nato begins the largest military exercises in more than 30 years. in poland , an commissioner was appointed for the restoration of ukraine, and president volodymyr zelenskyy signed a decree on the territories of russia historically inhabited by ukrainians. what does it mean? greetings, this is svoboda live, my name is vlasta lazur. we begin. nato is starting the largest exercises since the cold war, which will last until the end of may, as noted by the german edition of bilt. the last time nato conducted such large-scale exercises was in 1988. at that time , 125,000 servicemen took part in them. by according to the financial times, the training will take place on the territory of germany, poland and the baltic countries. the scenario assumes that nato forces repel russian aggression against one of the... notes the financial times.

the simulated adversary is a coalition led by russia. in addition to nato members , sweden, which has applied to join the alliance, will take part in the exercise. well, let me remind you that in mid-january, the german publication bild reported that it was in possession of a secret document of the german ministry of defense, according to which in berlin are considering the possibility of a scenario in which russia attacks nato's eastern flank in year 25. subsequently, nato stated that the ... chairman of the nato military committee, admiral rob , built the scenarios - this is only a training plan and is not a secret intelligence analysis. later, however, bauer urged the alliance members to prepare for the possibility of a war with russia in the next 20, the next 20 years. the prime minister of estonia, kaia kalas, was less optimistic in her predictions in an interview with the times, saying that europe has 3-5 years to preparation for the threat from russia, well... and

returning to the current exercises, as the head of the nato military committee i already mentioned said, the scale of the exercises is a demonstration of the new readiness of the alliance. the supreme allied commander europe, christopher cavoli, notes that these exercises, they say, will show that nato can conduct and sustain complex operations on land, at sea, in the air, in cyberspace and in space for several months, for thousands kilometers from the far north and to... central and eastern europe. vadym prystaiko, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, head of the mission of ukraine to nato 2017-19 joins our broadcast. good evening. good evening. well, look at how nato officials point out that these large-scale exercises are a demonstration of nato's new readiness. i can only assume that readiness for war, including. do you allow a war between nato and russia in the near future, and you know, not a hybrid. a real clash, no, not just me,

many pundits and many politicians allow such a war, and these exercises are precisely an attempt to demonstrate to russia that nato is ready to defend itself, and even its name indicates that the name of this operation indicates that nato is ready to defend itself and will not shy away from a strike if there is one inflicted, i want to tell you that such a massive ability of nato to mobilize forces, to transfer them primarily from... from overseas to the european continent, this is a very powerful signal for russia, i think that in russia they are now carefully analyzing and thinking that how should they act further. well, you know, a number of experts that we've also talked to, they say that putin is not planning a war as such with nato, he 's just planning an attack on one of the countries of the alliance, maybe the baltic countries, in the hope that the other countries will simply will not react, and this will be such a demonstration of the weakness of the entire nato. is

putin right to suggest, if indeed he does, that nato's response may be weak under these circumstances. as you know, no one in the world has tested the strength of nato, and this is the strength of the alliance, in that that no one in the world allows themselves to check them. perhaps putin believes that he will be able to avoid confrontation with the alliance, with the big alliance, with the united states, with britain, with germany, if he attacks one of the small countries. from. of the alliance is absolutely clear, see how interesting it is: first of all, the training will be long, which means that until the month of may, the alliance will keep forces near the russian borders. secondly, the baltic countries are really the preferred target, and the largest flows are directed there forces and means, ships, planes, but there will also be romania, there will also be a part in poland, and the hubs will deploy forces where they will mobilize. to go further, this is

germany, that is, the alliance demonstrates its full readiness to wage war in europe, involving all possible resources. i do not think that if russia has such calculations, then they will come true. here you are, you just mentioned that no one in the world has ever used the fifth article of nato, well , they used, it seems, consultations and calls after the 9:11 terrorist attack in the usa, but no one never, if, well, have not seen and do not know how the alliance could repel attacks and could fight in the event, in the event of such a threat, and here you said that ... a sign that these exercises will go to the end may, tells us that the troops will be in place until the end of may, precisely in these baltic countries, germany, poland, and precisely this scenario was predicted by bilt that the first possible hybrid attacks could begin precisely, precisely,

