news on the air of the tv channel. this november we turned 10 years old, we updated the design, the sound, we continue the saturday political club of khrystyna yatskiv and vitaly portnikov. our values ​​and ukrainian point of view remain unchanged. stay tuned for espresso updates and thank you for your trust. watch at 21. news, summaries of the week. he dared, after almost two years of full-scale war , president volodymyr zelenskyi changed the commander-in-chief from... dsu. ice from the chair. the us senate is close to considering a bill providing for aid ukraine. zircon is the newest weapon of the russian federation. what is it and did they hit kiev with a missile, and what other wonder weapons does russia have in its arsenal? about this and not only. watch espresso 21.

we continue the saturday political club on the espresso tv channel with khrystyna yatskiv and vitaly portnikov. we are already ready to include our next guest, and this is oleksandr motil, historian, political scientist, professor at rudger university, united states. congratulations, mr. oleksandr. glory to ukraine. congratulations thank you for the invitation. so let's talk about what 's going on with the help of the united states anyway ukraine, at the beginning, how can you explain it, what is happening in the... nation right now, is it a real possibility to get help, or just such political steps that will not pass through the house of representatives anyway, well, that's the whole point, you see , in the senate, the senate, being somewhat more responsible, then they made exactly this decision to give aid to ukraine, which is 95 billion, it would be the greater part of ukraine, as you know, then probably part of israel, but the problem is that now over all should think the house of representatives, and there it is

the people who have come, they are anti-ukraine, well against ukraine, at worst, at best, many of them simply do not think that ukraine is important, and it remains an open question whether they will vote for it or not, no one really knows, speaking about substantive consideration, amendments, what are they dancing around now, in particular in the senate? i didn't understand you, but i'll paraphrase: we understand that what happened in the senate is essentially a vote to put it on the agenda, that is, we will start talking about it. on the other hand, consideration should begin in fact, it will actually be a fight for important points for the congress, which should be taken into account in this vote. what points for... are most important to different groups,

including both republicans and democrats? well, among the democrats and for a certain part of the republicans, they actually really support ukraine, they understand that this is not a matter of goodwill, that it is a strategically, geopolitically important issue and that america, as a country that still occupies leading place in the international arena, support ukraine, because support ukraine is tantamount to supporting... democracy, a certain, certain balance on the world stage and so on, they understand this, and they are ready in this way and not so ready at all, but they want to support ukraine, the problem is with those representatives, with those congressmen in the house of representatives, they are largely from the south and the west, the middle west, which means that ukraine and russia are far away for them, and even further for their voters. many of them have never been

abroad, so they are not very oriented to such international affairs, it it has always been like that and now it continues to be like that, the second problem is that there is trump, you see, he said quite clearly that he is not favorable to ukraine, well, there are certain hesitations, but mainly this is his message, they are all representatives, to a certain extent also senators, and mainly representatives of the buoy. they are afraid of him, that he will become the president, they are afraid that if they do not vote the way he wants, then he can pay back in one way or another, and this is very possible, so there is also this factor, in the end you have to remember, that in they are elected for a two-year term in the house of representatives, which means that a person has become a representative and is already thinking about the next election, which leads to the fact that representatives in general. likan,

in particular, they are prone to populism, which means they are ready to do everything that will give them a win, a victory in the next election, and since they are their voters, well, those people back. in the south, ukraine or russia are not so important, they usually propose populist policies that seem to support america, but mainly harm american interests, not to mention ukrainian? well, in principle, there is another question here, which may be unclear, i think, in ukraine. for six months, they discussed the issue of this compromise: migration legislation in exchange for aid to ukraine and israel. allegedly reached an impasse with the migration legislation, although in reality they reached significant compromises, refused to vote on this draft law ostensibly so as not to resolve the issue of aid to ukraine, now they do not want to vote on the migration legislation, but are ready to discuss aid to ukraine, that's all

takes place in one senate, how can that be? well, that's a good question, but you see , biden thought that if he connected the issue of migration with... the issue of ukraine, then he would force a kind of, well, trick him, so to speak, but he would force the republicans to vote for ukraine, because they would want some kind of solution connection of the migration issue. they used it, however, as a threat of blackmail against him, so we are not ready to support ukraine unless you are ready to make radical concessions on this issue, and then the situation remained so stalemate, now the white house... in the end i thought, well, why should we do one and the other in the same package, we will offer support to ukraine and israel, and then we will discuss this other issue separately. in principle, this is logical, in principle , the republicans should

