on the need and already provided help from the usa and allied countries, i say that in my opinion, the russian strategy is to push as much as possible, because the russians have always been indifferent to people, to their own soldiers, they are indifferent to their own humanity, everything does not matter , they want to capture as much as they can on the front line, then hope that the prime minister ... say, if there is a new american president, or some public pressure in western europe, calling on ukraine to win with russia, then they will say that they peaceful, good and bad, and they will be able to freeze conflicts, to stabilize what has been lost and to remain on... on our

positions in ukraine, this is not our character, this is not the character of many of our friends and supporters of ukraine, we believe that the only country and nation that can say that it is necessary to start negotiations with this totalitarian, authoritarian, aggressive russia, this is ukraine and ukrainians, no one else can do this, and whether it will be in the european union or what they were, because we believe that you have the right to freedom, to choose life, and any violence, any military action is not wrong, and we have experienced it in our own history and do not want it.

the former minister of defense of latvia, a former member of the european parliament, who is also currently running for the european parliament in the elections that will take place in just a few weeks, and now we will talk from latvia to france with the political commentator denys kolesnyk, congratulations mr. denys, he will be with us now, and we will talk with him about these statements made by emmanuel macron, the president of the french republic, who spoke about the fact that... he even sees the prerequisites for

the introduction of french troops into the territory of ukraine, i called these prerequisites, this is a breakthrough of the front, let's say, when something will threaten ukrainian statehood, and if there is a corresponding request to paris from the side of ukraine, it is interesting, indeed, andrii, because and by the way, i i think that we will also talk verbally about the possible, or rather not possible, meeting of sidney pin and... here in paris and the pereneis, and the fact that we thought at the beginning that emmanuel macron would simply say about the troops is simply important and i won't mention it any more, it's so beautiful phrase, he continues to promote this thesis even despite the reluctance of his western colleagues to hear it, and this is also a very interesting moment, not just to promote, to specify, to insist, and i...

i think that this is such a serious story, mr. denis, congratulations, good afternoon, good evening, how did you perceive this new statement by the president of france, which already contains concrete prerequisites for the introduction of french troops into ukraine, what is it called? well, look, in principle, it was specific from the very beginning, in my opinion, france set this strategic ambiguity, this strategic uncertainty, and in in principle, it is in the context of what was announced at the end of february this year. as for me, there are no such quirks, let's say , nothing new, as for me. mr. denys, this is the question, in fact, we expect that the meeting of sidzen pina with macron, possibly with scholz, will begin on monday. we understand that this is quite a large and quite large-scale such a tour of the chinese leader. what do you really expect from this one? well, first of all

, scholz won't be there, it's official, there was a meeting, it will be for scholz and for everyone else, scholz they offered to... still join this trio, but he refused, because he had other plans, he had planned a visit to the baltic countries, i think lithuania and latvia, so he won't be there, uh, what about relations with france, from china, well, in general , this is very interesting, since this is the first visit of mr. pinna since the pandemic year of 2019, if i am not mistaken, yes, but there is also the fact that he will visit france, which... now occupied in fact, in europe, the key position regarding the support of ukraine and which is the only nuclear one by a member state of the european union, which has, i mean, its own nuclear forces, and not through nuclearization, but at the same time shijin ping will also go to, shall we say, more or

shall we say less anti-russian countries, such as serbia or hungary, therefore, it is also necessary to look at the issues that will... fight, it was logical that scholz and macron met on thursday, because they agreed on certain positions, and in fact macron will speak an agreed position with scholz, but the main issues, which are of interest to, for example, france, this is a commercial issue, since trade, trade turnover between france and china, it is enough, it plays against france, and france imports a lot, china seems to be the second partner. france from the point of view of imports, but at the end there are tens in terms of exports, so there is a very, very large deficit in the trade balance between france and china, not in the direction of france. there is also , of course, the issue of ukraine, where last year we remember that the french delegation flew to china and tried, let's say, to ask

china to somehow influence russia so that russia has come to its senses regarding the war with ukraine, but we see that visas and still nothing has happened there. therefore, it is possible, more precisely , not that it is possible, for sure ukraine will appear in these conversations, and this will also be one of the main priorities of french diplomacy, but we should also not forget that france also has overseas territories, and the issue is also the indo-pacific, yes those of the quiet apr, the asia-pacific region, it is in principle also interesting for france, where china has its own ambitions. we roughly understand what position macron will take anyway, and here sidzenpin's position, what he will tell macron, what he will convince him, what to do or how to act in the context of ukraine, can it be connected to

