tomorrow at 20:00 we will have valeriy chaly and the diplomat and former ambassador of ukraine to the united states of america, there will be a big foreign policy evening, come, it will be interesting, i will put an end to this, goodbye, 11 children who were kidnapped by russia at first full-scale have returned to ukraine war, who helped the children to see their relatives again and even... that russia's little ukrainians, we analyze in today's edition of the bbc, i am olga polomaryuk. the meeting place is the embassy of kateru in moscow for a few more days and these children will be with their relatives in ukraine. why kater? plays such an important role in the return of ukrainian children taken to russia. first full-scale war. russia took

thousands of children out of ukraine, they are separated from their parents, some are placed in foster families and re-educated, forcing them to forget their own relatives and homeland. it is difficult to calculate the exact number of such children, but according to approximate data, the russians forcibly removed about 20 thousand ukrainian children from ukraine. only about 400 were returned. if at least one deported child is returned every day home, ukraine will need more than 55 years for this, ukrainian shoemaker dmytro lubinets said earlier. why do russians need ukrainian children? officially, they say in the kremlin, this is how they are saved from the war zone. in fact, after such a rescue, it is very difficult to return the child back. agreeing with russia, organizing all this is a long and complicated process. and so far, the only country that helps with this is qatar. so , a few days ago, 11 children returned to ukraine, according to reports, these are children from two

under the age of 16, whom the russians took out of territory controlled by ukraine. during the war, they were either in the occupied territories or in russia. therefore, officially, with the help of kateru, 27 ukrainian children were already returned. well, but how did it happen that qatar became the mediator in this case, how did they manage to find an approach to the russians and in general, how do such returns happen? this is how the local expert omar ashu explains. this issue is presented in qatar in a very positive way, it is actually part of how qatar wants to see itself. the state wants show yourself as a supporter of peace and everything that leads to peace. well, besides that, this issue concerns the rights of children, and children are very important here in the boat. this is a very sensitive subject, so when any qatari official hears that 20,000 children have been kidnapped and taken to another country, no qatari official will ignore it. it is very delicate.

topic, and they are very proud of what they have done, which leads to the fact that they want to do more in this direction, considering that there are still very many people in russian captivity a large number of children. the issue of children returning home was covered both in local and international news. there were also statements from various officials, high-ranking officials, including the spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs. so it's increasingly reflecting that this issue is very ... important in an ethical, moral and humanitarian sense. and it is in these aspects that qatar is very interested in reflecting its public diplomacy. for example, qatar has followed the strategy of so-called peace diplomacy since 1995-6. for your own reputation abroad, it is very important for cator to show that he has a different public diplomacy and a different strategy compared to the countries of the region. neighbors of katoru are iran and the united arab emirates. saudi arabia, and

they all have different policies and foreign policy strategies. qatar decided to exert its influence using the tools of soft power, including the media, education, and, as we call it, public diplomacy of peace. this is when a country enters a zone of very intense military operations or a conflict situation, and tries to play a role an intermediary between two or more parties. this was the case with the taliban and the united states, and during the civil war in sudan. during the conflict between lebanon and hezbollah, and now they are trying to do it in the russian war in ukraine as part of sensitive humanitarian issues. they are very cautious in matters related to security or the military. they are not interested in arming or providing military support to ukraine, but they are very interested in issues that can be worked out within the framework of peaceful diplomacy, such as the reconstruction of demining, education, aid to media institutions, of course, the most important and most delicate. question, this is

the question of children abducted by russia. yes, let's continue the conversation together with my colleague, diana koryshko, on the phone. my friend, i congratulate you, you researched the topic of abduction. russia of ukrainian children, i know that you communicated with the families, i even wrote several articles , they are on our website, by the way, i communicated with the officials, tell me how these returns became possible in general, congratulations olya, the ukrainians were the first to ask for help, ukrainian authorities turned to qatar and asked for help in returning ukrainian children, and... this actual return was preceded by months of secret negotiations and public meetings. last summer , the prime minister of qatar visited kyiv. ukrainian shoemaker dmytro luvinets also went to kateru in the summer and now recently. that is

