please vote in our poll, today we ask you about whether you are satisfied with the work of denis shmyhal's government, yes, no, everything is quite simple on youtube, either yes or no, if you have a special opinion, you can leave it in the comments below this video, if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote on the appropriate numbers, if you are satisfied with the work of shmyhal's government, 0800 211 381, no 0800 211 382 calls to these numbers are free, vote, at the end programs we will sum up the results of this vote. i would like to introduce today's first guest, serhiy krivonos, reserve major general, first deputy commander of special operations forces in 2016-19, ex-deputy secretary of the national security council. mr. general, i welcome you, thank you for being with us today. good evening, everyone, glory to ukraine. glory to heroes. mr. general, let us begin ours.

the conversation on the analysis of the situation on the eastern front is being conducted by the russians, the russians are conducting offensive actions, and obviously these they will expand their offensive actions, as general budanov says in particular, as far as we can expect in the second half of may, at the beginning of june, the activation of the russians in various areas of the front, including the northern one. the eastern one means sumy and kharkiv, separately, as for sumy and kharkiv, in the coming days, the russians have a certain amount of force at the level of 50 thousand, which they spread over the territory of the bryansk, bilhorod and kut regions, and this is clearly not enough to start an offensive action, but it can provide capacity for the introduction of border crossings. battles with the aim of pulling our

forces and means away from the russian-ukrainian front, they do this quite effectively. as for the other areas of the front that you are talking about, the situation is quite difficult at the moment, the russians have a strong advantage in the number of artillery, air superiority and the number of people who are conducting offensive actions in certain areas of the front, and one of the main tasks that the authorities must now solve is not only the provision of the required number of our weapons guys on the front line, and also providing people who could replace those people who are now fighting in the field. mr. general, how quickly and whether the authorities will be able to do this, well, considering the fact that starting from may 18 the law on amendments to... the mobilization legislation will come into effect, didn't

the authorities need to wait for this and roll out and chew this gum during the last six months, but simply to implement the legislation that already existed, it simply had to be implemented to the millimeter to the point and replenished with mobilized armed forces, you are already answered your own question, but in the meantime , let's consider it a little more widely, because the issue of... mobilization, which the authorities talk about, for some reason they always talk only about people who must be demobilized to military units, but this is the last point only in the previous law, in the law that existed, it was written that this is the transfer of the economy of ukraine to the functioning in the conditions of a special period or wartime, the transfer to the functioning of state authorities and enterprises of ukraine and only then without...

the question was about the military unit. the authorities absolutely did not fulfill the first three points then and do not fulfill them now. they, you know, somehow so selectively refer to the implementation of the laws of ukraine. in fact, the law that was and existed in previous years is more than a working one, everything was thought out and written in the blood of previous wars. the government does not deal with the issue of mobilization at all, and the issue of mobilization only refers to it. to people who need to be called up, and this is a much broader complex , and first of all, when they are in the new law determine that a huge number of officials who are in the bloated powerful official apparatus of ukraine, and this is not one hundred thousand men, a huge number of representatives of other power structures, who are given er, you know, armor from the ability to fight at the front, in certain citizens of ukraine appear. the question of why

there is selectivity for them, and why there is not for others, that is why the law during the war must work one hundred percent, and again, an unpopular example for our authorities, when in israel ee... at the beginning of the war, a huge number of politicians and together with their relatives went to fight, this is just an example of a civil attitude towards their fulfillment of this constitutional duty, regardless of any positions, just as in the same great britain, one of the examples of the fact that even members of the royal family , serve in hot spots, and we have had more than enough of these examples, the law must work for everyone, and when the government works according to the principle for its own... as the law is necessary for others, then it will never engage in mobilization, it is not popular for her, it is unprofitable for her, and it is not interesting for her, that is why they did not make decisions and tried to stretch the issue of the new law like chewing gum in order to turn the public's attention away from the problems

that exist, so that they introduced a new law , it is not a fact that it will work if they did not want to work with the previous one, that is, this... thesis that this law establishes or gives certain guidelines for justice in society, it does not correspond to reality, because we have a large category of officials, higher officials who do not fall under mobilization, justice is only among those who are lower in rank in society and who are not in positions and there are no certain reservations there, i understand correctly, absolutely correct. mr. general, on the background of this , the white house announced that the aid of the united states of america will allow ukraine to go on the offensive in 2025, this was stated by

