that like-minded people are mobilizing all their resources to help her in this. and now we invite mr. volodymyr zelenskyi, president of ukraine, to speak. thank you very much gines. dear mr. president, dear friend, and dear attendees, dear journalists, dear lithuanian people. today is my first foreign visit of the 24th year, and it is a visit specifically to lithuania, specifically to our baltic friends, the baltic states, and it is not only a visit of gratitude, it is a visit of our confidence, the common confidence of the peoples bordering russia. today we discussed with ethanos various topics that are important for the security and development of our countries, our people, and our relations with other states of the free world.

this was the basis of our negotiations today, as always, this is the confidence, we will be able to defend our independence, we will be able to protect our statehood, we are together and will not lose our unity, and every manifestation of support for ukraine is also ultimately support for lithuania and estonia, and latvia, and poland and each of the countries that are, which are and will be. independent, independent, despite any ambitions of russia. yes, we are all unlucky enough to have one a neighbor inadequate to us and lithuania, which brings misery and enslavement, but we will never again become hostages of geography, and we will not allow russia to destroy either our or your statehood. we are together and

unite others to have enough common power. and this year, i can with particular confidence congratulate you, gitanose, and the entire lithuanian people on the upcoming freedom defenders day. on january 13, it is celebrated and will always be celebrated, every next generation we will not miss our freedom and will not allow it to be taken away. during the war. we have already proved that russia can be stopped, we have proved that russia can be rejected, and the task now is to prove that we can wrest peace for ourselves from the hands of russia, the kind of peace that we want, just and security for our peoples, the kind that we need, reliable security, in many ways , this year will be decisive for our states, for ukraine, for lithuania. for all our

partners in the free world. together , we have to determine what resolutions this year will bring us. our strength must determine it, our unity must do it. these should be decisions on the benefit of our freedom, the integrity of our states, the protection of our cultures and a just peace for us all. and i want to show precisely with this visit to lithuania... and then to other states, to our friends, the baltic states , that absolutely everything that ukraine seeks for itself will work for the freedom and independence of every nation that is threatened by russia. dear ladies and gentlemen, of course, today we paid a lot of attention to how events are developing at the front. we really appreciate your support. thank you gitano. in the first days of our resistance

full-scale aggression, the weapons you provided stopped the russian convoys and destroyed the occupier, and to this day your support for our state is extremely significant: weapons, equipment, what you said, and it is the absolute truth, powerful packages, training of our soldiers, lithuania's leadership in the coalition regarding demining, it all adds up... we have strength, i am grateful for the new defense support, which we have now agreed not just for aid, but for joint production, in particular of anti-drone equipment, of what is extremely, extremely needed on the front, and also regarding other directions in defense production, the relevant documents were signed today, i am grateful to mr. president personally, and to all of lithuania. people for their constant support of

ukraine's move to the european union. that year we received a positive decision regarding the start of negotiations. a historic decision that adds positive prospects. not only to our people, but to all the peoples of europe, and this year we have to implement this decision, we also appreciate lithuanian support in the matter of our movement in nato. the closer the russian border is, the more obvious it is that ukraine should be in the alliance. i am sure that the time will come when we will implement it, and this is our task, and i have no doubt in your support, last year's vilnius summit gave a start to the work. ukraine-nato council, this is a good foundation, this year all partners must build the architecture of our real rapprochement with the alliance on such a foundation. and the third thing i would like to say about now: last year we reached

such a level of relations with the group of seven that allowed us to conclude a declaration on security guarantees for ukraine for the time before our country joins nato. and now the countries of the world that... appreciate international law and freedom of nations, are gradually joining the principles of the declaration and starting work with ukraine on bilateral agreements on security guarantees for ukraine. i am glad that we are starting such work with our lithuanian partners, and may this agreement of ours with you, as well as our other agreements with you , be a clear signal to every citizen of our countries, while we, together, protect our peoples. the entire range of our agreements is recorded in a joint statement with mr. president. glory to ukraine, glory to ukraine.