it seems, in february, in february of this year, in general, such scenarios, such training are planned in advance, or is it simple adjusted? because it is possible that, according to intelligence, russia has adjusted its plans and may indeed carry out some hybrid or non -hybrid attacks against nato countries, for example, the baltic countries? i think this is a very fair question, the alliance and the leaders of the alliance are doing the right thing in saying that this is all training, and by the way, the build scenario, as you yourself said in the introduction to this material, is basically the russians consider what is already published by the alliance as a script for future exercises, i will allow myself. to give another example, i was at the previous largest exercises, as a representative of ukraine in nato in norway in 2018, and then only 30-32 thousand military personnel were involved, and these exercises were a response to the sharp increase in russian activity and belarus, together with belarus, they

conducted grandiose exercises of 320- 360 thousand military personnel, this relatively small nato exercise distracted a very large one. russia's forces were diverted and, in my opinion, they really resolved the situation. at that time, it was very dangerous for us in ukraine to observe this deployment of forces around us our borders we can recall that this is twice more than the forces that russia used to launch a full-scale aggression. in short, such large-scale exercises definitely distract russia's power. russia will not be able to keep a large force near ukraine, it will be forced to move. with certain equipment and people closer to the western borders of its territory and belarus, i even see this as a help to ukraine, to demonstrate not only as a demonstration that somewhere in europe there are forces, this is the approach of means, this is about 50 ships, it's almost a hundred planes, it's 1100 combat

vehicles, it's a very large number of soldiers, there will be 30 00 british people there, that is, this is in addition to training, and the military constantly needs to be trained, it's also an absolute... absolutely normal projection indicator, so what is called in nato projection forces in this region, this is direct assistance to ukraine. you and i thought for a long time about what the alliance's answer to the war in ukraine could be, this is one of the answers. actually, i wanted to ask you what role and mission ukraine will have in this whole story? if we had a peaceful time we would participate in these exercises, because even in the previous exercises with small forces, but we did participate, we have certain rapid response units. who are training and interacting with the alliance, we are not ready to participate in the exercises right now, we are forced to fight at full strength, but the fact that the presence of our partners is finally so close to our borders is precisely the issue that you and i also recently discussed , whether a scenario is possible when nato directly intervenes

for ukraine, i want to tell you what it is the number of military personnel along the border in russia and close to the contact line in ukraine has never been seen before. and you think, if i understood you correctly, that this will keep russia in tension all the time, at least until the end of may, absolutely, i am sure that this is one of the calculations, i want to say again that if you ask the same question to the leaders military or political alliance, they will say that no, no, we are not going to attack, it will be absolutely right, it is, but you cannot count on the alliance will be able to mobilize quickly if there is such an attack, that's why... that's why they're starting training now and will actually be in the immediate vicinity for six months, well, if russia has something to get some kind of signal, but it's definitely a signal. and if we talk about a possible attack or a possible clash, a clash of nato and russian troops, do you have any idea how this

could happen in principle? you know, in military doctrines there is often such a concept as a mistake and the approach of troops often leads. to not unnecessary, let's say, conflict that can could have been avoided if these troops were not there, that is, the presence of a large number of armed formations against each other, unfriendly. it always carries the risk of conflicts, and in principle all nations try to keep troops away from borders and generally take measures to build trust. now is clearly not the time when the alliance can afford to build trust with russia. unfortunately, the time has come when nato must demonstrate a firm position. speaking of how one can imagine the scenario, well, the presence of battalion groups in the baltic countries, the presence of patrols. both in the north and in the south of the air, these are just the possible answers of the scenario, that is

, it is both a land war and an air war, but the approach of such a large number of ships , including the carrier groups, it shows that the alliance is very serious about the confrontation at sea, uh, i'll also cite the western intelligence data, they wrote about it in the weekend edition of cnn, they cite intelligence sources, they note that the war has been going on... for at least two years, and well, from two to five years, but two years is a must, even , regardless of what aid will be, in which, in what quantity, in what volumes, and how quickly ukraine will receive it, whether you, whether you share these forecasts, or you see signs that it really looks like this, i believe that this is all guesswork, we do not even know what these analysts are thinking about, well, what does the phrase mean: if it will be supplied in what volumes, you and i expect receipts such weapons that