this global peace summit that will take place in june? it is very difficult for me to speak about shijin ping's position and china in general, as i am not an expert on china. this is not a country that i know, i can speak for france, so i refrain from this comment, but i can say that definitely china will definitely try to explain its vision and its position on russian conflict, probably china will also assure france that it does not help russia. but tell me, limon, for example, wrote before sidzempi's visit that the elysee palace really wanted to express their concern to the chinese leader. in connection with the activities of certain chinese companies that could contribute to russia's military efforts. by and large, this statement of the national palace is very similar to the statement of the united states secretary of state anthony blinken, who during his stay in beijing said that if china does not take measures to limiting the activities of these companies in relations

with russia, will the united states do it, and will france be ready to do something concrete, or will it be just a statement? well, look, here again it is difficult to determine, because from one. there is no problem with this import, which goes through third countries, for example, china can also import, i mean export its, let's say, dual-use products to russia through third countries, and this imposes questions, imposes problems, we even westerners saw it some enterprises that exported dual -purpose technologies to russia already after the 22nd year through some second-third countries, where... in kyrgyzstan, for example, there grew in astronomical progression, imports from abroad, for example, washing machines or some other equipment that was then resold to russia, those elements, those chips , they were used by the russian defense industry, so here the question is completely different, but of course france now declares itself as

a leader, at least sees itself as a leader in europe also wants to have a leadership position regarding the ukrainian-russian war, so of course france will speak, in my opinion. although , again, i do not have official confirmation, but i think that france will still talk on this topic with china about the restriction or even the inadmissibility of exporting to russia anything that can be used. again by the russian defense industry, but here is another question, how much china will be interested in this and how much china will listen to it, and in my opinion france does not play the main role here role, and the main role will be played by, for example, the united states of america, because we saw how certain companies refused to export goods to russia, when america itself said that there would be sanctions against these companies, i would like to touch on the topic of israel itself . palestine, iran, even in the context of the same visit of xi jinping to paris. in your

opinion, will the issues of the actual war currently going on in israel be discussed, will it be possible to discuss the issues of iran in the context of the actual aggression that it has shown recently, that is, will this, conditionally speaking, be one of the... of the key, key topics of this conversation, well, it will definitely be, in general, a geopolitical agenda, it will be, in my opinion, the main one, not even so much bilateral relations, but a geopolitical agenda , russia's war with ukraine, conflicts in the middle east, the issue of iran, china's position in general, but there will also be economic issues, but again, we remember, for example, that china, let's say, tried, or at least pretended to try to somehow influence iran, so that... iran influenced its houthi proxies so that they would not attack

ships, yes navigation, but we saw that it did not give any result, in principle, except maybe they do not attack russian ships or chinese ships, but in general it did not lead, let's say, to some solution to the issue, of course, there will be a geopolitical subpoena, i repeat the main one, but there will also be an issue of espionage, because even literally, it seems 10 days ago finance.. . wrote about the detention of a british couple who spied on benefit, for the benefit of china, and chinese industrial, chinese industrial espionage, this is, in my opinion, one of the main threats to the countries of western europe that come from china, if separated, of course, from the geopolitical agenda, well, by the way, don't you think , that the west does not understand, let's say, the goals of china, i mean the political goals, just as it did not understand the political goals of russia until recently. in general , it seems to me that we have a problem in the west, it is a problem, let's say, listening to ourselves,

in general, we are confident that we are right, as was the case with the issues of russia and ukraine, when for years experts from the countries of central and eastern europe, although they listened to them and communicated with them, but did not listen to them, at that time such as information that has been provided. was taken at face value by russian experts and then rebroadcast by french experts into the french information space, and this, in my opinion, is a problem that we think we know what is happening better than everyone else, regarding the issue of ukraine, the problem has become less acute, because it has become clear, and here only, let's say, a not very intellectually educated person can say that we were right, the eastern europeans were not, that's why there have been changes here, and rather global ones. in my opinion, but with regard to china, again, china is not,

let's say, directly threatening militarily, as the russian federation can potentially threaten the european union, so china is certainly perceived as less of a threat, china is perceived as an economic power, as factor, for example, which can influence various processes in different regions, destabilize or stabilize there, but china as of today does not conduct any aggression... the warrior does not behave like the russian federation, which in 2008 not so long ago seized part of the territory of georgia, seized in the 14th part of ukraine, now 2022 is waging war, armed aggression against ukraine, russian, let's say, information warfare, russian cyber operations, russian active actions, let's say, led to the fact that france was banally of the african continent from its, let's say, traditional terrain, where france had a significant influence, and this all happened literally not