if anyone has any questions, please come to the microphone, introduce yourself and then you can say, ask your question. delphi portal, at the beginning of the question for mr. zelensky. how much, what kind of weapons are needed from the west and how long can you hold out if you don't get it, do you have any pressure on the west to freeze the conflict on the current conditions, and for the lithuanian president, madam, everything, how do you, how do you like, this front in ukraine so frozen that it can be dangerous for lithuanian security. thank you very much for your question, and above all, as far as i understood, it was probably correct translation, regarding the scarce weapons that we

lack, well, first of all, i want to start with a positive signal, such bilateral treaties. which our companies and our ministers signed today with the republic of lithuania, there will be many such contracts and agreements in ukraine, we are working on this, because we understand that there is a general shortage of weapons in the world, there are not enough weapons for us, there are not enough weapons for the whole world , and empty warehouses and many challenges. for the defense of many countries of the world, and that is why we are interested in co-production, we started this work with partners in the united states of america, with many companies, have continued this work with european partners, we will

continue to do this, not to wait for the entire deficit to close by itself, it will not, it will not happen, as far as what we se... are still not able to produce together with partners in the near future, this is a modern anti-aircraft air defense system, it is lacking very much, i think you have seen, and journalists know the details, russia, the last days of december in quotes are festive for us, and the first days january hit... civilian infrastructure , people, schools, kindergartens, infrastructure, electricity, in general , hit 500, there were 500 strikes, missiles and drones, a total of 500, we were able to repel

70% of all these strikes on average , unfortunately , lost people, my condolences, and... my condolences to relatives, relatives who lost their loved ones from children, and therefore we can fight this enemy with technologies, until we have squeezed them out of... our land and until the war is over, and so air defense systems are what's missing, number one: combat against drones, here i am glad that we have agreements with lithuania, with many other partners as well, the production of our drones, i will not talk about the number now, but we are also increasing our sustainable production, this is what... time and security for our civilians, as

far as with, as you said, with respect to the frozen conditions with respect to the frozen conflict, i think so, that was the question, so sorry, now. now there was no translation again, let me try to answer your question as i do it seems that you have put, first of all , no pressure from partners, and there is no from partners, regarding the termination of the termination of our defense, i would not say the cessation of hostilities, however. this is our defense, the termination of our fair defense and the termination

of our struggle, on this matter you are in relation to the frozen conflict, so far there are no, there are different voices, i have heard them in the media, read them and i do not know, but there are different voices and there are different discussions , i think that the partners are not yet officially ready to give us the appropriate signals, well, at least i personally... no heard, thirdly, it seems to me that we should pay attention to the rhetoric of the president of the russian federation, he is not going to stop, he wants to completely occupy us, and sometimes the uncertainty of partners in the type of result regarding financial and military aid to ukraine, only a quick reaction. and adds to the courage and strength of the russian federation, so there is definitely no need to delay this.

the russian president will not rest until he destroys ukraine. after ukraine, you know very well who the next risks are. and is that nice to hear? probably not, because it is challenge and war is a terrible tragedy. and there is nothing positive about the war, but we must understand that lithuania, latvia, estonia , moldova can be next, and this is a fact, if we do not hold out, we have already heard from you recently, they started talking about finland too, started talking about the independence of uzbekistan, etc., he will not finish it until we all finish it together.

and what we hope for, i think that the ukrainian nation, the people, is very effectively and very bravely fighting against the forces of the aggressor, and i am equally convinced that we will continue to provide such help so that it can do this in the future as well, i want to draw attention to the fact that today we signed quite a few such agreements on cooperation in the military sphere, i think that this is the path that we have recently and go , and... because we see that there is a lot, quite a lot of money on the arms market, but there are very few actual

production possibilities, so that it is possible to use this money and produce a product, that is why it is necessary to do more and more to reveal the potential of industrial, military and lithuania and ukraine and the entire european union, here we have a place to focus, i think we have taken the first steps regarding our two states. between lithuania and ukraine, it is very important that the situation both at the front and the general security situation would be better, and we need to help ukraine not only with military aid, but also politically. and here, lithuania understands its responsibility very well, because we have a voice, we are the voice of ukraine where it can and cannot put forward its demands on its own. first, i am talking about membership in the european union and membership in nato. i am very i am firmly convinced that our efforts to bring ukraine closer to those two organizations

are very important. first of all, they rely on the fact that the will of the ukrainian people and... and the spirit of resistance, it is only getting stronger, because the state sees its future, the state sees its future in the west, in the democratic world, and wants to take the place of the best, and to limit the distance from such states and to distance themselves from it as much as possible, and i believe that in the nearest forums, both in washington at the summit and in the european union, when they will... actually the beginning of the agreements itself will be discussed , we will achieve good results, i see all the reasons for this, don’t, don’t use this information that is spread on russian propaganda channels, it is spread deseretly, ukraine, it controls the situation, and ukraine , she is strongly convinced

