that you have to say goodbye to espresso remains on our tv channel, there will be news on the air later, and once again i remind you about the support of our defenders. it's 5 p.m. in ukraine and for your attention a news release on the espresso tv channel, in the studio of iryna koval. greetings to all viewers. the russians attacked the kirovohrad region, people and civilian objects were not injured, the head of the regional military administration, andrii raykovich, said. well, in the meantime, 10 hours cannot extinguish the flames at the terminal in the port of ust-luga. fire at the oil terminal in leningrad. regions of russia were caused

by drones of the security service of ukraine. all personnel were evacuated. the novatek terminal was seriously damaged. it produces fuel, including for the russian army. earlier, the governor of the region alexander drozdenka announced about the fire. he added that in the kingesep district of the region, the regime of heightened alertness was introduced. rashisti dropped a high-explosive aerial bomb on the yuzhno-donbaska-3 mine in the coal mine, said petro andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of mariupol. according to him, the enemy attacked object from the temporarily occupied territory of donetsk region. do not be silent, captivity kills. an action in support of prisoners of war was held in kyiv. more than a hundred people came out to remind ukraine about the defenders who are in russia. captives, among

them family and relatives, as well as military and caring citizens. actions were also held in odesa, vinnytsia, khmelnytskyi, kharkiv, pavlograd, dnipro, chernivtsi and kremenchuk. let me remind you that according to the ministry of internal affairs, more than 3,500 ukrainian defenders are in russian captivity. enemy significantly intensified the work of sabotage groups in the northern direction, they report. border guards who hold positions in the sumy region. positions under constant fire from the occupiers. therefore, the northern command of the armed forces of ukraine regularly conducts training on the border with russia and belarus. the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine reported that during the past day, parts of the sumy region on the border with russia were attacked by artillery artillery and aviation. the situation in this area is currently

under control, the enemy is carrying out constant attacks shelling of our positions does not stop the attempts of subversive-reconnaissance intelligence groups to carry out sabotage, as well as to suppress the psychological state of our personnel, but we cope with these tasks, successfully counter them and are ready for another attempt at a large-scale breakthrough. volodymyr zelenskyy sees no need to mobilize half a million military personnel now, the president said in an interview with the british tv channel channel for news. in addition to the moral component, because it is about human lives, according to the words president, one should not forget about the economic component. it's still money, huh. and if someone didn't care, all these finances, they definitely don't come from. partners, yes

, i want everyone to understand that all these salaries are for mobilization, mobilizations, salaries, then our military, all this is provided by the ukrainian budget, and therefore, when we say half a million, we need to think, there is a request, everything must be counted correctly, the bloodiest day in gaza 170 people died in the last 24 hours, the palestinian ministry of health reported. in general, in more than three months of war, at the beginning of israeli strikes on the territory of the enclave , more than 25 thousand palestinians were killed, and more than 60 thousand were wounded. on january 22 , the ukrainian people remember two historical events of equal importance: the declaration of ukraine's independence. people's republic and

the act of annexation of ukrainian lands. it was before this date that the largest blue-yellow flag with thousands of military signatures was unfurled in the center of lviv. before establishing the national. record: the longest blue-yellow flag flew thousands of kilometers across ukraine, visited 30 brigades of the armed forces of ukraine and more than 20 cities. it was signed by soldiers from the front line, children, volunteers, public and cultural figures, in particular, the flag visited the verkhovna rada, where it was signed by the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, valery zaluzhny. this was the first step of uniting the chain. well named, and we tried, i was one of the organizers of the folk movement in my time, and we created this chain, and this is a double and important holiday for us, to the day of the cathedral

of ukraine, the national house of music presented in sofia kyivska a big concert, our correspondent tetyana galonova also came to the event. tanya, i congratulate you. i'm waiting for details from you, tell me which works were played today and whose performance, congratulations iro, congratulations to the viewers of the espresso tv channel. historical works of outstanding ukrainian composers were heard in sofia kyiv today. right here, on the eve of ukraine's cathedral day, which will be celebrated tomorrow, january 22, the national building. organized a big concert, and today the liturgy of john the baptist, the prelude, and the epilogue were heard in the walls of sophia of kyiv of the outstanding ukrainian composer, who is also called the ukrainian bach, mykola leontovych. what works are still heard in sofia

of kyiv? i suggest listening to the conductor of the concert, we talked with him before the event. let's hear it. today's concert will consist of , first, a liturgy by mykola leantovych, if the main such work of this program was created by two kharkiv composers, since i myself am from kharkiv, then i was very interested in the fact that kharkiv composers performed in this cathedral, namely taras kravtsov, this is a cantata on volodymyr's poem. sirs love ukraine , by the way, it is a very rare viko, which is very rarely performed, and i decided that this is a very good opportunity, after all, they will perform on this day, and the work of mykola statsyun, hail mary, and

