9:00 is approaching, the time when we honor all those who died due to the fact that the russian invaders came to our land, a minute of silence: we honor with a minute of silence the memory of the ukrainian military and peaceful citizens of ukraine who died in the war that cried russia.

this is svoboda ranok, my name is kateryna nekrecha, and we are starting our morning broadcast. russian forces occupied kislivka of the kharkiv region, this is the kupinsky direction, this is reported by analysts of... earlier on sunday, they also wrote about the occupation by the russian forces of kotlyarivka, which is there, and arkhangelsky, which is near avdiivka. the occupation of kotlyarivka and arkhangelsk is also confirmed by the american institute for the study of war. in the general staff of ukraine , kislivka, kotlyarivka, and arkhangelskyi are mentioned only in the context of repulsed attacks near these settlements, the russian ministry of defense currently reports only about the improvement of the situation near these settlements . instead, the ministry of defense of the russian federation announced the day before. about the capture

of ocheretiny northwest of avdiivka. in the deep state project, they write that all the administrative boundaries of this village are in the red zone, because there was no confirmation about the entrenchment of russian forces in the area of ​​the school. the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine did not deny or confirm this statement at the moment. and nato can intervene in the russian-ukrainian war if belarus is involved in the war on the side of the russian federation, or if russia attacks the baltic states, poland or moldova. that's how the italian species wrote. larepublica we talk about nato's red lines and the chinese leader's tour of europe in this issue. and at night russian forces attacked sumyshchyna according to reports of the regional military administration , russia attacked energy facilities from aviation. this is the high-voltage facility of nek ukrenergo, the company clarified. sumy society informs that the water supply has partially disappeared in sumy, bilopilla, lebedyn and okhtyrka. and power supply

, critical infrastructure facilities were switched to backup power, sumy mba noted. in total, on the night of may 6, the russian federation attacked from the northern direction with 13 shaheds, 12 of them were destroyed in the sumy region, reports air force alyona yatsyna, a correspondent of radio svoboda, joins our broadcast. alyona, congratulations, on our broadcast. thank you for joining. tell us what the consequences of the russian attack were, were many people left without water and water? electricity supply, congratulations, tonight in sumy, to be honest, was terrible, we had three waves of shaheds attacking the city itself, the regional center itself, at least 15, this is what our defenders are talking about, according to detailed information, the shaheds attacked the regional center, one civilian suffered, and as for the consequences, then two shahed's arrival was exactly at the object of critical.

infrastructure, and after that the light went out, the light went out both in sumy, and in the district, and in several other districts of the region, now it is being restored little by little, little by little it is recovering, in some areas the light appeared for a couple of hours even at night, and in my area, for example , there is still no electricity at home, as for the water supply, it has been restored almost everywhere, except for one of the districts of the city of sumy, in fact, all repair services for electricity supply are working. we still do not have any forecasts from the authorities, there is no understanding as to where they will be restored, and unfortunately, we have several houses that have been damaged due to falling debris, because the shahedis hit directly above the city itself, above residential buildings, last night. alyona, you say that there is no understanding of how long it will take to restore, and in the meantime, without electricity and water supply, how are the local residents coping, what are the alternatives? while there is no

understanding, there are no alternatives, there are again no messages from the authorities, we are all very much waiting for them, because of some consequences. how critical it is, how ready the authorities are and whether there is a so-called plan b for such a case, we do not yet know, and actually we do not know, there is no official information on this matter, the authorities promise to deploy points of inviolability, we have been driving around the city since the morning, so far we don't see anything except groups helping people rebuild their homes a bit after the debris falls, but how are the people? they can handle themselves, are there any, well, preparations, are they ready for such a situation, let’s say, i don’t know, power banks, water reserves, about power banks, water reserves, the availability of generators for enterprises and so on, the authorities have been talking and warning for a long time about what this should be, the plans of the russians and

the russian army itself to attack critical infrastructure facilities, they also for a long time, on unfortunately or fortunately well-known, because whoever bothered, he has, ugh, of course, thank you alyona for keeping us informed, alyona yatsina, a correspondent of radio liberty, told about the consequences of the russian attack on sumy oblast. after receiving military aid from the us, ukraine plans to start a new counteroffensive, as the financial times writes, such a statement was made by the national security adviser of the us president, jake salevan. according to him, thanks to the support from washington , kyiv will be able to maintain its positions throughout this year and will strive to move forward and regain control over the lost territories. the american official mentioned this, touching on the plans for the next year 2025, however, any new offensive

