see you in 15 minutes, stay with espresso. the united states senate is considering a long-awaited aid package for ukraine, the delay of which has saved ukrainian forces on the front lines. so what exactly... when the western aid will change, the next 15 minutes of the bbc broadcast live from london, jafer umerov is working in the studio. it has already been six months since the us started talking about this $60 billion aid package to ukraine. a little background. last october , president biden sent a request for funding to ukraine and israel. then he is it explained as a smart investment in america's security. but then.

republican speaker-elect mike johnson did not bring the package to congress for a vote. a tussle began, in which donald trump played a huge role. well , johnson constantly had to balance between different wings of the republicans and trumpists in particular. and in this way, the ukrainian issue became a hostage of trump's presidential campaign, which actually started then. and finally, on april 20, after long negotiations and debates, the house of representatives of the us congress approved the aid package. 311 congressmen voted for it, against - 112, and in this way they brought the delivery of critically important aid to ukraine closer. the decision, which must be approved by the senate and signed by president biden, but washington plans to do so in the near future. so where will the money go? it is worth reminding that this package worth more than 95 billion dollars includes not only aid to kyiv, but also to telaviev, taiwan, and financing of

of the united states. the ukrainian package provides for a share in the amount of more than 60 billion dollars. this is help to ukraine and regional partners to counter russia. the lion's share of this money will be mastered by the american military-industrial complex. it is almost 50 billion. in ukraine, this package is called historic, which will save the lives of both civilians and military personnel. and at the moment, the aid package is being considered by the us senate. and we talk more about this with maria ulyanovska, a correspondent of the ukrainian voice of america service. maria, i congratulate you, when should we expect a vote in the senate, because the democrats have a majority there, unlike the house representatives, there will be no delays? greetings to you, greetings to our viewers, indeed, the senate is voting right now, but the voting is not on the substance of this bill, it is a procedural vote where the senators will decide whether they will... consider this entire

combined package of bills that passed the house of representatives on saturday, which includes aid to ukraine, will they consider it on the fast track, without debate, then it is likely that this package, if approved, will be approved already today in the senate, if they do decide to proceed to the debate, then it is expected that the senators will have up to 30 hours for this debate, that is, until 9 pm tomorrow on wednesday, and so far it looks like ... it is not known which will be the results of the vote, but it is known that the result of the vote on ukraine will be predictable, because this bill to help ukraine has by far the overwhelming support of the senators, just as it was voted in the house of representatives by an overwhelming majority of congressmen, and we have now spoken to various by senators, republicans who previously did not support this big joint bailout bill.

partners, which included aid to ukraine, which the senate voted on back in february, and then they said that this bill did not suit them, and now the same senators, the republicans, say that they are ready to vote for this aid package, because it is this compromise decision and includes such provisions that the republicans wanted to see in this draft law, in particular, it refers to the provision of economic assistance to ukraine in a loan, and increased control over this aid. leaders from both parties in the senate and the republic. have already supported this bill, the senators are not at the finish line and need , in particular, majority leader chuck schumer said to provide assistance to partners as soon as possible, and republican minority representative mitch mccone said that he called the passage of this bill urgent and said that it is the senate's turn to make history . let's listen to them. it's time to wrap things up and help our friends abroad. and

forever, i asked my colleagues to unite, to approve additional aid as soon as possible today, to send our friends abroad as soon as possible the aid they have been waiting for for so long. let's not be. delay it, let's not drag it out, let's not make our friends around the world wait a minute longer. today , the senate is being tested on behalf of the entire nation, a test of american resolve. our willingness and desire to be leaders. in addition, the price of failure will be obvious. failure to help ukraine resist russian aggression now means encouraging escalation against our closest allies and traders. that means a greater risk that american forces will be drawn into the conflict, and that means a more costly deployment of our military to defend against aggression. we just heard these voices from the united states, but maria, this delay in the approval of the package, it has been going on

