not the place, and accordingly people, representatives of the old political era can no longer respond to fundamentally new, cynical, terrible challenges. well, on the other hand, you mentioned now the former head of the cia, the former head of the state department , mike pompeo, and mike pompeo assures that trump will be firm, but the key story here is how much we can trust in this situation mike pompeo, who is a person, basically a plus-minus. as i mentioned, secretary of state pompeo has expressed his belief that trump will ultimately will support aid to ukraine, although i have not personally met donald trump. i worked closely with secretary of state pompeo. in my experience, i can attest to pompeo's reputation. he says frankly and sincerely. drawing on his informed perspective from having served in key positions in president trump's cabinet. pompeo is known

for speaking his true beliefs, not just trying to please someone, even if someone might not like hearing his truth. therefore, when pompeo declares about my belief in trump's possible support for aid to ukraine, i am inclined to trust his sincerity and authority on this matter. however, the urgency of the situation in ukraine cannot be overestimated. ukraine needs immediate help and cannot afford to wait for president trump's decision to provide support. a recent article in the washington post, one of the most influential newspapers in the us, highlights the dire circumstances facing ukrainian troops on the front lines. there is an acute shortage of soldiers and artillery shells, and teams battalions receive minimal resources to support their units. for example, one battalion commander reported that in the last month he received only 10 artillery

shells for his guns, while another said he had only received five fresh soldiers for his unit, which needed 200 men to be operational. therefore, ukraine urgently needs additional soldiers and artillery shells, immediately. fortunately, the european union found a way to bypass the opposition of hungarian prime minister orbán, regarding providing more aid to ukraine, but ukraine still needs significant aid from the united states of america. unfortunately, given the ongoing political upheaval in washington, it is unlikely that this help will come in the near future. president joseph biden reminds me in some ways of the president of the united states, woodrow wilson, who had extremely good and powerful wishes, who tried to create a new system of relations in the world, but... the american political

establishment did not support him, and neither did the league nations without the united states were de facto doomed, but now i have a feeling that president joseph biden may repeat, to our great regret, the career of president woodrow wilson. on the other hand, the deputy secretary of state of the united states, victoria nuland, recently visited us, she knows ukraine, she knows how. to work with american institutions, and her visit coincided with rumors about the possible resignation of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, general valery zaluzhny. victoria nuland is my friend for over 30 years. i had the honor of working with her both at the white house and at the state department. i well remember her presence on the maidan in the 14th year, where she actively supported the movement, distributing cookies and demonstrating. or solidarity however, it is important

to note that it has no influence on the decisions that president zelensky will make. as far as i know her character, victoria nuland would never try to convince president zelensky to keep general zaluzhny in office, or to fire him. in general, zaluzhnyi is well regarded in washington, especially for his effectiveness as a commander during the successful counteroffensive on september 22. this counteroffensive led to the liberation of kherson and the expulsion of russian troops from near kharkiv. the apparent disagreements between president zelensky and general zaluzhny seem to relate to zaluzhny's frank assessment of the situation on the ground, in particular, the stalemate on the demarcation line between ukrainian and russian troops in southern ukraine. hardworking stressed the need for potentially unpopular measures to... advance forces and

address resource shortages, with which president zelensky does not seem to agree, although i cannot speak to the specific remarks of victoria nuland during her stay in kyiv. it is becoming more and more evident from the journalistic reports from the front line that the view of the warlord about the need for more soldiers, ammunition and weapons is most likely correct. after all, the dispute between zaluzhny and president zelenskyi is an internal matter of ukraine. as national leader and commander-in-chief, president zelenskyy has the authority to make decisions on specific personnel issues. it is he who must exercise... his judgment in the best interests of the ukrainian people, hence the opinion of the pro-labour party and the perception by the united states of another war scenario. in washington , there are different views on the current situation. first, the official position of the us government is

