and where

we will take the money for this... we see what deficits we have in the budget, we are actually dependent now on the help of our international partners, how the financing will take place and maybe there are already concrete plans, what we will do in the near future to increase capacity is the decentralization of generation, these are gas turbines, the installations that will produce electricity, these are gas pistons. and money is a very good question, because it is definitely true , well, again, it is absolutely clear that if the same company energoatom lost the zabil nuclear plant, this is a huge financial amount, it is 44% of the generation of nuclear ukraine, it is lost, of course, it is definitely affects the financial condition of the enterprise, ukrhydra lost the kokhov station, it did not very large in generation, but still it is still an influence, and here you know, we, from

the simpson staff, have made such a mechanism, which today, in principle, very significantly helps the ukrainian energy sector, this is the ukrainian energy support fund, as of today we have already collected more than 400 million euros into this fund, further funds are coming in, we in ukraine are collecting what is needed from all companies in the energy sector, including now we are talking about buying gas there. robin or gas and powder institutions with the funds of this fund, we collect, but we collected the needs for restoration, for repairs, what is needed after strikes, what to replace, then we sent all this to the fund, and the energy community conducted a tender, purchased equipment around the world, where it is the closest, fastest, and physically handed it over to us, we received, we have

a large hub, we received it at the hub and then distributed it to the companies, i.e. how much of these 400 million have we mastered? well, today we have already mastered about 300, and again it is there at different stages, purchases have taken place somewhere in the procurement process, but it is written, we allocated the public private sector, we understood that if it is a generation facility, it belongs to a private company, but it is critically important for the power system, and... we also helped through the fund, including, that is, it seems to me that this is unity - this is the basis of victory, i completely agree with you, and after all , it is about money, but if we take into account that, for example, 300, i will say very roughly now, we have mastered 300 million, well, in fact, the rough math remains 100, plus there will probably be new ones contributions, but how many of these funds will be enough to significantly increase

generation? i do not understand very clearly.