agree to something like this, but again, it is in their interest to create a kind of chaos in the political system, and it is also in the interest of trump himself. he does not want any solutions there, painful issues, because then it works out to the benefit of biden, and not to the benefit of trump, trump and the radical and radical republicans, so it is not known what will happen now, in principle they should agree, but they have such a logic that is not fully understood, and the possibility that they will vote against support and then against it is not entirely excluded. regarding help at the border, because they would like to then, they are then given the opportunity to put all the blame on biden and thus , if possible, win the elections in november, the situation is free, yes, but now

they are trying to put a straw in the supposedly white bottom, at least this is reported by the new york times with reference to the representatives of the administration of the president of the united states, they say that there... backup options should be considered, that is, how to support ukraine, if , respectively, the senate and the congress do not agree on this package for ukraine, israel and taiwan. we have already discussed one of the options, and it is the prospect of confiscating russian assets in our favor, actually transferring them to us. on the other hand, this is allegedly the purchase with the money of the european union, of the weapons that will be. to be manufactured in the united states and then transferred ukraine. with that in mind, how do you see german chancellor olaf scholz's visit to the united states and the main highlights of his meeting with joseph biden. well, you see, taking into account what you mentioned, the visit

of scholz, well, this is a shocking moment in the politics, the foreign policy of the federal republic of germany. imagine that the german chancellor came to america. and in america, he offered further support for ukraine, further arming of germany, europe, america , cooperation against russia, so what, well, this could not have been imagined 10, 15, 20 years ago, here the german chancellor turns out to be the defender of ukraine. he came, of course, in order to confirm some of his position, to a certain extent he had to. also the house of representatives to make the right decision , whether this will affect it, i don't know, but it is not excluded, because after all, not only scholz, other state leaders have already expressed their support for aid in ukraine, the senate is supported by the white house, the pentagon, the state department , well

, a large part of intellectuals and analysts, so the chamber of representatives becomes more and more isolated, and it is possible. that scholz and his visas will help in this direction, but this is the very fact of it, yes, by and large'. have to convince the americans that they should help ukraine, let's remember the year 2022, and yes, well, this is just such an irony of history, this is one of the positives of this crisis, which is now present in the house of representatives, that it forces europeans to finally very seriously about their own security, and the first, as trump as president, he basically taught them that you can't completely rely on... americans, and this discussion, i think, i i hope i have convinced them that even in the best case, when the president is

pro-europe and pro-ukraine, one must still take up one's own self-defense, this is good, it is good for europe, it is good for america, and in the end also for ukraine, well, unfortunately, it is positive in the long-term sense, ukraine needs weapons tomorrow, not in 10 or 15 years, but at least something is happening like a positive acceleration in affairs. and tell me, mr. oleksandr, how did the united states get interested in this interview with tucker carson i took it from putin, because for russians and ukrainians this is the number one topic. everyone in russia is discussing it, in ukraine it is being discussed, but this is an interview that was not on any leading tv channels, well, they are watching it on twitter, a large number of people are on the former twitter, but again, we do not know if they are watching just browsing it too. we know what social networks are, it 's watching a tv screen, we turned it on, turned it off and forgot how important it is from

a political point of view, well, in principle, it again showed that putin has not changed at all , he has not changed his song, so to speak, he says and sings the same thing that he has been saying, by the way, for 25 years, but at least in the last two years, this is one thing, secondly, it seemed that caroson is basically a jerk. who was not prepared for this interview, and at the same time , putin proved that he is a boring man who cannot answer a very simple question, except that he requires 30 minutes, well , the dachshund also laughed, somehow you saw, he somehow could not mockers too, but you understand for the average american, an interview with putin in which he talks about the founding of novgorod in 862 or something to that effect. and they talk about it for two hours, two hours, at that moment not a single person was in manhattan, although

it is hard to believe, yes, well, i am sure that none of the americans will listen to it, did not look, well, it was there for 5 minutes, i heard then about the polish-lithuanian principality and excluded it, because it is just idiocy, the only ones who listened were people like me or you, commentators, analysts, others, this is ours, this is our professional duty, a psychotherapist, i don't know if it's putin's, but it seems to me that for the community, well, this kind of professionals should be interesting, well, tell me, mr. oleksandr, okay , we omit the rubric, but the americans, who actually hear from the mouth of the russian president , the justification of the nazi leader hitler, who was forced to attack poland, because she did not want to voluntarily give up some of these territories, played, played. i grant that the average american may not fully understand the historical intricacies of our continent there, well, but

obvious things, where evil should be called evil, and good should be good, and they also echo, did it somehow play a role, well, to a certain extent, as you know, the poles reacted, i read several blogs there, several discussions on the internet, where people pay attention to it anyway, so it caught everyone's eye, by the way... even today i wrote an article and the first two paragraphs are devoted to this very topic, and of course, not only that he controls hitler, he actually identifies himself with hitler, because actually logic, logic, which he adapts to poland, this is the same logic to which he adapts to ukraine, so it turns out that putin is really putler, by the way, he himself admitted it, i think that experts, analysts and so on, they saw it , understood, they are already... laughing at the same time, because he just played such nonsense that it is better to imagine worse and it is difficult to imagine, but as

