of our defenders - this is exactly what is happening all over the country now. a minute of silence for all those killed in the russian-ukrainian war. let's observe a moment of silence in memory of the ukrainian military and civilian citizens of ukraine who died in the war started by russia.

winding is the freedom of the mornings, my name is kateryna nekrecha, and in this morning's stream we talk about the following topics: today is the day of crimean resistance to the russian occupation. 10 years ago , many thousands of protests took place in simferopol. the crimeans came out in support of the territorial goal. how about ukraine? has crimea changed during these years of occupation and when is return possible? russia is preparing a counteroffensive for the end of may, the beginning of summer, volodymyr zelenskyi said and called the third year of a full-scale war a turning point. what military forecasts did the president make, will ukraine have the full support of its western partners this year, why did zelenskyi make figures about the dead? let's discuss the main theses of the president and their consequences. russian forces occupied lastochkina, state analysts reported. the armed forces

say that they withdrew to the western outskirts of this settlement, where they were occupied by trained personnel defensive positions. what is the situation in donetsk region, we will ask the military. in the meantime , please write in your comments, your questions and what topics you consider important this morning, be sure to like and subscribe to the radio liberty channel. hard days near avdiivka. this is how deep state analysts describe the situation near this city and they say. that the day before russian troops advanced on the steppe west of the city, broke through to berdich, tried to gain a foothold in the outermost houses of orlivka and on the outskirts of tonenko, and also had partial success near severny. earlier , dibstate reported that the russian army occupied the village of lastochkine to the northwest near avdiyivka. however, in the operational-strategic grouping of tavriy troops, they say that the ukrainian military has moved to the western outskirts of the village and started preparations. dmytro

lykhova, the spokesman for kos in tavriy, said this in a comment to ukrainian pravda. lykhovii says that hellish battles are going on with the use of guided bombs, artillery and drones on the positions of the ukrainian military. in the general staff of ukraine report on 25 repulsed attacks in the avdiyiv direction, in the russian ministry of defense they talk about the occupied more advantageous positions in this direction. serhii tsykhodskyi, an officer of the 59th creamery, joins our broadcast. voluntary brigade named after yakov hantsyuk. i welcome you to our broadcast. thank you for joining. congratulations. glory to ukraine. glory to heroes. what do you know at the moment, what can you say, who is currently in control of lastochkina, whether it is occupied, or whether russian forces have not yet managed to gain a foothold there. well, for now i will say that the battles are going on, and something will be announced on the air not desirable but so that you understand, and everyone who watches. listens to us, that there is no

so-called generalization of our forces, there is a correct, competent retreat, exhaustion of the enemy, you understand that when the enemy advances, and at the same time we destroy them in large numbers, including destroying equipment, that’s all one thing is her tactics of fighting, and she wins on our side. that's why you don't need to panic , the most important thing is to preserve the life and health of the personnel, including the enemy , little by little, we will defeat him anyway to destroy and not give them the opportunity to carry out the main tasks of the swallows for that, well, of course, this is our settlement, the earth , but it is more important to win this war, and not some short battle there and put thousands of

people on the council there, well, how did they do it in avdiivka, and the russian forces including the life and health of the personnel, and the enemy is slowly, slowly, we will destroy him anyway... we will destroy him and not give them the opportunity to perform the main tasks of the swallow, it is clear that this is a haunted point, understood that this our land, but it is more important to win this one a war, not a short battle there and put thousands of people on the council there, well, how did they do it in avdiivka, and the russian forces continue to advance, but after the occupation of avdiivka, how can they be stopped at all, is there a resource for this in... . not in the amount that we would like, we, as military personnel, always want more, but i want to say that the enemy has really increased the number of storm operations only in the direction of our brigade, for example, in the last day,

our position was carried out 17 assaults, on previous, previous days and nights per day it was the biggest. there are seven or eight, then in the last day 17 and yesterday they were already on the battlefield, there were probably eight units of heavy armored vehicles, there were bmp tanks, well, it says that something is supporting them, they understand that we are still building up our forces, they understand that we will still have the amount of weapons that we will hear the greater number of them, that is why they are in a hurry, and so, i will say this, that the forces of the units of our brigade were destroyed, this yesterday, only a tank, bmp, three, three tanks were damaged, and three more bmps

damaged, and somewhere close, well, about 50 occupiers were neutralized as well, well, that's killed and wounded together, and this happens every day. ugh, mr. serhiy, have defensive positions for the armed forces of ukraine been prepared in this direction? because in social networks , we sometimes read complaints, they say, battles have been going on near avdiyivka for 10 years, and enough trenches have not been prepared, what can you say about that? i can say that during the entire period of our stay in the same donetsk direction, we always worked, that is, our engineering services are the people who there, well, the servicemen who were not involved in combat... operations, were engaged in fortifications, reserve positions, always, it was to build logistics, some roads were even built there where they were impassable and so on, that's why it happens all the time