the national security adviser to the president of the united states of america, jake sullivan, to the financial times, he says: well, the publication quotes jake sullivan. he said that with new help from washington, kyiv will be able to hold on. defense and ensure that ukraine withstands the russian attack during the 24th year, indicating the scenario of the war next year, sullivan noted that ukraine intends to counteroffensive in the 25th year. well, jake sullivan, as a statesman, as a person who works in a state where the principles of constitutional duty are sacred, apparently clearly understands that he can stand aside. for this year to the 25th year, the government must to carry out active work in four directions, active work, first of all, this is the preparation of the population for the ability to defend the country itself with weapons in hand, this is the preparation of mobilization resources even

before they cross the gates of the territorial procurement center, the second is transfer of the economy of ukraine to functioning in the conditions. er martial law, and the third is the fortification equipment of the territory of ukraine, and the fourth is the placement in certain important positions of people, professionals who understand the issues preparation and waging war in the state, well , now then in a complex together with american aid it will work and then you can raise the issue of an offensive, without the implementation of these... we will not be able to, because even the simple weapons that the americans provide us must get into the hands of people, and these people must be called up, three people must be trained, these people must be motivated, without

people, weapons will remain nothing but scrap metal. that is, mr. general, as far as i understand, we, we are not keeping up by the russians, the russians do it much faster. that's right, well, we had 2 years, we could have taken it up more seriously already during the great war, i don't know that since 19 certain processes related to the level of the country's capacity for education were frozen and stopped by the authorities, so everything depends only on us, the fact that the russians are still ahead does not mean that we cannot rely on them, catch up and overtake them, everything depends on us, mr. general, on the eve of the so- called inauguration of president putin, the ministry of foreign affairs of the russian federation made several statements warnings, in particular to great britain and france, they summoned the ambassadors in moscow there, and said that if the weapons of great

britain will hit the objects of the russian federation, on russian territory, as stated by the head of the foreign ministry of great britain, david cameron, then russia reserves... the right to retaliate against objects located on the territory of ukraine, meaning british, and outside the borders, do you think putin will dare to strike against... great britain, if armed forces of ukraine, using british weapons, will beat on objects, military objects located on the territory of russia? he will dare only in the case when a huge number of relatives, children, officials of the russian political community will be taken out of britain, property belonging to britain will be taken from them, a great number will be taken from them. money that is in british banks, then russia has nothing to lose, and it can do it, at this

stage britain has a powerful valve that at any moment it can turn on the russians in britain, and it will be over fast enough, so from my point of view it's still a bluff about nothing, because you can say anything, but if you have leverage. in the hands of your opponents, then there is no point in bluffing. another statement that was commented on by the ministry of foreign affairs of the russian federation, russia, is macron's statement that in the event of a critical situation on the front, the russian-ukrainian front and a breakthrough of this front, that french troops may appear there and will fight on the side of ukraine, or to defend ukraine. later already declared that france is not at war with either with russia, nor with the russian people, we have no

desire to change the regime in moscow, the french leader emphasized, and today we saw that the representative of france was at the so-called inauguration of the so-called putin, which is what macron is afraid of, as you say, when he takes a step forward, and then two steps back? the economy of france is sufficiently powerfully united. with certain directions of the economy of the russian federation, and even the issue of joint ventures for extraction and transportation and processing of liquefied gas, this is just more to france, so one of the examples when the french, with their entire parliament, voted to lift sanctions on a french-russian company working on liquefied gas processing, so there is always an economic rationale behind any of these statements. were also interested in other examples where russia is

more than enough important for france, as for the possibility of president macron to introduce ukrainian troops on the territory, french troops on the territory of ukraine, there are no problems at all, as for the military units of the foreign legion, it is not necessary permits of the parliament for such things, that is why the french want to be both smart and good in certain political... nuances and do not want to lose the market for raw materials, because they still continue to buy the same already processed russian oil and much more through third countries through third countries, so his desire to appear in the eyes of both the world community and the russian community to be good for those and for those is understandable, because he, you know, has no choice, he does not want to... quarrel with russia, but in the meantime he has already shown himself as a bearer for ukraine, and that's enough