bring us to the same level with the russian armed forces, i am talking about the f-16, for example, we finally got all the tanks that were promised to us, including the american abrams, we developed completely new, the most new type of drone weapons, which completely turned military science. i believe that in these conditions of uncertainty and, moreover, changes, technological changes, it is impossible to talk about some... clear scenario of the development of the war. once again, i want to repeat that if the 360,000 assembled troops pulled away 30,000 nato soldiers who were training nearby in the north, then you can imagine how russia must now sit and plan what to do with 90 thousand, three times more military personnel of the alliance near russian territories. and why would russia plan, well, nato does not pose a threat to russia, if russia will not touch them? you know, if we go back to... the beginning and remember these conversations of putin, that in general the whole problem with ukraine is, in principle, not in ukraine, in nato,

and this presence of nato forces russia to move and attack ukraine, it is difficult to understand the logic, but at least the russians somehow understood it. now the picture looks like this: close to the russian borders 90 thousand nationals appear. what should be the answer of putin, that he does not notice this mythical threat, about which he talked all the time. to the russians, well, it's hard to believe, well, as long as they don't touch it, you can ignore it, why not? you see, even sweden , which is not yet a member of the alliance, and it participates in the exercises, that is, not only the alliance, let's say, all of europe, it understands what the continuation of the war with russia can lead to, and what's more, well, everyone has become it is clear that if ukraine does not hold back, then there will be a perfect war, if it can be stopped, now is the time for this, about... you gave sweden, the minister of defense of sweden seems to have urged his citizens to prepare for war,

that is, he did not rule out this scenario of a war with russia. about the whole of europe, well, look, recently the prime minister of slovakia, robert fico , expressed the opinion that the only option for ukraine to end the war is to agree and give part of its territories to russia, well , maybe fico is not the only one in his opinion, maybe also viktor orban has a similar opinion. but in principle, how many like-minded people they have at the moment in europe, and what prospects do you see, whether they can increase, for example, already this year, taking into account the record number of elections that will be held around the world, including in europe, in 2024. of course, it is unpleasant to hear such words from our close partner and just our neighbor. i would, for example, immediately offer him to help ukraine share its territories instead of us. well , if he thinks that this is a normal way of solving problems, let him just give it away, maybe putin will calm down and detach himself from

of ukraine. it is clear that this is such a sad joke, but i also want to note here that so far the countries that actually make the least contribution to the security and economy of europe allow themselves to say this, what hungary and slovakia are doing does not greatly affect the combat capability alliance with all due respect to them as allies, and with great respect. this is exactly what the populists are using, who understand that , in fact, it is not worth anything to them, such and such a reaction, all other states that bear, you know, the weight of responsibility for the events on continents, they cannot. can you imagine how it is so easy to scatter statements and try, i don't know, to agree on cheaper gas with russia or something else? all other countries, well at least the big countries, may be really preparing for war. germany, which you and i mentioned today, but there, for example, today the issue of the possibility of accepting service in the army of people without

german citizenship was raised, at least i understand that the idea finds support both among the opposition and among the authorities, the idea was voiced. to defense minister boris pistorius, well at least this tells us that germany is looking for ways to increase its army. first of all, the first question , do you think the idea is promising, and this is not only about germany, in general, about the increase of the nato army, if, for example, each country begins to recruit people, no, who are not citizens of these countries, then how can it change, fundamentally change the nato army? at the moment, also... what should concern ukrainians is whether nato has sufficient capabilities to oppose russia in principle and be a help to us. if they make such decisions that people with different levels of, let's say, citizenship can serve in their army, and this in principle is not a new story, here the french foreign legion is just one example, in most countries

of the world there are basically different levels citizenship expectations allow you to become part of arbeian units. i will tell you, even on the other hand, those people who have proven that they are ready to defend their future homeland with weapons in their hands, often in this way they discover for themselves citizenship in those countries where they want, that is, they prove that they are already, as of now , citizens of these countries, ready to defend its interests, i do not see any contradiction here, ukraine does the same, as far as what it is done for, well it is obvious that germany, after many, many years that have passed since the war, is returning to... to the understanding that all the lessons have been learned, many generations have changed, the horrors that the nazis brought to europe, they were basically understood by many countries and everyone is trying to find ways to reconcile after this war, and therefore germany is looking for an opportunity to rebuild its armed forces, but in a way that, relatively speaking, does not scare the neighbors, as i still remember what happened during the second

world war, but europe, for sure , would not be hindered by a powerful germany now, and in the context. i also cannot help but ask about citizenship, this is not about nato, but today volodymyr zelenskyi announced that he will submit a bill to the verkhovna rada that will allow the introduction of the institution of multiple citizenship in ukraine, and this will allow all ethnic ukrainians, their descendants, who are scattered all over the world , to have ukrainian citizenship . ukrainians are scattered all over the world, and this is even before the start of a full-scale war, which forced about 86 million ukrainians to leave their homes, we are one of those countries that has a huge diaspora around the world, which is also useful in order to, in difficult times, how to put a shoulder now, well, it’s just that