for quite a long time, since last year. what was the reaction of the united states? well, in the united states, in general, this discourse has changed very noticeably. and in particular now it is about what according to speaker johnson, every congressman and senator really needs to make a decision on which side of history he will be on, because this decision is truly historic. the speaker himself, after he put this issue to the vote and offered these separate packages of assistance on various of these issues, he is called a very successful speaker, the speaker of war, and is praised a lot for the fact that he managed to walk between the drops and find this very thin. balance between the interests of democrats, republicans, joe biden, donald trump and make some the decision, which essentially we already saw on saturday, suits everyone, and it was really very difficult, and now speaker johnson is very much praised here in the united states, and the republicans themselves have also changed the discourse significantly,

if before they, the majority of the republicans did not resist the support of ukraine and said that it should be done, but some internal issues of the united states must be resolved first. then on saturday we already heard very, very clear statements that change this position of the republicans, they say that it is necessary to return to values reagan, we need to return to the values ​​of a strong democracy of the united states, to the values ​​of strength, not appeasement, as suggested by some other legislators, and in particular , michael mccaul said that president reagan taught us that in order to achieve peace, you have to be strong, this bill also provides a very important detail provided. but, in particular, it is about the victory of ukraine, the strategy for the victory of ukraine, that is , it is not just about allowing ukraine to survive, but about what needs to be thought out, how to achieve victory for ukraine in this war and besides, the main thesis that all the legislators are now addressing, all the legislators want to get this 15 minutes

of fame and make their statements about this draft law, everyone says that aid to ukraine is aid in the interests of the national security of the united states. same, said the same. voice of america maria ulyanovska was in touch with us. thank you. so why is this help so important? let's listen to military analyst and ex-british army officer justin crump. this is really a huge relief for ukraine. i mean what this draft law has been delayed for a long time, and this uncertainty was obviously the most relevant for ukrainians, for european partners, as well as for whether it collects. the u.s. should take a step forward, whether the u.s. is going to continue its commitments to ukraine that it has made over the past two years. obviously, all attention is focused on the presidential elections in november and the future political course of the united states, which

moscow is also watching with interest. therefore, european countries survived without the usa. they supported ukraine throughout the crisis and became even more active in the last month. i think they will definitely be happy to see that the americans are giving a huge amount of aid, i mean $46 billion. i have already been informed that the adoption of the bill already affects the situation on the battlefield, purely psychologically, because ukraine did not know where the new shells would come from, logically, it could not use them fully until they were all used up. obviously, they had to have rationing for theirs. weapons, in particular artillery, ammunition, combat missiles and air defense, so they had to keep something in reserve, they had to plan how to get through this year if nothing else came in other than what europe promised, and of course it's good to know that

something is finally coming, i'm sure the help from the us will come fairly quickly in some critical areas, everything is ready to go... just waiting for the signature. throughout this conflict, ukraine fought with one hand tied. perhaps the time has not yet come, but there were some caveats to its use. systems weapons, for example, longer -range tactical missiles, which would be very useful for ukraine, were not delivered. there was always a fear that supplying some equipment would be a red line for the russians. they never respected anyone's red lines. so i think we may have been too cautious in this matter, but at least ukraine was fighting with only one arm. without this bill, she had both tied behind her back. years, now they are back to having one hand free again, at least one. let's see how it is

will affect the situation in the face of a possible russian offensive in the next few months. in addition to us aid, ukraine will receive half a billion pounds from great britain. this was stated by the prime minister of the country, rishi sunok, during his visit to poland. there he met with his polish colleague donald tusk and nato secretary general jens stoltenberg. the leader discussed european security and support for ukraine, and the announced aid package will be the largest ever delivery of vital equipment in british history. in the package will include boats, long -range missiles, stormshadow, armored vehicles and almost 4 million rounds of ammunition. in addition, rishi sunok announced an increase in defense spending and stated that, in addition to security guarantees , great britain will provide ukraine with long-term financing guarantees. let's listen. taking on the historic obligation to allocate 2.5% of gdp to defense, we

will step back from this fragmented, piecemeal way of supporting ukraine. so in addition to our long-term guarantees, today we also provide long-term financing guarantees, on at least the current level of military support to ukraine, every year when it is needed. this is the longest commitment of all, it shows. ukraine is not alone, and ukraine will never be alone. 10 years ago, when russian tanks rolled into crimea, the battle against the idols was raging in the middle east, nato allies gathered in wales and reached a historic agreement. increase their defense budgets to 2% of gdp. at the time, the united kingdom was one of only four countries to do so. today there are 11 such countries. and i am convinced that we da... will look at this time as a similar turning point in european security, because while we welcome the news over the weekend