to go to victory, and i can't even doubt that, thank you. hanna gomunai, rada ukraine tv channel. first, i have a question for mr. president of the republic of lithuania. six months ago, lithuania hosted the nato summit, and then you did everything possible and impossible for ukraine to receive an invitation to nato. so what's your advice for making the summit in washington that you just mentioned a bigger success? and i would like to address this very question to the president of ukraine. thank you. thank you. the question, in fact, the actual negotiations were strong enough, focused, and the allies also had some other opinion that we should go slower, and on the contrary, there were people who said that it was necessary to achieve something more, i, as a person who is very directly actively took part in this process, i can say with a clear conscience that we did

the maximum of freedom, the maximum of what we could do, and thank you for recognizing this and seeing these of ours... the most important thing that was achieved in terms of freedom, from the technical side, of course , such a plan of action regarding nato and the creation of the nato nato council of ukraine, but from an ideological point of view it was a completely different question and formulation, if before the vilnius meeting at the top of nato there was a question of whether ukraine would ever become a member of nato, already after the vilnius summit, everyone had already formulated it next, when ukraine becomes a member. nato, and then, if we look ahead and see what we can do in washington, and so that washington can also send such a positive signal to your country, i think it is important to pay attention to the national programs of the national program , and it would be very important

that this national program would be successful, that it would be one with such an emphasis that... it would be possible to show that you want to join nato more, and we are under during the meeting of the delegations, when they talked together, they said, yes, in fact in washington, when you stand in this very place, where you are also on top, that is , it would be a failure if we stopped there, if we wanted to push back from the vilnius result so that we take another step towards nato membership. question , i think gitanos answered your question, to be honest, i think there are two specific things that i would like to get, and a defense solution and a political one, in terms of defense, as i said, we are strengthening air defense of ukraine, i would like to receive a strengthening

of our package and the quantities, the number of systems that we need so much. yes , we need it, and everyone understands that it is precisely the systems and precisely the specific missiles that fight against russian ballistics, i would very much like that, if you ask me, and as for political decisions, i think the president of the republic of lithuania said, i want to get a specific one, although b one step towards a meeting with nato. thank you. thank you, this is the end of the press conference, thank you very much for your attention. well, the live broadcast is over the briefing of the president

of the republic of lithuania gitan senauseda and the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi was also watched with extraordinary, extremely high attention, well, let's pick up the baton and analyze all the most important things that happened today and what may happen tomorrow, in particular, the verkhovna rada plans to consider the law in the first reading tomorrow about mobilization. we start traditionally with a gathering for our armed forces of ukraine, we are talking about the 93rd kholodny yar brigade, which are currently fighting and need our help on kamikaze drones, and we all know very well how important it is to have enough drones, it is not only about kamikaze drones, in principle, about all types of drones, so let 's come together for a day to help our armed forces, we need to raise 5 million, and now you see on the qr screen. codes, in fact, which you can use to make your donation or rewrite the bank card number. our goal is uah 5 million, so we really want to ask you to join

this collection and thank you for already participated in previous meetings, and actually , if you have such an opportunity, please join this meeting as well, with joint efforts, i think we will be able to close it, and remember, there are no small donations, and an important signal from the ground command ... of the armed forces of ukraine, so they do not record the preparations for the russian federation's offensive on kharkiv, the military will be able to see the relevant actions in advance, said volodymyr fittyo, head of the public relations service of the ground command of the armed forces of ukraine. i quote: fittya: any formation of any offensive group requires time, resources and trained personnel. currently , russia has engaged very large forces in the offensive operation in ukraine. their number along the entire front line is large, but in order to form an additional offensive fist on any part of the front, major preparatory actions should be carried out, if they were, then they would

be seen and appropriate measures would be taken, i quote: there are no such reasons now, so kharkiv can breathe a sigh of relief , but the enemy is strong, has many resources, the enemy learns quickly on the battlefield and does not take into account human losses, we understand their weaknesses and fight back. well, we are adding viktor chumak, the chief military prosecutor, to the conversation. ukraine in the 19th and 20th years, mr. viktor, welcome to espresso. good afternoon, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes. mr. viktor, the press conference of naosed and zelensky just ended, it was about lithuania's own support, we understand that lithuania has always been supportive of ukraine and continues to do so, but in the end we understand that we do not have enough support from the active baltic countries there until example, who understand all the threats, and it is also important for us to understand that other countries are in this process. do not graze the rear, especially countries with great economic potential, and in fact i would like you to comment, if you saw the press conference, if only a few