, there was such an activation of communications at such a high level and at the level of the leaders of the states, the heads of the offices of the heads of states, and all this led to the fact that in october 23 , the first group of children was returned. it is also worth noting here that qatar is in this war, a war of ukraine with russia, supports ukraine in a very native way. he did not join the sanctions against russia, he does not give ukraine weapons, but he helps in the humanitarian sphere, for example, he gave 100 million dollars to the energy sector for a hospital, and this is how he helps to give back. of ukrainian children and the qatari officials keep repeating that this is only the beginning, that more children will be returned in the future and that it is even possible to return some of the civilian captives of ukrainians who are currently in russia, and this is the main goal of the ukrainian side now,

so that such returns are regular, colleagues, we have already mentioned that this week there was a record-breaking number of returns of ukrainian children, 11 children were handed over... to their relatives, this is what children who are taken away, like their relatives, go through to the last, they do not lose hope of seeing them again, and this is what serhiy told journalists, he is the uncle of the children whom russia took away and returned almost a year later, let's listen, children, well, they survived the beginning of hostilities, and as far as i can see it all, then they do not fully realize that with happened to them, they also don't fully realize, well... this whole situation, and the situation , well, that they're not wanted where they 've been all this time, i'll try to show them what it's like when they're needed

and when someone can properly care for them and support them, so care and support, diano. we just heard serhiy, but let's be honest, in reality, such cases of family reunification do not happen as often as we would like, and behind the scenes there is a tremendous amount of work, which is known, how qatar returns ukrainian children, like all that is happening, taking into account the fact that all this is secret, but what is known, the journey of children from russia, from the occupied ukrainian territories to ukraine can last several days, and several weeks, it depends on where... the children are, i spoke with children, from volnovakha , who were recently returned, and for almost a week they were going home through the whole of russia, through belarus, which is here in this huge journey of many thousands of kilometers, the role of katava, when the children, their companions, for example, relatives

who went after them , are in the territory russia, then qatar assumes the role of security guarantor, and they take these children under guard and accompany them to a certain point where... then they hand them over to international organizations, for example, the red cross. this was the case with tatyana, olya and veronika, these are three girls who did not see their mother for two years, and only recently in december they were able to meet again, and the convicts brought them to moscow, there they were in the embassy of the convicts in russia, they met with the ambassador, as they said, they ate croissants with caviar, very nice and fun talked to the diplomats, they were not afraid, but... on a qatari plane they flew from moscow to minsk, to belarus, and from belarus they were already driving cars to the border with ukraine, that is, usually the transfer to ukraine itself and to relatives takes place at the border, but before that, this whole trip through russia, they

are accompanied and helped by various international organizations, and part of this journey is accompanied and paid for by qatar, yes, well , fortunately, probably because of their age, the children... do not understand the full seriousness of the situation, why only qatar publicly helps ukraine return the children? how did the sources tell me in ukrainian? many arab countries are trying to enter this process, that is , they are trying to come to an agreement with russia in order to influence and russia returned the children, unfortunately, so far only one country has been able to do this publicly, so kater found this approach, other countries are not yet involved in this process were, as the ukrainian obmuzment dmytro lubinets says, ukraine only for this process to be involved as much as possible. other countries, a large conference devoted to the return of deported children was recently held in kyiv.

ukraine speaks about this at all possible international platforms, raises awareness in the world about this problem, that these are kidnapped children, they must be returned, they have relatives here. and so, unfortunately, so far only qatar is the only country that can do this, that finds some levers of influence in russia and for something, probably for some of its interests. this is what diana is doing, well, here is literally one more such question at the end, qatar is a world-famous negotiator, and not only between ukraine and russia, between the usa and the taliban, and so on, i wonder why this is catarrh, children in exchange for what? and qatar all the time publicly says that such a mission is noble, and they care about security and peace. in the world itself, this is a humanitarian place, to help support ukraine in this war, like that, to return children, but