of the ukrainian troops next year will depend on an increase in funding from congress and approval of the white house. such comments are the clearest statement of the white house's position on future developments. conflict in the event of the re-election of joe biden as president in november, this is a quote, and this is emphasized in the publication. still, sullivan said he still expects russian gains on the battlefield in the near term, despite the new u.s. aid package. let me remind you that the other day the white house announced that ukraine is already receiving weapons from a new support package. us president joe biden signed the appropriations bill into law almost $61 billion in aid to ukraine at the end of april. oleksandr mosienko, head of the center for military and legal research, joins our broadcast. greetings, mr. oleksandr, thank you for joining. i congratulate you. the financial times emphasizes that any new military offensive will depend on increased funding from congress and approval from the white house. that is, without this decision, without

the decision of strategic partners, to give approval for this counteroffensive, to give weapons for this, nothing will happen, but nevertheless, in your opinion, is it realistic that next year and partners from my side. are preparing for a counteroffensive and the armed forces of ukraine have such plans, in many respects 2024 will be an indicative year here and how events on the battlefield will develop now , because you know, the armed forces of ukraine have already either changed or accelerated many plans the plans were harmed, as was the general lack of support for ukraine. well, i mean, we saw it coming, in the end, whatever. ukraine chose the time to receive at least this aid package, and it succeeded. further, we cannot rule out that events may develop according to the following scenario: at first, ukrainian forces will be able to repel this intensification of the russian offensive. at the same time, of course, i

admit that russia may still have certain tactical successes, and they will still advance and have some positive results for themselves, but still, it will not end with the collapse of the front and about... and a significant retreat into the depths of the russian troops, the depths of ukrainian territory. further, we can expect that, under the condition of stable supply, and under the condition that everything will turn out very well for us, when we will receive another plus to the american of british aid to the czech initiative shells, estonia bought them there, and we will have additional air defense systems and aircraft, then we can talk about interception of the initiative at the tactical level by ukrainian troops and already certain successes this year. that is, the recapture of positions from the enemy by the russian troops and the transition to such an active defense, even to counteroffensive actions, and then, let's say, what can be planned, but it is still not fully known, this is directly this counteroffensive, which the adviser spoke about on questions

national security of us president saliva, just at this conference in washington financial times weekend, where he noted that the ukrainian authorities say that they are preparing for the possibility of this offensive in the year 2000... in the 25th year, that is, he refers precisely at the representatives of our government, i understand why they are talking about it, they are talking about it not because someone wants to announce something or not because someone wants to... or make some mistakes in 2023 by announcing certain actions, but they are talking about it because they need to assure their partners that ukraine ready to fight, ready to continue it on the condition of stable support, and on the condition that the aid will come and will increase, grow, because otherwise, if it is not talked about and if it is not allowed, then the situation, you understand, can lead to a positional war and, as a result, to the freezing of the conflict. we remember the statement, by the way, from last week that meaningful negotiations can begin no earlier than in

the second half of the 25th year, the economist told deputy head of gur vadym skibitsky about this. that is, you see, on the one hand, we have such and such statements, information about the ukrainian counteroffensive, on the other hand, even plus or minus, the specific date is the second half of next year, that negotiations are possible, what should be the basis for such negotiations? i do not see any contradictions here, due to the fact that even mr. kybytsky specified that it is necessary to have strong, strong conditions, that is , to approach the negotiations from a position of strength, our american partners also talk about a strong position at the negotiating table, quite often you can to hear such wording being used, maybe it gets less attention, but i bring it up because these details are important when they say that ukraine is receiving aid packages in order to be able to defend itself and have strong terms at the negotiating table with russia in the future. therefore, the fact is allowed that by the second half of 2025