, and to say in general that we don’t have anything , nothing is ready, well, you can’t say that, for this there are special services in each, in each brigade in the same one, who are engaged in this, including the administration that helps us there local and so on, so whatever i can to say on this topic, mr. serhiy, what can you say, so in conclusion, about the goal of the russian forces in the avdiyiv direction, they want to take larger cities there, which you can name, perhaps the settlements there, selidove, kurakhovo, pokrovsky, where the russian forces are currently targeting ? oh, they have a goal, what a goal crazy people can have, they made the very first mistake. when they attacked our country in general, they entered our land with weapons in their hands, it was their mistake, and therefore, remembering the history, knowing the history, i will not say that i am great there historian, but i have read a lot, i will say that kyivan

rus was kyivan rus, not moscow rus, not novgorod rus, and so on, and we, no matter how much they anger us , so that we do not take away those lands that historically on... once belonged to kievan rus, that is why their great historian putin is in quotation marks, and i am not talking about those who are his, putinists, who listen to him very carefully, and believe that this is true, read history , russians, and you will be fine. thank you, mr. sergey, for joining our broadcast. serhii tsyhotskyi, officer of the 59th separate motorized infantry unit brigade named after yakov handyuk, was a guest of svoboda ranok. ukraine year two. at the forum with the same name, president zelenskyy gave a big press conference the day before, where for the first time since the large-scale war, he named the number of losses of the ukrainian military and announced the upcoming counteroffensive. my colleague oleg galev collected the main statements of the ukrainian president. oleg, congratulations, tell us what the journalists asked

president zelensky and what were his answers? hello, katya, greetings to the viewers of radio svoboda. zelensky's communication with journalists lasted almost two hours. they talked, as expected, about the war and international support, and one of the most discussed answers of president zelensky was the number of announced losses of ukraine in the war. 31. a thousand ukrainians died, soldiers died in this war, not 300 thousand, not 150 thousand that putin lies behind his lying circle, but nevertheless, each of these losses is a big loss for us. russians, 180 thousand of them died. zelenskyi added that together with the wounded , the losses of the russian forces reach half a million

people this information did not remain without a reaction in moscow. the official spokeswoman of the russian ministry of foreign affairs, maria zakharova , wrote in her telegram that i quote: every citizen of ukraine, first of all, every military officer, understands that zelensky is lying. he said that for zelensky, citizens are not people, but units that can be used to get more western money. she did not comment on the number of russian losses. zelensky also commented. the counteroffensive of the armed forces of ukraine, which, according to observers, did not give the desired results and stated that the military command of ukraine has a clear war plan for 2024, but the details will not be disclosed, the main thing is to have a plan, and this plan exists, i will not be able to tell you the details of this plan, i will explain to you, to be honest, speaking between us, the fewer people know the plans of the ukrainian army , the sooner it will be... a victory and an unexpected result for the russians, and i will tell you frankly: our counteroffensive

actions last fall were on the kremlin's table before the counteroffensive actions began. continuing the topic, the ukrainian president announced a complicated both politically and financially, march and april, and also talked about a new probable counteroffensive by russian forces, for which he says ukraine will also prepare. russia will prepare counter-offensive actions at the beginning of summer or at the end of may, if they can, they will prepare, we will prepare for their battle, their battle, which began on october 8, did not bring any results, i believe that we, on our part, will prepare our plan and we will follow them at turning points. there will be elections in the united states of america. regarding international support, in particular from the usa,

according to zelensky, there is hope for the american congress, on which the aid package for ukraine depends, but support from washington is needed within a month. zelensky also believes that ukraine will receive long-range missiles. radio liberty president steven kapus asked zelensky whether his definition of victory has changed over two years of large-scale war. and this is what the ukrainian president answered. alternatives for ukraine and ukrainians than to win security for themselves, and it must be guaranteed, and it must be guaranteed, and i am not shooting here our responsibility with us, internal security, a very strong army, as long as we are not in nato, as well as security guarantees from our partners, guarantees that any return of russian aggression... on the territory of ukraine, as long as we are not in the alliance, they must protect us.