that the us congress approved a new aid package for ukraine that will be crucial on the front lines, now is not the time to be complacent about achieved we cannot expect america to pay any price or bear any burden unless we ourselves are willing to make greater sacrifices for our own security. that is why i am proud that the united kingdom... is increasing defense spending to £87 billion for a year. this is the largest strengthening of our national defense in a generation, ensuring our place as the second largest defense force in nato after the united states. and then bbc domestic policy columnist chris mason on the significance of this visit and the british aid package for ukraine. these 500 million pounds. aid to great britain and ukraine this financial year, thus increasing

british aid from £2.5bn to £3bn. prime minister sunak gives the following argument: in his opinion, and we talked with him on the plane on way here, moscow's invasion of ukraine was a strategic failure, because nato expanded the western military alliance. but western leaders have a certain caution, because in democratic countries you need to have the support of the people. when you allocate hundreds of millions... of pounds, billions of pounds a year for the defense of ukraine, it has its price, these funds cannot be diverted to something else, in the long run such expenses can last for years. so the united states is preparing to approve the long-awaited aid to ukraine, which, according to observers, should change the situation for the front, and great britain was clamoring for a new aid package worth half a billion pounds, the country's prime minister announced. things of sunok. the package of military aid will include batches of air defense equipment, cruise missiles, boats,

armored vehicles and about 4 million photons. so that's it for today, more stories on the site and we're back on the air tomorrow, take care. congratulations, friends, the second part is live on the espresso tv channel. program verdict today in the issue. long-awaited military aid. american weapons can to... send to ukraine within a few days after the adoption of the law. why did congress delay so long? a window of opportunity for the enemy. the spring offensive of the russians, against the backdrop of a lack of weapons in the armed forces, has actually already begun. is ukraine ready to repel the invaders? new purges in the cabinet. on the sidelines of the verkhovna rada, there is talk

of preparations for the dismissal of three or four ministers. who will get caught? rotation about this and other things during the next 45 minutes we will talk with our guests, people's deputies of ukraine, however, before how to introduce them, i will say that we work not only on the live air of the tv channel, but also on our platforms on youtube and on facebook, for those who are currently watching us live there, please subscribe to our pages, take part in to our survey, today we ask you about whether you watch the telethon edynyi news. is meant not directly during the broadcast of the tv channel, but in general. if you watch, vote on youtube with the appropriate button: yes, no. if you are sitting in front of the tv and watching us on tv, take your smartphone or phone with you and make a call. if you watch the telethon edyni novini 0800-211-381, or 0800 211 382.

all calls to these numbers are free. i would like to introduce today's guests. of our program, this is oleksandr mereshko, people's deputy of ukraine from the servant of the people faction, chairman of the committee on foreign policy and interparliamentary cooperation of the verkhovna rada of ukraine. mr. oleksandr, i congratulate you, thank you for being with us today. thank you for the invitation. good evening. good evening. iryna gerashchenko, people's deputy of ukraine from european solidarity, member of the verkhovna rada committee on foreign policy and interparliamentary cooperation, former commissioner for peaceful settlement in donbas, mrs. iryna, i am you. greetings, thank you for joining the broadcast. good evening. halyna vasylchenko, people's deputy of ukraine, member of the verkhovna rada committee on finance, banking, tax and customs policy. mrs. galina, i congratulate you. thank you for being with us today. good evening, glory to ukraine. glory to heroes. so ladies and gentlemen, since we

we ask our tv viewers whether they watch the only telethon, well, i'll just ask you too. because i can immediately say about myself, i am not the only telethon watcher, i wonder if you are watching, because we are conducting such a sampling and want to understand in general whether anyone is watching this telethon or not among our guests here, including, mr. oleksandr, you surely you watch the only telethon, or take part in it? well, unfortunately, rarely, i watch mostly when i give interviews, but actually i mostly listen to the news. i listen to the bbc for example, that is, you watch the espresso tv channel, i understand that the ukrainian service of the bbc, well, it is also a very interesting format, by the way, i like it very much, thank you, mrs. iryna, i fight a marathon with it, as a rudiment of an authoritarian state, and indeed , mr. merezhko correctly says that it is