, ukraine may have some success on the battlefield, liberate the territories, whether all within the internationally recognized borders, or within the borders of february 23, it is difficult to say here yet, but let's take it for granted the basis, for example, everything, well then of course what it is favorable position, but we have, i will say that of course, here is this, here is this statement... made by mr. skibitsky and what we can talk about, it is in principle, well, synchronized with the opinion of the majority of our partners, and in principle , we still cannot say for sure how it will be in the second half of 2025, it is only oriented towards the fact that russia will simply be exhausted to a certain extent and will run out of the same tanks or artillery, and this will lead to the fact that russia will be ready , but here is another point, to what extent you will be russia's partners... or not, and how they will react, because we see that north korea helped russia

to resist even now, when they lacked artillery shells, iran helped, china helps with technology and dual purpose and equipment, reuters, financial times, a lot of western media, and that's why how much more russia will be supported and helped here, because, what if they help more actively, then russia is not very... it will be exhausted by 2025, but in any case, activation at the front and counteroffensive actions are possible interception of the initiative of the ukrainian troops, they can lead to the fact that the west will believe in ukraine even more and, on the contrary, increase support, that is, it can go like this, and then really and possibly the conditions or prerequisites will be created for starting a negotiation process on ukraine's terms . oleksandr, is there any reason at all to believe that russia may be exhausted, we saw in the last six months there, when there was no

help from the usa, on the contrary, the situation that ukraine's partners were exhausted, so to speak, and because of the fact that there was a delay with help, now we see the result at the front, we will talk about the situation at the front later, but nevertheless, when this phrase is heard that russia can be exhausted, over these years, well, it is somehow hard to believe. russia could not take advantage of the moment while we had difficult conditions, while the ukrainian forces were depleted and while we did not receive help from the united states, which obviously shows the weakness of their position, because if they were so strong, sure, if everything was so good with them, well, i think that they would already be standing near kiev, or they would have already been in kyiv, probably, and they would have captured kharkiv there and most of the eastern part of our state on the left bank of the dnieper, but they couldn't help but take advantage of this even at the moment of weakening. the significant weakening of the ukrainian defense line, the ukrainian, not even the defense lines, excuse me, defense forces due to heavy fighting,

due to the fact that we did not receive armaments, therefore the scale of russia, and the capabilities of russia, it has resources, of course, it has resources for the continuation of the war, but in principle these resources are also not are limitless, let's talk about the situation at the front now, what is the situation in the settlement of arkhangelsk and next to it and where... right now it can be said that the situation is the most tense, where the most heavy battles are fought, and whether russia really succeeded to occupy these villages, as analysts write about it. exactly, i know that there is fighting there, and it can be said that this is a gray zone, that's for sure, that is, there is now very active fighting there, it is clear that russia seeks to expand its presence there, they're looking to expand the bridgehead that they control and stabilize the flanks that they think they're vulnerable from, so the naturalness of trying to push forward,

of course, that's also caused by the fact that because of... let's say, the lack of certain types of weapons , our forces had to make this organized retreat to more protected safe lines, and now the enemy got a chance to expand their presence there and advance, but in general, in principle, these are successes of a tactical scale at the moment, that is, this is not a breakthrough of the operational level, and a breakthrough of the operational level is not allowed, you see that right now the nature of the actions of the russian troops is changing ... it provides for the displacement of ukrainian groups with the help of such flank attacks, but these are successes of a tactical scale, but in order for them to turn into at least operational successes, russia will intensify, they will continue combat operations here in the pokrovsky direction , they will intensify even more in the direction of bakhmutskyi or kramatorsk for the time being, and

most likely, judging by the actions now in the kupinskyi direction, we should expect there restoration. actions after a relative lull after a relative decrease in enemy activity, plus slobozhanskyi and kharkiv directions, there may also be some enemy activity. therefore , this is how they are now stretching the front, trying to stretch the ukrainian defense line, so that we do not concentrate our ammunition on the concentration points of the enemy's offensive, but it creates for us such a dilemma, let's say, from the point of view of where to increase the presence of our troops, where could be a major... impact, so, well, let's just say, it creates some additional risks, but i i think that, if we look at the east in general, then this is what the intensification of the russian offensive will look like, the main battles in donetsk region, and yet, the battles in kharkiv region are predicted, they will not be of a main character, but with the aim of drawing back our forces,