so long ago, it's been there for 5-7 years, let's say, you understand, that's why there is a perception of russia as a threat, and with regard to china, i i think it is more interesting to see in china, for sure, some, let's say, power, which may again somehow influence such players as russia, or, for example, as iran, but again. so we see that china is not eager to influence them. in this situation, we can at all to believe that europe is ready for some economic tools, let's say so, if... china will continue to have its way. well, look, again, it's a very difficult question, if you look, france, as i said, seems to be importing, i even have data somewhere, i'll tell you right now, it's importing from china, er, poom-poom-poom, exports 70-plus billions of goods for 70-plus billions

billions of euros, exports much less. the question is whether we can reorient ourselves, find some other markets. to find some influence, of course, to influence not to give access some companies, as, for example, there was once a story with huawei, where huawei once entered the european market in the 2010s and wanted to implement 5g technology, and then there were issues of intimidation, with influence and, in general, with, let's say, espionage activities, and there was a decision not to allow these companies to implement this technology, but again, everything is changing and , for example, we already hear some voices that are more inclined to, for example, let china into information technology, so on the west, there are countries that did not care about this at all, which are quite comfortable for chinese companies such as huawei, so again there is a question of economic, let's say , capacity, because every policy, you understand, international foreign policy,

it has to be based on something, you can't just make decisions that can't be backed up by anything. and before making a decision, by the way, in my opinion, this was partly the problem of ukraine in some sense, that certain goals were declared, but which were officially it was very difficult to strengthen them, there was no opportunity for this, neither economic nor even political will, but this is another issue, so i see, i see, i see that again this is a very economic issue, europe, it is diverse , you understand, all relations, for example, the position that lithuania can afford, that towards china, france cannot afford. mr. denys, we thank you for your thoughts and your analysis, denys kolesnyk, a political commentator, was on the live broadcast of saturday's political club, we are moving on, and we have a whole hour of communication with vitaly portnikov, we will similarly discuss all the most important events of the week, the biggest

threats to our country, traditionally everything we do in the second part. of this program, mr. vitaly, let's go back to an important topic that is currently being discussed by ukrainians, the main intelligence agency, the foreign press, for example, the deputy chief intelligence agency of the ministry of defense, vadym skibitskyi, stated that at the end in may, in early june, there may be another offensive. of the russian federation to ukraine, in particular, he says about the fact that it may not only be donetsk oblast, luhansk oblast, kherson oblast, but it may be kharkiv oblast and sumy oblast, what should we expect from these coming months, they are called so alarming and difficult for

our country. well, first of all, no one knows that, when i hear all these pro... noses about what will happen in a month, in two in the war, i always remind, remember to yourself on february 23 , 2022, what did you imagine it would be like everything will be fine, now all the great military experts have become ours, but how did they imagine this war on the 23rd, how did they imagine this war a month later, when many said, listen, it will last for years, it is a typical conflict like in syria, get ready for many years of war , everyone. and no, well, that can’t be, we didn’t have people in sociology at all who believed that it was for, two years, i’m not saying for eight, well, we were told about two or three weeks, where, someone said about two or three weeks, but even just we're talking about the usual idea, then remember the idea of ​​the ukrainian offensive when we discussed where we would be in in crimea, in melitopol, now there is

a conversation about the russian offensive, the offensive generally takes place where it is not expected, remember in the visa... of course, there is always a certain position in the army where it is clear that it can be pushed out of there, because it is there may be on a very inconvenient bridgehead, let's say it was with the russian army in kherson, are there such positions of the ukrainian army, is there not, what ratio of potentials is different, i don't know, but again, this is a huge coincidence of the whole, i would say such a list circumstances, usually force a military expert, because... the results of the battle that ended, not in what explains the results of the battle that is planned, that i don't know what will happen next month, talk about the obvious directions of strikes, russian forces, i would it didn’t happen either, because the russians also understand very well that if we know where they will strike from, then we prepare ourselves there, the truth is, it means that they will strike

not where we expect them, it is also quite difficult to strike along the entire line of contact , so what to say that there are several difficult months waiting for us there, i i think that we are waiting for many difficult years, why months, there will be russian offensives, we will defeat them... this is a long-term war with all this logic of its own, such a typical long-term conflict, the war is positional, it has become so in me, it seems, in the fall of 2022 , since then it has changed and again, this is just an ordinary amulet, everything else is talk around, many people said that in six months i ... the war will not end, it will go into a state of opposition, and the parties can hardly achieve that that they will be able to regain significant parts

occupied territory in the ukrainian case or occupying significant parts of the ukrainian territory in the russian case, this is how it looks so far, the only problem for some russian actions, as well as ukrainian ones, is that it is possible to inflict some kind of ... blow, where the front is pouring in with such force, that all the armed forces are simply fleeing, retreating in a disorganized manner, and the enemy there reaches some new frontier, and then the surrender talks begin, either we or the russians, well, here the russians may not surrender, they may simply withdraw from of our territory in such a situation, everything else, when we talk about settlements there , i want you. to remind again from 2022, from the moment when the russians took kherson, and then we recaptured kherson, no large populated place