frequent, but i see the monitoring of the marathon very well, and as the same detector shows. media, for example, last month alone , representatives of the servants of the people took part in a marathon there 146 times, european solidarity is the second largest faction in the parliament, only there were five inclusions of our deputies, and during these two years i, for example, as the co-chairman of the faction and also a member of the committee on foreign policy, and i was never a participant in the marathon, so it seems to me that it is necessary to reformat these funds for the armed forces. thank you, ms. iryna, ms. galina, i do not watch the marathon, moreover, i support the initiative of my colleague from the faction, yaroslav yurchyshyn, who heads the committee on freedom of speech, to finally open access to journalists to the corridors of the verkhovna rada, i believe that this initiative is very right on time and we must do everything to make it happen as soon as possible. i'm sorry, it's a very

cool story, i'm sorry, sergey, mrs. galina, you know, i don't know such a nickname. you are your colleague, because neither he nor your faction registered any draft laws, but we registered two relevant resolutions, this one concerning the tv channel rada, or he started showing the parliament, this also concerning the redirection of funds from the marathon, we registered that the resolution regarding the admission of journalists to the sidelines and even painted there is a scheme, that's why it's great, tomorrow i propose, i will put this issue to a vote, i hope that your faction will support it, so that we bring this resolution to a vote in the hall. yaroslav, nothing like that, unfortunately, yaroslav hasn't registered anything like that yet. we are waiting, if yaroslav as the head of the committee has the opportunity to visit. conciliation councils and he always raises this issue both in the public space and at the conciliation council. i apologize, sergey, you

raise a very important question, a very important question. and even there, yaroslav does not raise it question for approval. i ask you to follow the format of the program, you are not the deputy speaker now, but i am chairing the meeting, so... listen to me, please, i hope that ladies and gentlemen, you have one position, i understand, and with a single telethon, something needs to be done to do, because ukrainians even speak, according to the international organization internews, for the 23rd year, 23% of ukrainians watch the only telethon every day, the same number watch it at least once a week, and 45% of respondents do not watch the telethon at all, so the question is open, the question should be... articulated to the prime minister, probably because shmyhal said that he will not redirect these funds to the armed forces, and this is probably not a very good answer and not a good

decision, ladies and gentlemen, today the verkhovna rada was expected to consider the dismissal of ministers, members of the government of denys shmyhal, this did not happen, i don't know if it was just a leak of information that was incorrect or not. this was prevented by the case of mykola solskyi, nabu and sap announced that he was suspected of taking over state land worth uah 291 million and attempts acquisition of land for another 190 million hryvnias, will these rotations be personnel, government, or are they on time, why i ask you, because we have a parliamentary-presidential republic, therefore , in principle, the parliament should appoint and dismiss. and carry out rotations, you should definitely know much more than in the office of the president, well, for sure, mr. alexander, well,

first of all, such personnel rotations are a completely normal phenomenon, i do not see anything wrong with this process, it is normal, especially if it is about a very difficult period of the war, so i i have a positive attitude towards this, the only thing is that , unfortunately, i do not have any concrete information about the names of the persons who may be in the cabinet of ministers, let's say, about whom there will be a change, that is, i do not know , and as a deputy , i would really like to know, if such changes are taking place, in order to make a responsible decision and vote accordingly, that is, in the servant of the people faction, this issue was not raised, it was not brought up, you simply did not discuss it. at the ministers, well, at least the fate of two governments, you to the verkhovna rada, you, you determine the fate , you have already decided, that is, the fate of honcharuk and the fate

of shmygal, shmygal, even more so the record holder, i am looking at the stay in the prime minister's chair, mrs. galina, did you wait for changes, personnel changes in the government and maybe for the appointment, because, for example, the minister of culture, information policy after the resignation of oleksandr tkachenko still does not exist in ukraine, and this is also a big question, why is there no chief propagandist in the state during the war? you are very right about the ministry of culture, moreover, warns about rumors that they want to liquidate this ministry, merge it with another ministry and everything else. we well remember how at the beginning of our mandate, back in the 19th year, certain ministries were united, then separated again. we understand how harmful it is and... especially now during the war, it is not very risky, i would say, to do such things, because when people enter the ministry, a new team enters,