experts, experts of the east, of middle eastern relations, they say that of course everyone here, each of the parties has its own interests, and unfortunately , children and the problem of deported ukrainian children in this case is such a subject of large, global international certain trades, when the country... makes a certain a concession to russia, russia makes a certain concession to qatar, as a result they give children to ukraine, and ukraine says that we are not to blame for our children, this is a quote from ukrainian obmetsmen dmytro lubinets. but there are certain agreements between qatar and russia, perhaps qatar will then help russia to make new negotiations, if russia invites to negotiations, and perhaps also... there will be some concessions in the economic sphere, in investments, that is why it is such a difficult

issue economically, geopolitically, but as a result, unfortunately, children become such a currency in a good way, because well they helped bring the children home, return 30 children, this is a very big help, and everyone in ukraine is definitely very grateful for that. yes, diana, we are grateful to you for the story, for this conversation. diana koryshko, a bbc correspondent, was in touch with us, so how did you know this situation. explains ilya kusa, an expert from the ukrainian future institute , let's listen: the main trump card that kateru has is that they maintained neutrality regarding the war in ukraine, did not introduce sanctions against russia, did not condemn their invasion, thereby allowing them to maintain political contacts with the russian leadership, and thus they are a go-between for both the russians and for... us qatar it gives status and reputation,

they get status by being included in the negotiations, the mediation efforts that are related to the war ukraine and russia, and this gives them a reputation, because the issue of children, protection of children, exchanges, exchanges, well, in principle, any humanitarian interventions, is always a plus, so for katoru, this is... an image story, not bad enough, well, plus again, they just use, they trade their trump card, it is relations with russia and ukraine, in order to show its usefulness in the international arena. the main process in which they are, in which qatar still plays a very important role as a mediator, is the war between israel and hamas. for many years, in principle , qatar has played an intermediary role between these two parties. in principle, the recipe is the same, they have political ties both with

israel, with the israeli special services, and with the islamists hamas, whom they supported and financed at one time. and that's all for today, see you tomorrow. president bai calls putin a crazy son of a bitch. meanwhile, the situation on the ukrainian-polish border is getting more difficult every day, and this is all on the eve, on the eve of the difficult date of the next handouts, invasion, full-scale

invasion of the russian federation on the territory of ukraine. and this week, in fact, we are already talking about... the 10th year of the russian-ukrainian war, which is happening in the world, there is a feeling that we are standing on the threshold of very serious upheavals, we will talk about this openly today, as the president promised zelensky, who will hold on sunday this open, frank, honest line is spoken by velikiy lviv on the air of the project. we say good evening to everyone. congratulations to everyone who joined us, we ask you to immediately subscribe to the youtube channel great lviv speaks, if you have not already done so. also like this video, if you watch us on youtube, and if you watch us on tv, then stay with us during this broadcast, because there will be interesting guests, we start with vitaly portnikov, journalist, writer, tv presenter, publicist and political commentator, i am by us, good evening, mr. vitaly, sir vitaliy, the first question for you is, in general

, where, where are we going, well, it is clear that everything is getting worse every day and... getting worse, but there is a certain feeling that now this cup, if it overflows and after that a third one begins world war, well, it is almost complete, and these frank statements of biden regarding putin, today's information from transnistria that they will ask to be included in the russian federation, we all remember that the full-scale invasion of the russian federation on ukrainian territory started right after. when the ldnr , so-called, so-called and dnr were included in the russian federation, well , you know, there is such an impression, there is such an expression by shuher, but really, perhaps not quite televised, not quite literary, but there is a feeling that we are standing on his doorstep, well, let's not engage in alarmism, president biden has repeatedly spoken quite harshly with

the assessments of such people as vladimir putin or xi jinping. this is his signature style, and by the way, many were initially confused by president biden calling dictators dictators, however, if biden had not been biden, it is obvious that the situation with aid to ukraine would have been different from the side of the american administration, so i do not see anything so extraordinary that is happening, this is the first moment, regarding the possible annexation of transnistria i to the russian federation, the so-called accession, well, first of all, it hasn't happened yet, it's just a forecast. we will wait for the so-called congress of people's deputies of all levels of the so-called transnistrian moldavian republic on february 28 and what decisions will be made there will be adopted, and what decisions will be adopted later in moscow. it is worth simply realizing that in fact the situation in transnistria is not good, but bad for russia, because in fact, after the start of the war, this region