, to be honest, these are our people, and we have been thinking for a long time about how exactly it is possible to leave these people with the feeling that... they are ukrainians, they are ready to return, someone is not ready to return, but ready to defend our country, to help develop our state , all this time, all these 30 years, the most important , difficult problem for diplomacy was what to do with those citizens who, for example, remained russian citizens, have two passports, or are en masse in russia, in in some years, up to 3 million ukrainians worked in the russian federation for various reasons, primarily economic. the war that finally started, put all the dots on the dot, we have to solve this issue now, allow those masses of ukrainians to feel themselves ukrainians, to be afraid that we will not be able to understand where is the russian passport, where is the ukrainian, it is too late, we have to to move, this is a normal practice that exists in most countries of the world, well, i understand that it is not just people with russian passports will apply, these are the fuses that

we were finally able to formulate, imagine that we have this ... the same conversation even before the war, let's say, before 2014, how would it be perceived, that we and you what, we are accelerating the war with our to our neighbors, we, as professionals who worked as diplomats, we always knew that sooner or later we would have to face this issue and sooner or later russia would fight with us, but to instigate it, or let's say, talk about it in peacetime, well it was politically short-sighted to say the least, thank you very much for your comment, vadym prystayko, extraordinary honorable ambassador of ukraine and head of the mission of ukraine at the same time. in 2017-19 , we talked about the beginning of the large-scale exercises that began today, nato exercises. thank you very much. volodymyr zelenskyy today signed a decree on the territories of the russian federation historically inhabited by ukrainians. the text of the decree states that the ukrainian government should

develop an action plan for the preservation of the national identity of ukrainians in russia, including on the lands historically inhabited by them, located within the borders of modern krasnodar krai, belgorod, bryansk, voronezh, kursk and rostov oblasts of russia. is there any point in such an initiative and what? we know about the territories of the russian federation historically inhabited by ukrainians. international editor of rfe/rl rostislav khotyn will continue. it is not easy to be a ukrainian in russia. back in 2010, the supreme court of russia banned the national and cultural autonomy of ukrainians in russia. the association of ukrainians in russia has been under constant pressure and the threat of a ban for two decades. against the background of the war against ukraine, to be a conscious ukrainian. russia is to run into danger. and here is the decree of the president of ukraine. and for this purpose , today i signed the decree on

the territories of the russian federation historically inhabited by ukrainians. this is the return of the truth about the historical past for the sake of ukraine's future. and now let's look at the territories that were part of ukraine or inhabited by ukrainians in russia. the history of cossack ukraine will be. complete without starodubshchyna, it reached near smolensk. starodub is the capital of the ukrainian cossack regiment, the hetman there, for example, was ivan skoropatsky. russia took it starodubshchyna in 1926, and now these historical lands of ukraine constitute 12 districts of the modern bryansk region of russia. there are still many old churches in the ukrainian or cossack baroque style. then kuban and the north caucasus. ukrainian cossacks settled there at the end of the 18th century, after empress catherine ii destroyed zaporizhzhia. ukrainians mastered the kuban, founded dozens and

dozens of cossack settlements with the names of poltava, uman, cherkasy, etc. in the kuban, for example, he formed his consciousness simon petliura. during the ukrainian revolution more than 100 years ago, the kuban people's republic existed there. she sought to unite. in ukraine in the 20s, in the kuban there was also, or even in a federal connection, as in active ukrainization, schools, libraries, culture, and what is a cossack, because for a few years in schools already about cossacks, i still i studied at school, the book was the history of the population of kuban, the history of kwazachestva, and then all this was drowned out in kuban. there was also a famine, 350,000 kubans starved to death stalin, half a million ukrainians were then scattered throughout the ussr. dozens of villages have disappeared