zelenskyi also spoke about the blockade of the border with ukraine by polish farmers , saying that politics and internal struggle in poland should be sought there, and it is unfair to use ukraine to put pressure on european institutions, but preserving the union with poland is important for kyiv, zelenskyi added. katya thank you oleg, oleg galiv, with the main statements from volodymyr zelenskyi's press conference, which we will now discuss. on our broadcast, i also casually remind all our viewers that you can comment and write your questions, most importantly to those speakers whom we invited to discuss this topic, under the video on the radio liberty channel, please write your comments, further to mykhailo podolyak, adviser to the head of the president's office, joins our broadcast, mr. mykhailo, i welcome you to our broadcast, thank you for joining, yes, good morning, and about the fact that russia is preparing a counteroffensive at the end of may, the beginning of summer, volodymyr zelenskyi said and also named the third. full-scale war is a turning point, what is kyiv preparing for, what are realistic

expectations, given the situation, including with the help of western partners? i would single out three directions: the first is a clearer understanding together with partners of the mathematical formula of war, this is about the resource, about the accumulation of those other means of waging war, this is the first, taking into account the fact that you just said that in may, there april may be certain actions, strengthening actions on the part of the russians, of course. how they will fight, i mean, they have already shown it since october 2023, that today they do not have any creation, there are only quantitative indicators that they will, well, whether to increase or just press on certain directions and... for that , in order to effectively work against this, you need a resource not there at the end of the 25th, for example, the year, yes, but today the appropriate resource is meant, a projectile is meant, after all, a long- range missile is meant, after all, aviation is meant , these three components, this is the key thing that we and our partners still have to speed up and manufacture and supply to ukraine, this is the first, the second, of course, in order to effectively counter russia, we saw it in

the southern direction, if you attack them , then it will definitely cause certain actions from them. side, well, that is, they will not be able to concentrate the resource in certain directions, but will be forced to move it and in this way, well, weaken their defense, thus offensive, certain offensive actions on the part of ukraine are also necessary, and by the way, at the same yesterday's summit before the president's press conference, the heads of the ministry of defense, mr. omera, he said that a plan, a certain plan has already been prepared, it will definitely be corrected there, certain amendments will be made to it, but for today there is ... what should be done in 2024, and the third component is our own production or joint production, meaning military, today we are talking only about war, military production, which can be enough, already large-scale, it is meant, first of all, again, drone production, they are the simplest from the point of view of how to build them there, more complex are missile or projectile production, because this is a certain

dependence on the global market, on those components that must be sought on the global market , but everything that concerns... of course ukraine can achieve good enough indicators so that it somehow compensates for our deficits on the front line, that is , you know, yesterday two types of emphasis were clearly placed, the first is all that was it has been done for the 23rd year, that is, what achievements we have regarding this, it is meant, see, as an example, today we have such a concept of a closed sky, so it is not yet ideal, of course, and it is clear that when we are talking about such a territory as ukraine , it is impossible to build here... perfect closed sky model, but still this year is significantly different from last winter, certainly critical facilities are protected, certainly would like to have a little more system, again the president talked about it yesterday because it would would allow more effective work on the front line, well should be called the same patriots, which would have been clearly proven even by the latest events

surrounding russian aviation, tactical aviation, that this would significantly affect the course of events on the front line, and this... just another task, that is, significantly increase the ability to destroy russian tactical aircraft or attack aircraft, attack rotorcraft along the front line, well, that is, the second direction is what will be necessary to do in the 24th year, again i will say very briefly about it, the first is an audit of the armed forces , what are the resources in that including how many mobilized people are currently in the army, do they all work accordingly within the framework of their competences, the second component is the accumulation of resources with partners who... after all, they stopped talking, well, it means, they understand everything that concerns the war, the war, but still the bureaucracy does not allow to receive the agreed amount of weapons in a timely manner, it was still desirable to receive it in a timely manner, and the third component - this is an absolutely clear understanding that everyone must have, and we must continue to work on this , what with

it is impossible for the russian federation to agree on some kind of end to the war there, and even more so on a just peace, so it is still necessary to press the russian federation. the president said, mentioning the 10 patriots as an example and some other types of weapons, he said that they are not enough for the end of defense in the russian federation, but they say that there is no such thing, he said, because not everyone needs it, or it is not, or it is impossible, or it is ahead, this is the phrase, because not everyone needs it, or someone from western partners and is still afraid of the complete defeat of russia in ukraine, who are they, can you roughly name whether they are key partners of ukraine. how does official kyiv communicate on this topic in general, what is it betting on, what is its position, what is the necessary scheme that should be offered to western partners so that they are not so much afraid of the disintegration of russia there, as they would like the complete victory of ukraine. you are asking the right question, but it is too difficult a question, because everyone somehow says that,