is completely separated from any possibility of russia's influence, and if they really go for... some kind of annexation, let's put it this way, formally, yes, then it will be annexation from viccha, and not from annexation from the possibility, because they can, of course , write anything on their geographical map, but i want to remind you that from the point of view of russian maps and kherson and zaporizhzhia are part of the russian federation, and in order for this to become real, for them to exercise actual control, these regions must first be conquered, i am not sure that even the formal annexation of transnistria will seriously change the situation in the region, perhaps, on the contrary, it will speed up reunification on the territory of the republic of moldova, so i would not be in a hurry to talk about the third world war, at least these are definitely not signs of it, you really calmed us down, but if we talk about transnistria, odesa and in context

the last interview, well, also a person who, judging by everything, is not quite... let's say, in an adequate condition, i don't want to say that he is in a crazy state, medvedev's interview, where he said that odessa had already waited, and here, even purely geographically , it fits into a certain puzzle, well, if it fits into a certain puzzle, then you have to admit that the president of the bears is in complete mental health, knows exactly what he is talking about, i'm saying not quite adequate in terms of reality , you are absolutely right if we imagine that it is the so-called transnistrian-moldavian republic becomes. object of the russian federation, then there is a need for a corridor like, say, that was created from the annexed crimea to rostov. but i remind you again, such a corridor was planned without any connection. transnistria to russia. as early as 2022, the general headquarters of the armed forces of the russian federation called odessa among the entire russian army and talked about the desire to go to transnistria. wanting to create

a corridor and creating a corridor are completely different things. and as you understand, war continues we don't know how it will develop in the coming years, we don't know what offensives, retreats, losses, successes of the parties there will be, this is a war, it is not foreseen. we understand what the goals are. war , of course odesa, like kyiv, like all other ukrainian cities, is an important strategic goal of russia, both president putin and former president medvedev spoke sincerely about this many times, they wanted to join the territory of our country, like other former soviet republics, to russia , but i apologize that i am new to you i tell you, if you look at the political history of 1920, you will see exactly the same after. the occupation of the ukrainian people's republic and the creation of the ukrainian ssr , the so-called, all independent states created in the post-soviet space literally fell like dominoes, the so-called

radinization took place in armenia, azerbaijan and georgia, belarus was also one of the first to fall, and already in 1992, in 1922 it was created the soviet union is headed by vladimir lenin, so in principle we see that putin is absolutely persistent, without any special changes carries out... this very program, it is not new, it is a program that i would call a program of the remake of the soviet union, i believe that it is absolutely correct from the point of view of the empire to first conquer ukraine, because it is an exit to the borders of european countries, because it's an industrial base, because it's additional opportunities for agriculture, because it's a large population that can put up resistance, and after that it's easy to solve the problem of other ex- soviet countries politically, even without tanks. we are in 2030, if we remember about documents of the kremlin, we have the russian federation , or whatever it will be called in the borders of the ussr, vladimir putin's dream has been fulfilled, but

again, in order for this to become a reality, we must first win the war, we must have the territories of ukraine, from uzhgorod to luhansk and kharkiv was under the control of russian troops, if you and i look at how long, let's say, the assault was carried out. or avdiivka, and how many russian servicemen will not return home after these assaults, then let's just try to multiply the number of russian military personnel for the number of all those cities that need to be taken, i am not talking now about the liberation of our territory, i am talking about its capture, and let's ask ourselves realistically, and russia definitely has such a number of people, i understand that if they took the place , one city in one day, if they had a blitzkrieg at... which they ate so much, they could talk about it, of course, russia has every opportunity to continue the war with ukraine for many years. i

never received this from anyone, i always said: prepare for the syrian conflict type, but i immediately say something else: there are no opportunities to occupy the entire territory of ukraine in russia, well, there are some opportunities, there are no other opportunities, well, this is just such a reality, and i think that, by the way, the kremlin knows about this reality no worse than me, because again i am absolutely sure. in the normal mental state of both president vladimir putin and dmitry medvedev and all other russian leaders, they pretend to be crazy in order to negotiate with them faster, because you know, when you fight like that , there is a huge desire to somehow you to agree so that you calm down, but i know for sure that i am not crazy and they are not crazy, these are people who are cold-blooded, they know even less about themselves, because it is still necessary to obtain medical certificates, and they, i think, go through the appropriate general psychiatrists , at least i'd like to hope so, and they just know for sure that if you give the impression of a maniac, then you make