the minister changes, deputy ministers begin to change, probably in order four to six months, sometimes in order to get to grips with the work, to implement some specific vision strategies and to start implementing their policies accordingly. that particular minister who took up this position, and actually we don't have time for all these swings right now, we need maximum efficiency in work, and such a ministry as the ministry of culture cannot be without a leader for so long, especially, i hope that after all, it will be preserved and will not be eliminated, if we talk in general about those personnel changes, well, as of we don't have any now. of the relevant registered members within the walls of the verkhovna rada, so that we can clearly see who they want to dismiss and who they want to appoint. now it's all

happening on the level. rumors, but these rumors have really been spreading on the sidelines and among people's deputies for several months, regarding several ministers, in particular, this regarding minister kubrakov, regarding ms. iryna vorishchuk, there were also certain conversations regarding oksen lisovoy, but what i know in general, i asked in other colleagues, it's like really only on a level there are more and more rumors... this position is from rectors who have been in their positions for a long time and do not want to be re-elected, we know that the minister of forestry has introduced a big initiative regarding the associations of certain universities and everything else, so this is more like real rumors about other ministers, those whom i have named, indeed several times already. there were

reports, so i think we will see in the near future, and i can say for sure that the government needs a reboot, there are a lot of comments to various ministries, both from the people's deputies and society in general. thank you, mrs. galina. mrs. iryna, what happened with solsky, is this not a reason to resign the entire government, because, well, in principle, there are many questions, and the prime minister would have one. responsible for what happened to solsky? well, first of all, in this government there is not only a minister of culture, but also a minister, for example, of veterans, although we are already a country of veterans, we have a million military personnel today, and it is obvious that veteran policy is one of the priorities, but the minister has been absent for several months no, there is no minister of sports, although the olympics will be held in a few months, and it seems that the summer olympics would

be the minister of sports today. make maximum efforts to prevent athletes from the russian federation and belarus from entering these sports competitions, even under neutral flags, we have failures in whole sectors of different policies, and the issue here is not so much in the government as in the parliament, so please pay attention , mr. mareshko, he is not an ordinary deputy of the servant of the people, he is the chairman of the committee, also a member of the conciliatory council, and even he is not understands what is happening, i want to tell you that just at the conciliation council i... it is very unfortunate that it is taking place in a closed mode and not in an open format, the representatives of the mono majority announced that there will be certain personnel changes this week, they said from three to six ministers, you know, this is probably the first time in ukrainian history, when the day before the vote , the representatives of the monomajority, who were supposed to delegate candidates for these vacant

positions, do not know what it is all about. and this obviously speaks of such a very systemic a crisis in the parliament itself, among the servants of the people, and that is why the question is not how it will be, who will be appointed to the position of minister, in such a correct diagnosis that there really is a crisis in the majority, i do not have a majority, because according to no law is given, even if it is a presidential law, today there are no 226 votes from the servants, there is a maximum of 200, it is obvious that it would be correct to reformat the majority. to create a coalition of responsibility, which would already form this government of national unity, which would be based and united around surnames, as for mr. solsky and other ministers, you know, we have not had a question hour for the government since last september, this is an absolutely abnormal, irresponsible policy, and of course, i think you can engage in corruption, steal, do whatever you want, if there is no control , but there is no

control. even the deputies cannot ask the government questions today: what is happening in our military industry, what is happening in agriculture, and where are the promised drones, for which billions of hryvnias were directed there? and actually, from a good point, precisely european solidarity with as colleagues, within the framework of the monet dialogues, which took place this weekend in lviv, we achieved the return of the question hour to the government, even a final document was submitted, which is all. have a good week there, we will have these hours of questions to the government, this is very important, and i want to assure you that this friday we will demand from the prime minister a report on certain politicians, but also information about what is happening with these personnel rumors, who is going to be replaced and with whom is the main thing, because the question here is not about surnames, but really about politics, in the spheres of military industry, energy, veteran.