there is germany, and it also has one opinion, no, germany is a democracy, yes, there are many different parties, they they discuss among themselves there, i mean, not even parties, but individual political groups within the same parties, there is the cdu or the social democrats, they cannot even find an understanding among themselves, because you are absolutely right: psychologically, europe, or even not europe, but more broadly, the western world is still not ready for, let's say, the defeat of russia, they are still not ready to give up the fear that has been accumulated there for decades, yes, well, that is, that russia is a big country that should be feared because it has the appropriate... military resources there and it will direct these resources to the escalation of the war there and so on, this is a very difficult issue, it is difficult to explain why, because, the further you are from the war, the less immediate you have. emotions, the feeling of war, that it is unfair when you want to agree on something with russia, as was the case after the georgian war or after the first invasion of ukraine, well, on a smaller scale, but meanwhile, in

the 14th year, that it is not possible to agree on tolerating potential killers, not everyone is ready to admit three things, it is meant in the west, it is again not that a specific country, certain political groups in, who are discussing, who have influences, and behind-the -scenes influences, and public influences, they work with the media, they also say, well, probably , after all, global politics is a policy of compromises, we have to look for, we have to take into account the interests of russia, and here it is very necessary to correctly explain that this is not about the interests of russia, not about compromises, it is exactly about returning to certain rules, to the international rights, if we will speak a little primitively, to international law, because you cannot pretend that a country violates all the basic, let's say, rules of modern civilization, and at the same time you want to expect some predictable behavior from it. it will not be like that, but we need to work and explain it to our partners that escalation is not the end of the war on ukraine's terms in ukraine, that is, if

the russian federation is allowed not to respond, and you understand that if russia does not lose this war, it is not responsible for either crimes, not for breaking international law and so on, this will necessarily mean the escalation of war, why, because the russian federation will not exist in any other way than war, in any format, but definitely russia will want to wage hot wars , why... because it will accumulate a sufficiently huge number of military components, there will be a large number of mobilized people who you will not be able to employ in russia, you must understand that russia today is not a country where you can easily find yourself working places, to make careers and so on, unlike the career in russia today in the model that putin built in the last, especially two years, these are careers precisely because of participation in the murder of citizens of other countries, then you can become someone in russia federation, you will be the heroes of svo, as they say and so on, we explain it to partners, but i will emphasize it once again. partners who are far from ukraine do not emotionally feel the war, they think that it is possible to return to pre-war times, because then russia was sufficiently effective, corrupt, business

worked with these partners, then they understand that, well, they understand that russia is a big country, it has a lot of resources, and it can survive this war, well, that is, look, they want to invest in the development of their countries, i mean the country's partners , be that as it may, they are not as corrupt, to put it mildly, as russia, and they are ... that russia will invest in the development of its country, and not spend resources on war, because resources on war means minus the development of their countries, but russia, on the contrary, wants to invest in the war, and not in the development of the country, they do not fully realize this. and thirdly, you are absolutely right, these are the remnants of fear of the russian federation, of the army of the russian federation, despite the fact that for two years the reputation of the russian military-industrial complex has been practically destroyed, even despite the fact that in two years russia has lost a significant share of trade there ... . the arms market, because the weapons, well, none , let’s be honest, but their large number, but they are not none, not only that russia has lost the reputation of the army, which can quickly destroy anyone there, well, two years of war in

to ukraine, this is despite the fact that the level and index of militarization as such was definitely completely different in ukraine, but even this does not affect everything, they continue to be afraid of the russian federation, and let's not forget the fourth, unfortunately, and you are working correctly with this, you explain that russia still corrupts certain elites. cultural, informational elites, political, business elites, large programs of demotivation, demoralization of western elites continue to be invested, well, that is , these are all so-called, you know what i like most today, when i read geopolitical talk about what it will look like, these are all strange geopolitical constructions that are being considered, that we can agree on such and such conditions of existence, coexistence in europe, no, but what, what, what should ukraine do, what should they do, not only by the way, ukraine is doing this, what should be done... the countries that advocate our positions, and these are practically all the countries of eastern europe, with the exception of two countries there and so on, they just explain to their partners that look, we cannot return twice to the same river,