them want to calm you down as soon as possible, to agree on at least everything, something, so that you don't push the button, well they use it, they use us fear, in particular about nuclear weapons , medvedev also spoke, we can look at this quote: attempts to return russia to the borders of 1991 will only lead to a global war with western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state, in kiev, berlin, london, washington, over all the other beautiful historical sites that have long been included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad. well, of course we understand that this is intimidation and what they have been doing for two years now in their full-scale assault on including ukraine. but mr. vitaly, i want to ask. and what has changed in them lately, because it's been a week since we learned about navalny's death, it's interesting

to understand... to what extent this death was part of the kremlin's plans, do you think? i think that included, of course, i think that they already sentenced navalny to death a long time ago, the question of when they wanted to destroy him there, at this moment, at another, but this is in general a completely programmed event, and what about nuclear weapons, then i'll tell you too, well again, as you know, i also never ruled out the possibility of russia using nuclear weapons from a moral point of view, because i told you that these people will stop at nothing from a moral point of view, but again , in order to use nuclear weapons , this also needs to be understood, you can’t just come to the office, take a suitcase and press a button, you need to start testing nuclear weapons again, this in principle has not happened for many years in a row, you need to conduct a demonstration launch of a nuclear weapons, this also does not happen, so before the actual use of nuclear weapons. so far

, quite a while, if it will be applied at all. then i would like to remind you that unlike medvedev, president putin has been saying all the time that lately, that nuclear weapons cannot be used, that there is no winner in a nuclear war, he said this recently in an interview with the american to the commentator toker carlson, i think that this is the position that he takes today, taking into account the position of the chinese people's republic, of course, that this application. there is a lot now, even in our comments, it constantly appears that why do we discuss the russian federation so much, well, because the enemy must be analyzed, and i think that vitaly portnikov is the one to do it very and very effectively, because mr. vitaly understands in the intricacies of local politics and can predict, if we talk about the situation inside the state, president zelensky

announced a big one for sunday. conference, but it is not completely clear, there is no word there press conference, but there will be a conference , obviously it will be public , where will be, well, as zelenskyi's press secretary, mr. nikiferov, said, all the heads of state, all the military who are responsible for the situation, i will not ask you what they will say there, because well, we have to wait, and what do you expect from this conference, why should it become important, will it become important, because it will start first, it will be the first... day of the third year of the great war in europe, not only in ukraine. you know, i think that i and president zelensky have a different vision of how certain events should be treated. that is, let's say, no, i don't use any dates as a reason for dialogue, i believe that the reason for dialogue should be a real event, president zelensky generally has such a tendency, perhaps connected

with his previous place of work. as we know, he appointed a holiday there for the day when the russian attack on ukraine did not take place, but was supposed to take place according to the reports of the western media, but now we practically do not remember this day, because the attack took place a few days and a half days after that, he, i would say, he is known for his willingness to use the informational excuse as possible. to communicate with compatriots in one format or another, i don't know how intelligently i expressed myself, of course, it can be considered such a habit, but in general, frankly, as you know, i do not listen to the words of politicians, because i have repeatedly emphasized that you need to believe in deeds, not words, well, there will be a conference, well, the leaders of the country will speak.

the president will speak, but it is not important that they they will say in war conditions, the important thing is whether we can defend our territory realistically, whether we can liberate populated areas of ukraine, what the russians can do, we will learn about everything from the reports of the general staff of the armed forces of the russian federation, if we liberate this or that populated area , we will gain a foothold on some line or, on the contrary , we will lose a settlement or we will not be able to hold a foothold on any line, we will find out about it, these are real. things, real events, i always urged ukrainians to follow events, not words, not to pay attention no promises, because a person can promise you some things based on the picture of reality that has formed in his head, and this picture of reality may not correspond to the reality itself, nor to the competence of that person, but we are human, it happens to people , who have significant colonial experience, i would say, experience without responsibility for their own

fate, for the fate of their own... countries, they love by ear.