they said, for native americans, you know what danzik, gdansk is like, well, we could already talk about mars chinus , they still understood better, and do you think that in general this interview was necessary in order for putin really sent some signals to donald trump, even publicly, about what the russian-american negotiations might look like if trump. america , as a result, no such signals happened, there was this old song about history, about the fact that ukraine attacked russia, about the fact that the west insults russia, he became a thread of some kind, he is. was not, yes, well, if we talk, well, you understand, but trump knows very well that putin has a positive attitude towards him, and this is just such an interview, which, by the way, i am absolutely sure that trump himself did not reviewed, that means, maybe two or three minutes of some of the most important moments and that was it, so whether it was necessary

for putin to send some signals to trump, well, i doubt something, er, it just means. on his pr campaign, he had the opportunity to repeat what he has already said 100 times, he won't convince anyone, but there is a chance, well maybe small, but there is a chance that semi-sober people who were semi-sympathetic to trump will hear, at least some parts will think, well, you have to be crazy to support putin, and you have to to be just as crazy to support trump, so it might even backfire, it's possible, but i... i'm not sure. and a few words , mr. alexander, at the end, with your permission, on the subject of elon musk, who is actually the owner of the x network, the former twitter, where tucker carlson has 11 million followers, and where, in fact, many people expected this interview with putin , there are very alarming signals from our

military that starlinks have become available to the russians, and obviously we find ourselves in a situation, here... now on equal footing, and in in the united states, our ukrainian minds now have a picture where, well , in fact, despite the opinion of the pentagon, but a representative of large private business is now, well, a little polar to the official position of the states, the states support ukraine, but personally, elon musk obviously thinks otherwise and helps in russia too, yes. well, don't forget, he's probably the richest man in america, so that, that, that means that he has some influence, he also has an influence on the economic development of the country, so he's naturally treated with a certain amount of respect, whether we like it or not would. uh, here it would be, here it will be interesting, because whether he violates sanctions, or whether he violates certain

agreements of america with its allies, i uh... well, of course, like you, i am concerned that he helps and favors russia, but i do not rule out the possibility that some politicians or at least the federal bureau will pressure him into investigations, it is not ruled out yet, but we will see, if something happens, then probably in a week or two, that is, you think that in a week or two maybe to be decided what will happen to the opportunities donald trump to run for... the position of president of the united states? and well, well, well, he will probably be the president, the candidate of the republican party, so everyone is almost convinced that it will be so. it is possible that this neki gaila, that she will still be able to win in the end. well, but, but this is only on the condition that there will be some crazy scandal with trump,

which will convince his voters that he is not responsible, that he will not answer. a long-shot candidate, so if it doesn't happen, it almost certainly will the republican candidate, and the most alarming thing is that a large part, even a larger part, let's say this, of liberal democracy is convinced that he will and that he will defeat biden, this is very alarming, of course, thank you, mr. oleksand. we were in touch with the united states. now we will be in touch with the former ambassador of ukraine to croatia and bosnia and herzegovina oleksandr levchenko. we will talk about the balkans. congratulations mr. oleksandr. best regards, studio. so, let's get started with this upcoming

ukraine, southeast europe summit. well, basically meeting with the leaders of the balkan countries. this is a completely new form. what can you expect from such a meeting, mr. alexander? well, it is obvious that this is a continuation of the topic of ukraine's participation in the summit, the european union, the western balkans plus ukraine, we remember, yes, in october, last year, all this happened in greece, in thessaloniki, on the 20th anniversary of the adoption historic decision of the european union on that. that the western balkans will become part of the european union, and considering that ukraine is also on the way to becoming a member of the eu and, together with the countries of the western balkans, will to prove this and has already officially received this candidate status, it is obvious that this summit will have a good momentum, first of all, in

the context of further european integration of the region and ukraine. the second issue is , of course, ukraine's bilateral relations with the countries of the western balkans, the region is not easy, but important, strategic for the europeans. the continent, and the third is to convey signals about what is happening in ukraine, how russian aggression is being repelled, how to prevent the unleashing of warriors and in the other corners of europe, because it is possible that russia will try to start a war in the western balkans in order to distract european attention. union, nato for several military conflicts on the continent. studio. ugh. and please tell me, mr. oleksandr, that the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi

can become a co-organizer of the summit, that is , ukraine as a state obviously plans to be the initiator of this important meeting. what should he tell us? well, i have three points and you are separate. that are of interest to ukraine, official kyiv, yes, the western balkans, can also say something in the context of who is their leader, in the context of european integration, and we can talk about the fact that, well, actually speaking, from a historical point of view, it is unlikely that we are still politically we use, i must say that the slavs are in the balkans. and we very rarely use it, i, as the ambassador of croatia, bosnia , often said this, the slavs came to the territory of the balkans, from the territory of ukraine, and we use this factor very little, that is, ukraine for

them, for the slavic countries, is not the ancestral home , therefore the strengthening of political ties of ukraine with these countries would be logical, from a historical point of view, expedient politically, important economically and imperative. geopolitical, geostrategic study, and how do you think this process of integration of the countries of the western balkans will develop in the near future, given that we see that there are differences in views on the region between serbia and kosovo, and this is, i would say, the painful point of the region, they do not decrease, but increase, or so it seems, well, the opposite, so to speak. which exist between serbia and kosovo, they will not go anywhere, that is, the process of european integration, it is going, this is one track, and what is happening in

serbian-kosovo relations is a track next to it, but of course, it will hinder european integration to some extent, but also the idea is for the western balkans to become members of the european union as soon as possible, so that precisely such conflicts are not... understanding is easier to resolve, because if both kosovo and serbia conditionally become part of the european union, then this internal problem will be relegated to the second or even on the third plan. let me remind you that the leaders of european integration now in the western balkans, in the western balkans only croatia has become a member of the european union, it is probably that... gorgaria and north macedonia, but in addition to that , it is probably possible to single out the fact that albania has

a serious achievement, but serbia would probably go further and the smallest achievements would be in bosnia and herzegovina. well, when we are planning, and we have a lot of discussions about, theoretically, of course, when ukraine will become a member of the european union. that she will be accepted alone, most likely, that we will be together some group of countries to join the european union, then conditionally, if we are talking about the 28-29th year, then it could be conditionally with montenegro and north macedonia, if we are talking about the 30th, which is the most talked about by brussels, as a real date, it is probably for... whether bosnia-herzegovina will also have time is difficult to say, well, we haven't forgotten a little about moldova, it's also

included in the process, so yes. that there are countries that are leaders of european integration, we mentioned with you, north macedonia and montenegro, there are countries that are a little behind for obvious political reasons, bosnia and herzegovina - this is a constant action republika srpska, which actually destabilize internal security in the country, and this is reflected to some extent in the process of how they fulfill their european integration obligations. yes, if we talk about serbia, yes , elections were held there literally on december 17, the european parliament recently passed a resolution regarding the fact that these, this election process was not conducted in fair conditions, they call for an independent investigation of violations, serbia itself remains a country that also has european integration aspirations, nevertheless receives the following remarks from the european

parliament, mr. oleksandr. tell us in a little more detail what is happening there and how legitimately will the serbian parliament and the serbian government continue to act? well, let me remind you a few words that the serbian opposition believes that there were abuses during the electoral process of the elections, especially in belgrade, and they believed that... in this regard, the very result of the votes should be reviewed , first of all in the capital country, meanwhile we know that the central election commission is on it did not go, only a few precincts were called for re-elections, well, actually speaking, the majority in the parliament was won by the ruling party, which is actually headed by the president...

he teaches, that is , the elections were early, they were demanded by the opposition, and it turns out that the result confirmed the fact that the ruling party, well, it is the truth in the coalition won the most votes again, the opposition believes that there were serious violations of a serious nature and they could have an impact. on the counting of votes, however, you know that even observation in the first days, the osce mission did not react very actively to this, but when the observer members of the german and austrian parliaments became active, the european members also became more active, now you have asked the european parliament for a decision, you understand that,

it has... character, whether it will be carried out by the government, will not be a very big question mark, but of course that all this constitution of that parliament took place, but all this is not considered completely legitimate by the opposition, so the process of the fact that the position does not accept this the result is as... the final one still remains, and strictly speaking, the internal political struggle continues, continues, i would only clarify, i think that a lot has already been understood in this regard, that the opposition does not mean the path to the european union, and it is exclusively about european forces, and the president

of his party. exclusively pro-russian, i must say that there are a lot of pro-russian forces in the composition, in the composition of the opposition, and in this regard, i personally see the united states of america very cautious about all this, because in fact russia entered these times political life, it controls the media , many, if not the majority, if... if not directly, then indirectly, it even has its own political projects, which have now entered the parliament of a small number of deputies, but it is clear that it is not, that political project, it seems to be oppositional, but it is clear from its rhetoric that it is pro-kremlin, well, actually speaking, it also affects the position of the usa, which...