and we will not participate in it, because the russian federation will either get everything, or it will gain dominance over europe, because the project to destroy ukraine is only an entry project for dominating europe, or we will, in principle, return stability to europe , predictability and most importantly. it will be clearly recorded what kind of future we have with you, ugh, mykhailo, zelenskyi said that the plan for the counteroffensive of ukraine in the 23rd year, unfortunately, was known to the russians, that before it began, the president said so, and about the new counteroffensive will know only because of this several people in the state, and it is about the fact that someone at the top leaked this information to the enemy, or what? no, no, no, well, of course, this, this, it is not for me to comment on what level the information was leaked, the president says that... if you have a wide range of people involved in working out, then at any level at the level , there may be a flow of information to, well, to the opponent to the russian federation not only

at the top, because the stake... the president, by the way, explained about this that the stake is big enough, there are a large number of people, after that, i will discuss these plans there, if you only have one, let’s put it this way, if you have only one master plan there, it is discussed in detail there and then at different levels, then from any level this information can go to the russian federation , they will understand, for example, if it was about the 23rd year, they will understand that there is a master plan, the concentration of the resource will be only in this direction, no other plans there or plans that will mislead or. indeed, there are no additional plans, and then russia could concentrate, as it did, for example, on the zaporizhzhia region, and in principle built significant defense systems there as such, the president says that we will be a little more careful, we will be understanding, you know what we are talking about, after all, let's go for two for years, the security service of ukraine has been actively detecting, i wouldn't say that these are even agents, but people who cooperate with the russian federation, with the special services

of the russian federation at various... levels, it's not only there the grassroots level of the so-called gunners, but what give work for example, of the russian artillery in kharkov, living in kharkov, and so on, these are also people who merge these or other documents in various institutions, unfortunately , i emphasize once again, we really had an extensive system of relations, such secret relations with the russian federation, even despite the fact that there has been a war since the 14th year, counter-intelligence is not so good, unfortunately, it worked again in order to detect all these networks, well... you understand, even pro-russian parties existed in us, which were engaged in frank , open lobbying russian positions, the informational component was pro-russian, even after the 14th year and so on and so on, and today there are certainly still a certain number of people at various levels who may be oriented towards the russian federation in one way or another, this needs to be worked on, and today, the maluk service does it quite efficiently, there are detentions there every day, but still, you will not be able to destroy these people in a day, two, or three, who

are a little strange, yes. and the president says that today it will be a little different look, there will be not one plan, but many plans of plans, including those that will not correspond to reality, because that is how it should be done, and that they will not be discussed on the air, it is clear that they will not be discussed in a wide circle , that it will all look a little different, certain conclusions have been drawn from the previous counteroffensive, mr. mykhailo, i still want a few wishes literally from journalists for the future, more meetings with ukrainian journalists will probably not be ofrek, because there are many internal issues. which is possible uninteresting and incomprehensible to western journalists there, but nevertheless they are important, and perhaps it is not necessary to take away the microphone from the journalists in order for all the clarifications to be heard as well. thank you for joining our broadcast. mykhailo podulyak, adviser to the president's office, was a guest of svoboda ranok. we will continue to discuss the theses voiced by president zelensky. you write in the comments what you would like to hear from the president, what you did not hear, we

will discuss all this with a political scientist. ihor reiterovych joined our broadcast, sir igor, i welcome you to our broadcast, thank you for joining. congratulations. so, in your opinion, if we take a general look at these two hours, these theses expressed by the president, about which, perhaps, the society was warned, for example, the phrase there about a decisive year, about a turning point, about the fact that the offensive of the forces of the russian federation will be, is this a certain such preparation of society? well, this is more of a statement of fact, i think that our society actually knows about it and hears it. from different, let's say, sources, it's important that it was announced by the president, it's really, you know, such a step that somewhat distinguishes this press conference from the previous ones, that is, here the president is against the background, by the way, of the great optimism of his predecessors, well, the government officials who spoke, he looked more restrained and said that it would be quite difficult, there are certain challenges, with these something needs to be done about the challenges, and there is a corresponding plan, ukraine is trying to implement it, but it is clear that we need support, including from western

allies , from... , which are connected with mobilization, and the processes that are generally connected with the repulsion of russian aggression, with those discussions that arise to a certain extent in the information space, that is, the president tried to somehow cover all these topics, to go through such broad strokes, somewhere he succeeded, somewhere i think not very much, or due to lack of time, or including a possible option due to the absence. well , there was some understandable single position that he was ready to voice, so certain questions, they remained somewhere, but in general , it seems to me that it was the right one after all step and the press conference, she gave, gave answers to several important questions that worried the society, well, to what extent the society was satisfied with these answers, this is a separate topic, because i think that being enough.