words reacted to it somehow, well, actually, what is your assessment about that what was said on it, well, unfortunately, i did not see it, i was on the move, yes, but regarding support, by the way , there was another news yesterday, and what estonia was going to spend on... the defense of ukraine 0 .25% of its gdp for four years , and you know, the figure is also very interesting, estonia is small and alone, estonia itself, if it will allocate, and it does not have a very large gdp, then it will be little money, but if it allocated at least this amount if all of europe allocated 0.25%, then in principle it would be approximately 40 billion a year, a little more than 40 billion, well, maybe you say. that they give us 50 billion over there, yes it is possible, but it is only for defense, but it would be a little more than 40 billion, and

if we would join this process the united states, canada, japan , great britain, i.e. not only eu countries, but also a country that is outside the eu, this added about 78 billion to us, four countries 78 billion, and just imagine, then, in principle , our defense budget would would be... in principle somewhere under 120 billion, and 120 billion is already absolutely comparable to dollars and absolutely comparable to the budget of russia, and here the question already arises, why really, in principle, for the budgets of these huge countries, this no no not crazy, not really crazy money, yes it is a lot, it is their payers' money taxes, but they definitely know both governments and taxpayers. that these funds go to their security, so i think that it is really possible to make some, and if it were not 0.25%, but

0.40%, 0.35. it would be much more, and the issue would be removed, firstly, and secondly, if we are talking about assistance to ukraine, then certain legal issues must be resolved here, this legal issue is about the transfer of funds from the russian federation, those , who were arrested in europe, who were arrested in the states, that is for the benefit of ukraine, not only for recovery, for today day, we also need them for the war, but this would be really real help. mr. prosecutor , well, you are extremely correct in saying that european countries are able to increase the level of certain subsidies, in particular their support for us, but there is also an internal ukrainian story, for example, the case with the businessman, patron, philanthropist hrynkevich, who was slapped with an attempt. well, if you believe the sbi, give them a bribe of half a million bucks, then

we understand that... there was a case involving more than two dozen relevant tenders, so on implementation of the ministry of defense, we do not know how widespread this phenomenon is, well, but how to be with similar cases, where some, i don't know, internal control services are not finalizing, and is it possible that we have something wrong with the tender procedures, well, because history very loud, and we understand that it was read not only in ukraine, but also by our partners and friends in western countries. on which we hope, and they, so to speak, to us, here is mr. hrynkevich, for example, they say, you see what you are doing, well, you understand, the situation here is such that i am with you i agree, mr. hrynkevich and someone like mr. hrynkevich, there is already a different story, now there is also talk about, well, a tender also in the ministry of defense, but this is a tender not of the year, only a war tender, these are tenders that took place and these are companies that sat on... garah

of the ministry of defense for more than 10 years, well, unfortunately, yes, unfortunately, yes, and it is they who spoil the reputation, image, and trust, and all this, but here you have to choose priorities, you understand, and in including our western partners, if they have a priority there, not to give us money, because they do not trust because of the hinkevichs ukraine, well then, in principle, they need to prepare for a huge wave of 25 million refugees... who may, in the event of russia's victory, pour into european spaces, if they want to preserve ukraine as a state in principle, then yes, without a doubt, there is the process, which must go in parallel, one part must go so that people like hrynkevich and tender tenders in the ministry of defense do not exist, and the second part of this process must go in order to save ukraine and let ukraine win on the battlefield,

although... it's a victory on the battlefield - it's a lot a difficult question, and this is victory on the battlefield , about which we say, yes, this is the question that the europeans and americans cannot find an answer for themselves yet, and even in our country it is not always, let's say, clear to everyone, and so but because of this answer, it seems to me that most of all they give us less money, because there are no answers to this question, and not to the question of corruption today, although everything is serious. vito with you, that is, we are not given macrofin and the rest of any such auxiliary tools, based on of a different logic and it is not connected, with all due respect or disrespect, to this or that case in the person of grenkevich or not grenkevich, well, but, if, for example, we consider those two cases separately, what would we need to improve, for example, in system of purchases and tenders, so why didn't he produce and his companies

didn't produce, i don't know why. well, clothes for military personnel, so they were engaged in some kind of construction business there and so on, sometimes they throw us here and there, well, what do the builders sew on clothes, but there is nothing make, sew and so on, and then i wanted to ask you more, well, if you have the strength to talk about all these stories, strange publications and attempts, so to speak, to block our military deployment, then we understand that war is not only about people, war is about resources, i.e. artillery shells. war, by the way, you know this, it's an australian field marshal somewhere in the 17th century who said that it's a question of money, money, and money again, uh, but that's not the question, you know what, well, what do you think say what needs to be changed in tenders procurement, nothing needs to be changed, people need to be changed, who conduct it, who prepare it and who conduct it, that's the whole story, well, it's all these, all these opportunities.