that interference in president zelenskyi's decision regarding the command of general zaluzhnyi is not within their competence. it is believed that this is the prerogative and responsibility of the ukrainian president. determine who he trusts, especially when it comes to the situation on the battlefield. secondly, general zaluzhnyi enjoys high authority in washington, like all ukrainian military personnel, after all. over the past few years, especially after russia's first invasion of ukraine in 2014, experts in washington who monitor the course of military events in ukraine have been impressed by the evolution and achievements of the ukrainian military, general zaluzhny is credited important role in this transformation. third, many in washington perceive president zelensky as a hero who is considered one of the most significant and effective national leaders in the world. he commands deep respect and admiration in washington circles, so regardless of president zelensky's decision regarding his commander-in-chief, washington

is likely to continue to support him. however, i personally believe that general zaluzhnyi is probably right when he says that ukraine needs more soldiers in the field. regardless from whether it is 500,000, as they offer tinned or other quantity. ukraine urgently needs replenishment of human resources at the front, as well as a significant increase in artillery ammunition. we remember from our time, about one and a half years ago , the so-called istanbul meetings took place, certain negotiations took place. now putin goes to erdogan personally, not shoigu, not abramovich and so on. we understand that i will discuss... they will be many issues, they are really extremely many: the middle east burning, prospects of a third world war on the shores of the red sea, but putin will also insist on his agenda, in particular, when we are talking about the russian-ukrainian war. i'm not

entirely sure about the objectives of president putin's visit to turkey and his meeting with president erdogan, but one issue that i think will be... for sure is their negotiations regarding a turkish hub for russian natural gas. turkey and russia, represented by erdogan and putin, respectively, are engaged in protracted negotiations on a new agreement on increasing the supply of russian natural gas to turkey. moreover , turkey wants to get discounts on a significant part of the gas and intends to transport the rest of the gas to europe through bulgaria, serbia and hungary. despite numerous rounds of negotiations, both sides still. haven't done that deal, i know that president putin is interested in doing it, so it 's probably going to be on the agenda, and president putin may want to sway turkey to russia's position on ukraine, but as we've discussed before,

president erdoğan has followed a consistent and balanced policy towards russia aimed at countering russian expansion in the black sea region while avoiding unnecessary. tensions, turkey consistently supports the territorial integrity of ukraine, condemns the annexation of crimea and calls for an end to russia's military operations. however, despite providing ukraine with military support from drones to naval capabilities, turkey refrains from joining sanctions against russia, encourages turkish companies to continue business with russia. such a balanced approach serves turkey's national interests, and it is unlikely that president putin will be able to. persuade turkey to abandon it in favor of supporting russia against ukraine, as such a move would be contrary to the main interests of the turkish republic. well, in any case , we understand that there was a different plan of the meeting, formally

, the meeting of national security advisers took place in the middle east. rriyad and further, further, further, we understand that a certain process is ongoing. there were signals from switzerland, that is, the minister abroad... the affairs of switzerland also gave signals that it was necessary to speak, feel, so to speak, some or other peace formula. i believe that now is not... the best time for negotiations, unless ukraine is ready for them. if president zelenskyi does not come to the conclusion that there is no real way to oust russia from crimea and donbass and does not make a choice in favor of negotiations, then it is premature to talk about any negotiations. currently, ukraine is aiming to regain its territories, restore its territorial integrity and assert its sovereignty. therefore, supporting a peaceful settlement at this stage plays into ... putin's hands, potentially allowing russia to consolidate its territorial

gains in ukraine, similar to the situation georgia found itself in in 2008, when russia left its occupation forces there and georgia was forced to withdraw their troops from their own territory. regarding putin's potential agenda, it is worth noting that turkey already acted as a mediator between ukraine and russia in march 22. negotiations on ending the war, then ukraine offered a cessation agreement fire, according to which russia should withdraw all its troops that entered ukraine after february 24, 2022. ukraine would declare neutrality, avoid joining nato and discuss the legal status of donbass after 15 years. although this proposal is no longer under discussion, it indicated ukraine's willingness to consider it. however, russia rejected this offer, as putin preferred