was even occupied again or recaptured, we are talking about the names of some villages that we are hearing about only for the first time, when the russians can seize them, well, of course there is... the exception is avdivka, it’s true, it was actually a large industrial hub, and therefore, to things, the loss of the avdiivka is really an event in this war, because it was on a fortification that was still old, old, because the russians broke through this fortification, and secured a certain tactical advantage precisely by this, this is the price of delay with western help, specifically, but again after this tactic... and it is also very difficult for the russians to seriously advance anywhere further, we see, again, what really changes, if we imagine, i mean from the point

of view of the course of the war, that russia suddenly in the worst case took some large populated points, let's say there in the donetsk region, well , she already captured them, exactly as i asked in 2023, well, we captured melito. and freed him from the russians, as far as this is realistically indicated during the entire course of the war. we have a route to crimea, well , now after avdiivka, the russians have a conditional route to kostiantynivka, pokrovsk, kramatorsk, slovyansk. well, how much can they benefit, how long does it take? how much could we use then? that is, it is important, you know, that if it was andrii's war, for... specific territory, we knew what we were fighting for, the russians want to restore the territorial integrity of the donetsk region, which they annexed, and we want to de-occupy it. the war is for something completely different, the russians

want to destroy this state, we want it to remain. well, in such a situation, you have to live in the logic of a long-term conflict. and to understand that all these events around specific settlements, in general, nothing will change for the next ten years. of course, there can be... peace on a certain line of eclipse it may not be, but these are all very conditional things, you see, well, i will remind you that during the vietnam war, even after the parties had already signed a peace agreement, and communist vietnam captured all the settlements in south vietnam, still the nature of the war remained positional until the communists broke through to saigon. during the war in afghanistan , the insurgents from the moment when the soviet troops were in charge, this is 1979, they captured various cities there, even large ones, they there...

captured some mountain settlements, this continued for years until they had the opportunity to enter kabul, that is, all these positional battles, of course they are interesting to contemporaries, but they do not change the course of the war, we just have to ask ourselves the question, the russians are concentrating, that means significant forces to capture large cities, well, we now say that kharkiv is under attack, but there are not enough troops to take the bridge, again. kharkiv is a border city, are there forces to capture kyiv? i don't see any such possibility, which at the moment changes from the point of view of war, the capture of some settlements in the east, from the point of view of the course of the war itself, nothing special, except that people remain under occupation, certain economic opportunities are reduced, it is true, it is obvious that it should not be allowed, it is obvious that

kharkiv must be defended. so that even the russians do not have the idea that they can seize it, but simply from the point of view of the global map, here is odessa, the loss of access to the sea, this is serious, yes, this is a strategic goal, of course, but it is unlikely, and the russians of course understand what even if they will agree with the fact that ukraine remains on the political map of the world, that they cannot neutralize it, they must deprive it of access to the sea, create a completely different country in this way according to... not even in the plans, so we must always discuss military plans for the coming years there, if of course everything does not suddenly end there with some kind of truce in six months, a year or a year, it could also be there, let's say this representative of military intelligence says that there will be negotiations within the year 25, someone says that earlier there will be, i don't see any basis for

today's negotiations at all. listen, but this is the logic of a war of attrition, if you want to win a war of attrition, then your task is not to invent some myths that you believe in, understand? and

then don't be disappointed and demoralized, you're not the apostle paul, who walked in the desert, met jesus christ there, it happens only once, when you want to see something, a miracle, and you can do it, for that you need to be an apostle, and you and i are not apostles, we live in in the real world, we can invent something, then it doesn't happen and we can get depressed, what is it, we thought that there is coffee in the christmas tree, there is no coffee in the christmas tree, no, this is calculated. russians, they want to demoralize ukrainian society and clearly tell it that you cannot do anything, so to speak, psychologically prepare the ground for surrender, this is an absolutely correct calculation, if you cannot defeat the enemy, you must demoralize him, he must every day to wake up with the thought that everything will soon be over and he will lose, it must be

with the military. should be with the people in the rear, they should gradually accustom themselves to the idea that tomorrow there will be russian troops here in your place, and you will need to do something about it, i am not saying at all that people should not have such thoughts, but in general a person differs from an animal in that he has the variability of thinking, of course, if you think that the russians can break through somewhere and take over your region, well, think about what you will do in this situation. join the partisans or leave the region, but you may have another option, that the ukrainian troops will liberate the region, which is nearby, you should also think about what to do in this situation, on the contrary, you may find yourself in a much safer place than because in which you lived, all in war are important any options, life, death, liberation, capture, death, with everyone who is on the front, who is not on the front, this is war.