i will note that, of course, the concert timed to the date of the 105th anniversary of the act of unification of the ukrainian people's republic and from... the ukrainian people's republic, because it was on january 22, 1919 that the ukrainian people's republic and the west ukrainian people's republic united into one state. well, i will say that sofia of kyiv was chosen for the concert for a reason, she is symbolic, because in the 19th year it was on sofia maidan, and united two, united ukrainian lands. well, i'll say it. that this very day, january 22, is considered one of the most important dates in the history of the struggle of the ukrainian people, and so today, when ukraine is again fighting against the russian occupiers, the works of outstanding ukrainian composers that sound in sofia

kyiv simply demonstrate to the whole world that ukrainians today have a single, unified goal, it is cathedral, free and independent. ukraine. that's all for now. iro, i transfer the aether to you. thanks to you too, tanya. it was ours correspondent tetyana golunova from sofia of kyiv, where a big concert for the day of the cathedral of ukraine was presented today. such were the news at that time. we will see you at 6 p.m. welcome to the espressom channel. today , our "war and weapons" program focuses on two interrelated topics, which some consider a challenge to our security, and others, on the contrary,

new opportunities for the country's defense capability. so, the first topic is the development and use of private, military and defense consulting potential in ukraine companies as one. from tools to strengthen the country's defense forces. in ukraine , by the way, several draft laws regarding private military companies were prepared , but the work on them was never completed... so, what experience and practices should ukraine take into account right now in the conditions of war, what are the pros and cons here be. and the second topic for discussion is the expansion of citizens' rights to own firearms. it would seem that after the 22nd year, the need for an adequate law on weapons, an increase in the percentage of owners weapons in the state are things that were unequivocally understood and the society loved a certain liberal law on weapons. let me remind you that in the first reading of the draft law on the right of civilians

and firearms in ukraine, the day before the start of the active phase of the war, on 23 march 2020, however, the second reading of this draft law is currently being prepared in the parliament, and a significant number of amendments to this document have appeared, and in fact, in the eyes of the amendment, it can be regarded rather as a step towards undermining the defense capability of our state, we will also talk about this in our program. my name is serhiy sgurets, i am the director of the defense express company, which , together with the espresso channel, strives to cover the most relevant events and topics in the life of our army and the defense-industrial complex. andriy kepkalo, founder and head of omega consulting group, joins us now. mr. andrii, i congratulate you, i am glad to see and hear you. greetings, mr. serhiy, thank you for the invitation. well, before the broadcast, we

had such a certain discussion, so as not to repeat ourselves about topics that we seem to have discussed before talked about, but i looked, and we actually have very little talk about private military companies right now, and here you are a person who has a lot of experience in creating such companies, and there are a certain number of people who believe that this step and this direction of movement in the state in relation to the private sector. companies is dangerous and irrational. unfortunately, we have not yet been able to find an opponent to your position today, so i will try to master some things that concern private companies myself. but first, considering yours experience, i would like you to tell us, relatively speaking, what a private company is in a certain standard sense, if there is such a standard understanding at all. regarding pmc or consulting companies, because the word consulting in the name of your company, i think,

appeared for a reason, yes, well, then let's start from the beginning, we have, unfortunately, uh, private military companies, they are always associated with mercenaries, uh, that's too bad, i don't support that opinion, but if we're talking about... mercenaries, then i i want to say that mercenaries exist as long as there is war, for example, about mercenaries, it is even written in the bible, and there are many examples when mercenaries were once used by someone, i even read machiavelli, machiavelli against the use of mercenaries, but i have there is another opinion, and there... er, the topic of both mercenaries and private military companies, it unfolded for a very long time, somewhere until

the beginning of the 2000s, and here in the 2000s the industry of private military companies, it grew up and became more settled, why? because the united states of america, they started, they started hostilities as in the territory. afghanistan and on the territory of iraq, and i directly participated in these events, and i just want to remind you how since the beginning of the 2000s this topic has developed, we will not talk about the 90s, about the 80s the 1970s and so on, as this topic of the pkk, it grew up, in general, the united states of america, they... decided to enter the territory of iraq, and i