the continuation of the conflict. therefore, given ukraine's determination to defend and return its territory, external parties, including switzerland should refrain from pressuring ukraine to cease hostilities if ukraine is not ready for this. well, unfortunately, i have to end our conversation. thank you, mr. ambassador, for this one. brilliant analysis, i want to remind our tv viewers that matthew bryza, ex-adviser of the united states secretary of state, former director of european and eurasian affairs at the us national security council, was working for them on espresso. the time of our program has run out, stay tuned to the espresso tv channel. my colleagues will keep you informed about everything the most important events of the day. take care of yourself and your loved ones. see you on air.

they were united by service and love for dogs. alina and ilya from volyn met at work in novovolynsk. the bride and groom work in the border service of ukraine, together with their four-legged companions. before the russian offensive, the couple served in the donetsk border detachment. alina met the morning of the full-scale invasion at the mariupol sea trade port. there, together with yours. on which day she conducted an inspection of sea vessels. we arrived at the unit, re-armed, well, if we had received certain tasks that were set for us, and went to the defense of the city of mariupol to the azonsh plant, with our unit. those terrible circumstances separated them, after the second attempt on the night of april 12, alina and the unit broke through to the steel, where they were under constant fire for a week. at that time, ilya was already holding the defense

at the ilcha plant. at the moment when i turned on the phone, ilya called. he said that everything was fine with him, asked if i was fine, because we did not know where one, well, we, we did not understand at all where we were. on april 15, the commander in the bunker informed us that our unit was captured. on the territory of ilyich, the guys who were with us, they , you could say, there was a little bit of a small panic, but then we sat down, thought among ourselves, talked, and everyone was in agreement, they were forced to surrender, because the other we had no way out, and if we hadn't given up, i probably wouldn't be sitting here right now. ilya and other prisoners were held for several days in a colony in donetsk region, in sertan, then in

olenivtsi was then sent by military cargo plane to the territory of the russian federation, where ilya will be in the colony of the kostroma region for the next 20 months. from that moment, so to speak, the interrogations began the next day , all their procedures began, so to speak, that they were captured there. conduct, fingerprints were taken, we were photographed a lot, we were not involved in any work, absolutely, we just sat for half 30 minutes, 30 minutes. stood, walked around the cell, gave us books, we read, the books were in russian language, yes, of course, about the second world war, the first world war, about hitler, fascism, stalin, lenin, if they gave me food, but

of course that was not enough, the fact that you were all the time. ate, ate, ate, and then, at such a moment, it was all taken away from you and, but you understand that you simply will not get any more, and if you eat what you have, and somehow we tried so, someone had, er, for example, there is less porridge there, we have spoons each, we would give two each to the boys, whoever had less, well, we shared bread and bread among ourselves and... already 17 in may, alina panina was captured by the russians, they did not know about each other's fate, the girl left azovstal together with the dogs with which she fell into the hands of the occupiers. after i was brought to the volenivka colony, they told me to tie them up in a place where they make walks for

prisoners, i tied them up. she gave me her peacoat to the bench, took off my military jacket and laid them on the bed, they sat down, i kissed them, and that was the last time i saw them at all, after which, when i was there in captivity for four months, every morning around 8:00 in the morning and at 10 in the evening i heard them barking, i asked a question when they were taking us out of the deer park, why they don't give me the dogs, they said in the next stage they can be thrown out, well, it was theirs like that, and after that we were taken out and i understood what they were talking about, because we were put on planes, the military, they were cargo planes that transport equipment, then our hands were tied , blindfolded, that is, i

would not physically be able to take the dogs with me. in october 2020 , the border guard returned home thanks to another exchange of prisoners, soon she returned to the service and all this time she was waiting for ilya's return, well, for so long being a prisoner there, i got used to everything, that is, i asked a person for a phone, i took it in my hands, i didn't know how i need to press some button, some number, that is, i forgot. and i called my father, i don't remember what he was doing, and i said hello to him, i told him, dad, hello, he's fine, he didn't recognize me for so long, and i said, dad, it's me , ilya, i say, we were exchanged, everything is fine, i say, i live healthy, and of course