then for sure . the italian publication "la republika" with reference to sources in the nato leadership on... wrote about the alliance's red lines, allegedly the alliance may intervene in the war in ukraine if belarus is involved in the war on the side of the russian federation, or if russia attacks the baltic states, poland or moldova, it can be estimated as such a plus-minus plan, as a more decisive position of nato. of course, there is still such wording, it is interesting, they talk about the collapse of the front and the involvement of a third country, well , referring to belarus, it is interesting, because president macron also spoke about the... front and the actions of france in an interview for zaeckonomist and he confirmed for an interview with the tribune just on sunday, his fresh interview came out, that is, the point is, the point is that if earlier for nato, now france has accelerated these discussions, but in general, if nato is already included in this process, then this the crossing of many red lines, because what

were there before, because you can imagine even a year ago that the alliance would discuss under what... conditions a direct military conflict with russia is possible, or what will need to be done in order to protect ukraine, or the further advancement of russia, the invasion of nato countries and the like, or actions on the territory of belarus, this was completely excluded, now everything is going and i think that the partners have now drawn a synchronized line thanks to, well, at least the french president has definitely confirmed this, collapse of the front line, but if it happened , god forbid, that russia... collapsed our front in the kharkiv area, i think that the processes of introducing troops, at least of france, of other allies, maybe not under the abhorrence of nato, this idea, it is definitely significantly accelerated. thank you, thank you, mr. oleksandr, for your time, for your analysis. oleksandr mosienko, head of the center for military legal research, was a guest of svoboda ranok. meanwhile, in the comments under

our stream on the radio liberty channel, i see that you are already discussing the matter. heard, well, you can also write my opinion, and is it really in your opinion, sorry for taftology, that they will act somehow, perhaps more radically, and whether the prerequisite for this is the collapse of the front, as oleksandr mosienko just said about it, for example. next, let's talk about the visit of the chinese leader, today xi jinping and french president emmanuel macron will hold talks in person. xi arrived in paris the day before with two places. visit, this is his first trip to europe, by the way, since 2019. in a commentary for le figaro newspaper, shizen ping says he wants to cooperate with the international community to find ways to settle. of the russian-ukrainian war, which he still calls a crisis, and added that china is neither a party nor a participant in this war, saying that he is committed to a number of norms that regulate international

relations. we hope that peace and stability will soon return to europe, and we intend to work with france and the entire international community to find good solutions to the crisis. macron, in turn , will try to warn his chinese colleague. from russia's support and urge compliance rules of international trade, the french channel france-24 reports. the french president also plans to call on beijing to reduce the trade imbalance and to use its influence on moscow to stop russian aggression against ukraine. this is what the french publication mediaapart writes with reference to the words of the advisor of the elysée palace. meanwhile, the united press agency reports that the talks between the chinese and french leaders. the president of the european commission, ursula fondain, will also arrive. i will add that within the framework of the visit sizenpinna to europe, he will also visit hungary and serbia. these are countries whose leaders

often show their favorable attitude towards russian president putin. so writes the associated press. both countries intend to build a railway between their capitals, belgrade and budapest, and china is allegedly going to help with this, as the route will be part of the chinese one. trade route from asia through africa to europe. i noted that while talking to the press on may 2, the white house strategic adviser of communications john kirby stated that the us currently does not see a willingness on the part of china to agree to the peace formula proposed by ukraine and work to establish a just peace. ukraine is doing everything possible to involve china in the global peace summit to be held in switzerland. this was announced by the head of the ukrainian president's office, andrii. yermak that china views france as one of the most influential countries in europe was told in an interview with our colleagues by finbaring, correspondent in europe

of hong kong's oldest newspaper, the south china morning post, for his in other words, sidzempinja's trip is not so much a visit to european countries as a visit to proven partners in europe, in particular serbia and hungary. i suggest listening to his direct speech. france is seen in beijing as one of the biggest powers in europe, if you talk to european diplomats in china, especially those who work with the eu institutions, the chinese always tell them that the real power is in berlin and paris, as chancellor olaf scholz has just returned from china, i think it was quite expected, that xi will go to france. as for the visit to serbia, i think most people are saying that the anniversary of the bombing of belgrade is possibly... one of the reasons why xi is going there. it is certainly one of china's closest allies in europe. and the third partner is hungary. it is a close friend of china in the eu and nato. it is a major