remember then, as the minister of defense, if i did not err, there was donald rumsfeld, and he, he went on television, and he said , let's put it this way, i think he was trying to reassure the people of the united states of america, and he said things like, the war in iraq, it's going to continue, maybe 5 days, maybe... maybe 5 weeks, maybe 5 months, but it won't last 5 years. and it turned out that they, the americans, counted on one thing, it turned out another. and when the other came out, and they realized that it was going to be a war for years, ah, then the question arose, what are we going to do about it, and american politicians, they decided to talk, think together , and what to do about it, and there were three options, again, this is not speculation on some facts, i was directly involved in this, and there were

three options: the first option is to collect your things and leave, leave iraq. it was not immediately, well, they did not accept it. the second option was to declare mobilization, and then it was, well, political suicide. it doesn't fit either. and so they chose the third option: to create private military companies and use private military companies, as in the territory of iraq, as well as in the territory of afghanistan. that is, what we are getting at here, in this short one. excursions into the history that the united states of america is the country that uses private military companies the most. the second country is probably the arab emirates. for them, a private military company was a support in a critical situation. unfortunately, in our country, we look at private military companies as a kind of caricature. you see, private military companies, there is a demand for them. all for today

day is used by private military companies. governments use private military companies. transnational corporations, such as axon mobil, shell, total, they all use, use the services of private military companies. non-governmental organizations, such as, for example, save the children or caritas, they use the services of private military companies, other services a little, even there some logistics or some other, but these are private military companies, the security of the vatican, who are engaged in today day, swiss well, how did the swiss get into the vatican, you could say mercenaries, and i don't want to use that example because it's very bad, and i, well, i don't want to use it, but i have to, even terrorists have their own private military companies , i can call it malgam takactical, it is based, if i am not mistaken, in afghanistan, but it works for

the benefit of terrorist organizations, that is, the whole world uses the services of private military companies, and for some reason it is always with us taboo, and i don't understand why, but when we talk about a private military company, what are the signs or symptoms that are, well, the basic things that you can really tell that this structure or this group of people is a private military company or a consulting company or a defense consulting company companies, what are the unmasking signs of a private company? this is a computer no, it's very simple, it's a limited liability company that provides services of a military nature, well, for example, we are engaged in the training of the armed forces, we were engaged in, we are not engaged in now, because we do not we have the resources, we trained the armed forces of ukraine, we trained operators, for example, for atgms, manpads, we trained

sappers, we trained saboteurs and so on, that is, such activity, it has signs. activities of a military nature, well, here you have, for example, the signs of the pmc, fine, but if the company is engaged in medicine, the training of medics there, is engaged in the protection of airports, is engaged in gathering intelligence in the interests of the security forces, these are also private military companies, no, but from the last thing you said intelligence gathering can already be considered as a private military company and by the way there is a very big demand in the market right now for private, let's call it, private intelligence agencies, intelligence companies if you want some examples , then let me give you this example of bellingkat, well, it is a private company, well, you can say that,

the conclusions of this company are listened to, for example, by the geak court. well, then it means that the boundaries of private companies are still quite blurred, it is difficult to determine here, why i ask this, because, linguistically speaking, this was our 20th year, president zelenskyi says that we really need to define ourselves as private companies, two draft laws are being developed, they are stuck somewhere, zelenskyi says that we need to make sure that they did not become the basis of certain oligarchic forces there and... and so on, where does this threat or warning to private companies come from, if it does not correspond to the essence of the pmcs themselves in view of what you said earlier? this, this is a very, very relevant question that you have now asked, you know, in civilized countries, i don't, i don't want

to offend anyone, but in civilized countries even such an idea does not arise that a private military company can obey some oligarch there and work in the interests of some private individuals there and, god forbid, try to remove the government there. or something else, well, the same big private military company in the united states, it's black water, which doesn't exist today, and i know its head, rick prince, well, believe me, he doesn't even think about the option that he once can he turn his private military company black water or some other er against the government and go there, well, i don't know, eliminate the government there. who is joe biden today and change him to trump, for example, well, this is a very simple example, you understand, that is, the events that

happened in ukraine before, for example, if i am not mistaken, it was an incident in which mr. kolomoisky participated when there were certain actions with ukrtransnafta, well, there were some people in black, armed, unarmed, they entered the territory. enterprises and so on, listen, frankly speaking, it is not my problem that our power structures allow some illegal armed formations to exist in ukraine, and they could enter some enterprises there, or close or open them, and so on and the like, you understand, that is , it is a private military company, it is registered somewhere, that is , it is a legal entity, it can no longer be considered as a non... legal group, because there is registration, of course, if there is a group, a group people who have weapons available and there are some means of personal protection, and