he started throwing tantrums there, and the second question i had was where lina was, as i didn't know anything about her at all. no information, nothing, and he told me, he says that alina has been at home for a year, i have buried alina, so to speak, many times, because i did not know if she was alive, but as we were told there in captivity that there, the asovstals were razed to the ground, and knowing that alina was there, such thoughts came to me, but i tried to drive them away, i made a second call to alina. the phone rang, i look, a stranger i have a number, well, i don’t know who’s calling, i didn’t really want to pick up the phone, but somehow a hand reached out, maybe to the phone, i pick it up, i hear his voice, you couldn’t even hear my words at all, because in i was so shocked, already on the morning of january 4, 2024, alina and his

parents met ilya in kyiv, they did not know the boy by looking and seeing how different their prisoners are from us, who leave our prisoners who come from there, by the very , for health itself, yes, for look how much they are not , they are not fed properly, they are properly washed, properly dressed, and they... just look, you lost 18, 20, 50 kg, because the guys, well, lost weight, and they were like that remained, they will not even say that they were in captivity, as such a structure. red cross , i only heard about it, i will say that we do not need such structures at all, because they do not help in any way and do not give any confirmation

that people are in captivity, from whom they take, they give confirmation only when prisoners come out of the colonies, and they already know the information about where they are and where they were, when they came to olenivka, we were not hiding them, women, they were hiding from the red cross in... they did not come to us, some kind of humanitarian aid they didn't give it to us from him, from the red cross, although it was there, maybe it was, because the boys only got ordinary soap from the red cross and that was it. the couple admits that the occupiers hid that they were taking ukrainian prisoners for exchange, that neither ilya nor alina was not fully known. i tell the guys, guys, where did we go? well , what's going on, and they say, well, we came for an exchange, but i still didn't believe it, because i've been in captivity for so many months, and well, if

you, of course, i hoped, i believed, but well, i just imagined it in a completely different way, not wrong, as it happened, when they are transported, you do you think at all that this is a stage. some of our structures, or you already hear them, when they tell you we welcome you to ukraine, every day we were told that nobody needs us, that everyone has forgotten about us, how there is no such ukraine anymore, because poland took all of western ukraine for itself, it held a referendum, and... we already refer to poland, well, that is, all of western ukraine, and to kyiv it is the entire territory, they took it for themselves. ilya and

alina say that life has taught them to live one day at a time, so now they try to spend time together as much as possible, and their new four-legged pets help them to forget the horror they experienced and they believe that they will definitely see jesse and sonya again someday. to be honest, when i came home and... they gave me a dog, i just hugged her, and i didn't need pills, well, it's a person who gets used to it and what hurts her helps her, right? well, i ached for the dogs, for elya, they gave me a dog, i just hugged her, i slept with her, eh, i walked during the day and walked at night, that is, you get used to her so much that you hug her, and it's just that someone is sleeping next to you, and you're already calm, you just don't want to remember it anymore... so to speak, to experience such a fear , i don't even know what to call it, you just want to forget it all as soon as possible,

well, it's very scary, it's very difficult , i don't know, it hurts even to remember, there are simply no words for all that we experienced, and if i were to go back to it, i would not want to, congratulations, friends , on the saturday political club, khrystyna yatskiv and vitaly portnikov. as always, we will talk about the most important events of this week and try to look into the next week. the change of the military leadership in our country, everything that is happening in the united states and... a little bit of the balkans, this is about the first part of our conversation, in the second, as you understand, on us a conversation with vitaly portnikov is waiting, and now we welcome our guest to