from the map. currently, ukrainian is being eroded in the kuban, but the kuban cossack choir continues to sing ukrainian songs. also, a significant number of ukrainians in russia lived in the so-called eastern slobozhanshchyna, the same ostrogosk, where hetman ivan mazepa used to visit, then there were cossack territories and cossack regiments operated there, then it was slobitsk ukraine. ukrainian lands reached as far as the don, as well as in the south, the same taganrog. all these territories were annexed by the bolsheviks 100 years ago soviet russia. ukrainians lived in the volga region and all of russia for more than 100 years. was covered by the so-called wedges, where ukrainians lived, a yellow, crimson, gray wedge, and now to the far east, there was a green wedge, against the background

of the collapse of the russian empire in 1918 , the ukrainians of the green wedge sought autonomy and even floated ideas of union with greater ukraine and joining it as a colony. ukrainians constituted the majority of the population of the far east and at the time. of the russian empire, and in the times of the ussr, and in the times of the russian federation, everything is ukrainian was planned to be exterminated by st. petersburg or moscow. there is still no ukrainian school in russia. currently, president zelensky's decree pursues two main goals. the first is the ukrainians of russia. if it is difficult for you, but you want to live in the ukraine of the future, modern, civilized, european, you will be welcome in ukraine. and the second. it's like an appeal to the kremlin, it's enough to play the card of some novorossia, some people of donbas, some russian measure. russia itself

is a very, very colorful federation. lands to which ukraine or ukrainians can claim. poland joined the j7 declaration on security guarantees for ukraine. accordingly , polish prime minister donald tusk made the statement during his visit to kyiv. the purpose of the declaration, as he said, is to mobilize democratic countries in support of ukraine. tutsk also stated that his country will fully support ukraine's quick accession to the european union, and that poland does not. there is nothing more important than supporting ukraine in its war against russian aggression, that is without a doubt the number one thing. there are also many bilateral issues that we need to discuss. we all we know that there are conflicts of interest and we will talk about them, but we will talk in a spirit of friendship, obviously, but also

with a desire. solving problems as quickly as possible, rather than storing or multiplying them. it is very important for me to create the conviction that poland is the most reliable, most stable ally of ukraine in this deadly battle with evil. the head of the polish government in kyiv also announced that the polish government will appoint a commissioner for the restoration of ukraine, he will be a member of the seimas, pavel kowal, who heads the committee abroad, the committee abroad. affairs according to tusk, poland wants to take an active part not only in helping ukraine, but also in the reconstruction process. it must be said that this is donald tusk's first visit to ukraine since he headed the polish government in december of that year. a number of ukrainian and polish political observers note that this visit could be the beginning of a reboot of ukrainian-polish relations. in recent months , the parties have accumulated a lot of mutual claims. well, what are the protests of polish

farmers and blocking the border worth? but here for example, the famous polish publicist and journalist witold yuras believes that donald tusk's visit to ukraine is unlikely to bring a breakthrough in the relations between kyiv and warsaw. in his opinion, this will be an opportunity to express general political support for ukraine rather than to resolve mutual disputes. why? because, according to yuras, poland and ukraine are primarily united by their attitude towards russian aggression, while their economic interests differ. andriy deshchytsia, extraordinary, joins our broadcast. ambassador of ukraine to the republic of poland, 2014-2022. good evening. good p.m. what do you expect from donald tusk's visit to kyiv, or are you actually waiting for the same restart of relations between kyiv and warsaw? i think that this visit is very important for our bilateral relations and very timely. because recently there have been quite a lot of these between ukraine and poland. disputes,

mainly of an economic nature, but they did not allow us to build a strategy for our relations for the future, and therefore it would be necessary, let's say, to clarify the positions of both sides, and it is good that this actually happened during the visit of prime minister donald tusk, it's good that he had the opportunity to speak directly with president volodymyr zelenskyi and... prime minister denys shmygl, and as we can see, the statements that were made, there really is work and a desire for a new , these ukrainian-polish relations should be built on the basis of proper neighborly, partnership, friendly relations. let 's go through the statements, well, first of all, it was announced that poland joins the j7 declaration

on... security guarantees, what does that mean, that's it, that's it, i understand, it's only intentions so far, the most secure some kind of agreement, it still needs to be written, agreed upon and signed. well, yes, this, in fact, this statement has been made so far, but until now poland neither at the level of the president nor at the level of the previous government made such statements and such confirmations, and now after the statement of the head of the polish government. the time will come to prepare such a security, bilateral agreement, which ukraine has signed with great britain, and intends to sign with several other countries, and work in this direction is already underway, but here, of course, it should be noted that in the case of poland we have, if we are talking about the issue of security and support for ukraine.