there are a lot of them, so if i am not mistaken, this falls under article 260 of the criminal code of ukraine, illegal armed or armed formations, but a private company, it is registered somewhere, you know? this is the first, second, mentality, mentality, we looked at what happened in the russian federation, when wagner's communist party went to storm, relatively speaking, moscow, i don't want to offend anyone, but people who did nothing wrong, they they are not afraid of anything , you understand, that is, to be afraid that some pmcs will try to remove the government there, look at... 2014, people, people did not like what was happening in the country, people stood up, they

used force, that's when we and lost this monopoly on power, the state lost its monopoly on power, the people rose up and they removed the power, that is, yanukovych fled from ukraine and we have achieved this, how to say, in the ukrainian language. i remember with the help of the population, and not with the help of the pmk, that is, i do not remember any cases in ukraine where pmk private military companies were involved in some illegal activities, that is, these fears that we have are completely unfounded. pvc is a tool of the state, not a tool against the state, but for some reason people don't want to hear it, or they just don't hear it, you know? that is, as i understand it, now i have become... the pmk is rather a consequence of the fact that we are held hostage by our old mythologists, and because of this, relatively speaking, we do not want to see the

potential that currently lies behind the pmk as a union structured citizens, which can be provided by, well, higher education or creation of high-quality units of the armed forces or individual units of other power structures, but then there is the issue of rationing. private company law, britain, the united states, there are no such laws, although these companies are represented all over the world. in our country, then which way to go, this flirtation with laws, they, the legislation should probably be limited, except by certain licensing of such activities and create transparent mechanisms for registration and control of such structures, well, this is like one of the options, well, let's say it like this, lice . licensing, yes maybe you can get, but you understand, we have licenses for, for example, knowledge transfer, if we say.

on the transfer of knowledge, that is, we are limited only to training, that is, if a private military company, for example, conventionally speaking, it goes on a business trip to the congo, in order to conduct training there for the armed forces of the democratic republic of the congo, it needs a license for the transfer of knowledge, but we restrict the pmc here because we, we limit the activities of the pmc because we... we are talking exclusively about the activities of the pmc abroad of ukraine. if we return to the law of ukraine on pmcs, then the law of ukraine already answers the question. this is a law of ukraine that can only be applied on the territory of ukraine. the law of ukraine will not apply on the territory of mozambique, or on the territory of mali or burkina faso. that is, that in ukraine we regulate with such a law. unfortunately, when there was a debate about it.

the author of this bill, ms. vasylevska smagliuk, made a working group, but, well , i don't know how many times this working group met, but i was invited to one meeting, i spoke there, and i was no longer invited to these meetings of the working group, because i was, well, categorically against many points of this law, for example, i don’t see why our ukrainian ... with ammunition, with weapons, with armored vehicles and so on, what are we going to do with it? that is, this law in the format in which it was written, it is absolutely counterproductive, but it will never pass in the verkhovna rada a law in which it is written that a ukrainian private military company, i.e. in i have a training ground, and what should i do now, i need to drive 10 batteries to the training ground, put

mortars there for... take machine guns, weapons, ammunition and so on there, put up security, the question arises, what is it for on the territory of ukraine, do you need it everything is necessary , and that is why i believe that the law, the draft law that was written, it was written incorrectly, i expressed my opinion, i am so from this working group, and when we still talk about... about private military companies, then what is the mechanism of financial existence for such, relatively speaking, enterprises, if we say that these companies perform tasks there outside ukraine, then they really have contracts there with potential foreign customers, if they work in ukraine, what should they be paid for and who will pay this money, and yes...

also a very interesting question, first of all, let's understand, if a ukrainian private military company concluded a contract with a foreign customer, then this is the responsibility, the payment of services, this is the responsibility of the foreign customer exclusively. if a ukrainian private military company, for example, goes to a business trip, i call it a business trip, goes on a business trip, for example, to burkina faso and she goes on a business trip in the interests of the state, then of course, first of all, such a business trip must be financed by the state, because we work in the interests of the state, after that there may be other financing options, but in order for us to have a start abroad, in the interests of the state,

the state should pay for it, if we create it now in conditions of war, full-scale war with russia, the use of private military companies in ukraine on the territory of ukraine, yes, i understand that this is a very unpopular opinion, but it should be financed by the state, you know, a private military company is not a beggar who should go around and ask for money, you want us to do some certain actions , well, i can't, i have... i now have people in ukraine that i can use, and they want to work for us, but i personally do not have the resources to attract these specialists. the problem is that i have specialists, and these specialists currently work under contract with the armed forces of ukraine, but specialists work as attack aircraft, that is, they...