the studio, this is dmytro snigerev, a military expert, co-chairman of the public initiative on the right, mr. dmytro, congratulations, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes, congratulations, thank you for the invitation, congratulations, mr. dmytro, well , let's start with these resignations, as you can see the reasons for the resignation not only of valery zaluzhnyi, but also of the country's top military leadership. because serhiy shaptala, the chief of the general staff, was also dismissed, in principle, how do you see the real reasons for this decision of the president, if it can be considered from a military-technical or political point of view, let's talk about the fact that from a military point of view there are no grounds for the resignation of the commander-in-chief, it is about , that those accusations against him, the fact that the front line is stable, look quite strange, considering... the fact that since october 23rd , a full-scale offensive by the russian occupiers on the positions of the armed forces of ukraine has been ongoing, and in all areas without exception front, and

accordingly, when the russian...occupiers have no success on the front line and the front line is more or less stable, er, it is worth saying that the occupiers only have tactical success, to blame it on the commander-in-chief, well, it looks at least not a hoax , eh, and the main thing is to say that the resignation of zaluzhny is a complete failure of communication with ukrainian society, when there is no explanation of what exactly caused the resignation of the commander-in-chief, especially since zaluzhny represents an institution that trusts 90% of ukrainians, namely the armed forces of ukraine, the highest indicator of trust on the part of the ukrainian people, but dear presenters and dear tv viewers, i will also express my version of these events . it is an element of special'. russian

special services, let me explain what we are talking about. at present, the russian federation, in particular, its so-called speaking heads have declared that the resignation of the leader did not cause the snowball effect that they had hoped for, i.e. disagreements between the military and political leadership, which should have consequences in the form of either mass protests or other actions. which would demoralize the armed forces of ukraine and, accordingly, primarily ukrainian society. it is worth mentioning that the resignation of zaluchny was prepared precisely by the russian side, because the first element of the fact that a special operation was being prepared for a foreigner was the statement of the ex-president of the russian federation medvedev on january 24, at the time of the downing of the il-76 in the sky over bilhorodchyna, when

he said about that which knocks down this ilsa is there internal, internal political showdowns between the military and the political leadership of our country, i.e., in this way , the foundations were laid for a possible further scenario regarding the compromising of his meritorious removal from office, well, and finally i finish, and the company of discrediting syrsky in the russian media, which is currently taking place for the last two days, shows about the fact that again this scenario was being prepared for... lie down, they calculated the possibility of appointing her rightful successor, and currently the main task is not even zaluzhnyi syrian, introducing an element of distrust in decision-making by the top military leadership of our country, i.e. the main target audience is the servicemen of the armed forces of ukraine, demoralization of personnel and, accordingly, an element of distrust in the adoption, well, in the implementation and adoption of

certain decisions. mr. dmytro, i understand what you are talking about now, at the same time, today we are on the threshold of actually entering the relevant offices of the new team, and according to the statement, for example, yuri butusov, it looks more or less encouraging, that is, some there was no extraordinary update, many of these people also worked in zaluzhnyi's team, worked with syrsky, and generally understand the specifics of russian. of the ukrainian war, those expectations that the president has already voiced and those points that the new head of state singles out for himself, how irrational does all this look to you now? well , let's talk , it's not at all clear to me, the first tasks that are set for the olkom are the appropriate audit of the armed forces of ukraine, it is emphasized that currently the number of armed forces ukraine has 1 million military personnel.

and, accordingly, on the line of battle up to 300,000, but dear tv viewers, dear presenters, then explain to me the informational hysteria surrounding the adoption of the law on increasing responsibility for mobilization measures and, accordingly, the hysteria itself about the mobilization of another 400 - 500 thousand personnel , when the main the explanation was to carry out personnel rotation, and now you... it turns out that you only need to conduct an audit, and the armed forces of ukraine have enough, it turns out, personnel to carry out of this rotation. then explain, and what was it then? for a month, the whole country watched the incomprehensible political games surrounding the law on mobilization, the corresponding claims against zaluzhnyi regarding the implementation of mobilization events, but the main society, it is worth saying,

has grown in a strange way.