center for chinese investment in areas such as electric vehicles and batteries. i think that instead of painting it as a visit by xi to europe, it will be a visit by xi to these very carefully vetted three different places in europe. to natalia joins our broadcast. tyresh-based expert on east asian issues and master of foreign policy of ukrainian prism. welcome to our broadcast. thank you for joining. congratulations. the associated press named the topics of xi's trip to europe as the issue of ukraine, trade, and investments. how promising and strong can the connection between the eu and china be? well, actually, it is difficult to talk about prospects and strong ties now, because between the european union'. and china has a lot of problems, which are pin in that i would like to solve

these problems, but they are of such a long nature, because european institutions are increasingly beginning to understand problematic, problematic areas in interaction with china, this applies not only to the general aspect that surrounds the current geopolitical... issues and where the united states and european countries are talking about de-risking relations with china, it's a closer scan of, for example, investment and a closer look at what's being invested in china, so there's a lot of issues there, but one of those that stands out surface, it's excessive subsidization of the technology industries by the chinese government, and as a result of their... cars, let's say their pharmaceuticals, their solar cells, at dumped prices, completely cover the markets of the european union, and it

creates problems for... local companies , this creates problems for jobs, and accordingly, the european union is currently investigating these subsidies in china's leading industry. china, for its part, insists that it is a free market, that competition and competitive prices are what they are create conditions for the functioning of this free market. it supports france, as well as european institutions in general. the investigation of this subsidization, well, as a result, china also took a step in response, and it engaged in inspections of alcoholic beverages, in particular cognacs and brandy from france, which go to their market, and accordingly, in this direction between china and the european union there is a certain kind of trade conflict, and european

companies also do not feel at home in the... conditions in the chinese market, not only because many industries receive additional funds from the chinese state, and because many obstacles are created in china for them, in order for them to develop their business, well, everyone, during his visit he promises to create favorable conditions for europeans, this conversation is important to him with given the fact that the europeans are also looking more closely at the screening of his... investments from china, especially in the strategic sector, that is, there is a lot of work there, so it is not for nothing that ursula fonderlein will come to france, she is known for her tough such policy regarding china and apparently macron has decided that these issues related to trade, the economy, they are too deep and they are ready to solve it together with european institutions, that is, yes, please. the meeting

was probably prepared for a long time and all these important topics were discussed, we remember that olaf scholz, the chancellor of germany, was in china, on the eve of xi's arrival in paris, the media reported on olaf scholz's secret meeting with emmanuel macron, that is, some negotiations, let's say yes, the positions were drawn up, but what are the red lines that cannot be crossed allow themselves to enter the european union, they exist in order to increase and deepen cooperation with china, and at the same time not to harm... their relations there with the usa, for example, well, actually there are economic relations, they are important both for the european union, and for china, and in these relations, they are built in difficult conditions, because on the one hand there is a general understanding on the part of european institutions that there cannot be such a great dependence on china, on what china holds in hands are very serious

strategic industries, and this creates... a problem for them, also given that china is actively helping russia in the war against ukraine, this is also being reviewed, because european states cannot separate security from trade, as suggested by sydney pinh, in particular, he proposes to resolve trade relations, and they went there on the same track, security and, in particular, russian aggression against ukraine, as if it is not a topic. for a conversation between the two sides, because he insists that china is a neutral party that is not involved in this war in any way, but this is not the case, and as we can see, the europeans are very concerned about the aid that has seriously increased from china, and it concerns dual-purpose goods, and accordingly, and talk about trade and relations, as if nothing happened, and about the aid to russia, well it's not, it's not, it's not an option for today

in... in any case, these talks will be present and they will affect the relations between the bloc and between china. another thing is that in the european union we will take europe, because a visit to serbia, which is not a member of the european union, but is in europe, right? hungary, which is a member of the european union and nato. these are absolutely loyal to china-ukraine, who help promote chinese interests on the european continent. france is a heavyweight that china is trying to place its bets on, let's say, like germany, because in china's understanding you need to talk to the stronger ones, and with that in mind, germany and france are stronger, well, obviously, because it one of the leading economies in the european union, that is, to offer some gingerbread.