it is difficult to sit on two walls with one ass. absolutely right. also, mr. general, one piece of news that arrived just these days is that the russian federation will conduct exercises using nuclear non-strategic weapons, today it became known that this will take place on the territory of belarus, the minister of defense of the republic of belarus stated this victor. the same hrenin who assured our minister of defense oleksiy reznikov on february 22, 2022 that russian troops would not leave belarus, so this hrenin confirmed that these exercises will be precisely on the territory of the republic of belarus, and there is a reaction from washington, and they say that so far they do not see signs of the possible use of nuclear weapons by the russian federation against ukraine, the spokesperson of the state department of the united states stated this. america matthew miller. let's hear what miller said. russian nuclear rhetoric has been

reckless and irresponsible throughout the conflict. but we see no reason to change the position of our own nuclear forces in response to these statements, since there is no indication that russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons in ukraine. mr. general, within two. there was a lot of speculation on the part of the russian federation that they could use tactical nuclear weapons, and this was said in the context of the fact that if something were to... threaten our territory, they consider the occupied crimea and the temporarily occupied districts of kherson, zaporizhzhia to be their territory , donetsk and luhansk regions, then we say that we can use tactical nuclear weapons, but theoretically the use of these tactical nuclear weapons led to what, to what consequences for russia?

well, western countries have more than enough high-precision weapons and they. clearly know all the coordinates of the storage sites of the nuclear weapons of the russian federation and to carry out pre-emptive strikes if necessary, at certain moments and to land their special forces at the sites of nuclear weapons storage, absolutely does not create any problems for the country, therefore , again, on the nuclear blackmail and bluff of the russian federation nato behaves quite calmly, but at the same time keeps the gunpowder dry in its own hands. money box yesterday and the day before yesterday, mr. general, i visited paris xi jinping, the leader of china, and he held talks with french president emmanuel macron and convinced china to refrain from selling any weapons to the russian federation. after meeting with

xi jinping, macron thanked him for his commitment to refrain from helping putin. let's hear what emmanuel said. "we respect the long-standing ties between china and russia, as well as the efforts that have been made over the decades to stabilize these relations. given this difficult history, we welcome the commitment the chinese authorities to refrain from selling any weapons or aid to moscow and strictly control the export of dual- purpose goods. mr. general, could you please. to be more convincing arguments of european leaders regarding china and xi jinping, considering that they receive the lion's share of china's earnings from france, china, and germany, that is, could it be possible to put pressure, roughly speaking , on xi jinping to explain that there is nothing for him to do in ukraine,

that is, such diplomacy, tough diplomacy. well i wish that their words corresponded to reality, but nothing and no one prevents the same china from selling components to the neighboring border countries of the former soviet union, and then these components will absolutely calmly enter the territory of russia, because they promised not to help russia, but they did not promise not to sell these components to the same person there, i will not name... those countries, everyone understands which countries i am talking about, well, obviously we will see the reaction and actions of sidzenpinu soon, because from these negotiations that took place in europe during the last few days, the composition of the participants of the global peace summit, which is to be held on june 16-17 in switzerland, will depend,

meanwhile, the european union countries could purchase weapons for ukraine from ukrainian defense companies and quickly transfer them for military support to kyiv, the high representative said eu josep borel at the eu ukraine defense industry forum. let's listen to what borel said. we must be more creative and look for new ways to deliver military support to ukraine. denmark has set an example by leading the way direct investment. into the ukrainian defense industry, this is the way to go. purchasing equipment from ukrainian companies or from joint european-ukrainian enterprises is an option that we will study together with the member countries. generals, we have repeatedly talked on our broadcasts with you about the ukrainian military-industrial

complex, about its potential, about its capabilities, about what it could have done even before the great invasion, but... it did not, uh, how do you assess , this is what happened in the military-industrial complex in recent years five years, especially in the last two years, could we have done more than we have, could we provide ourselves with the weapons that we are now begging from our western partners, one hundred percent of all types of weapons , we could not provide ourselves, but meanwhile the lion's share of high-precision ammunition of this radio judge. including fire-reactive missiles of the vilkha and vilham types, we could make them in much larger quantities if there was a state defense order in the 20th and 21st years. and these things just depended on the authorities, but the authorities did not want these problems engage in and generally at certain stages tried to freeze our missile program.

as for the production of the same artillery shells, it was under this government in the 20th year that the plant that produced shells was transferred to a one-day operation mode. here are examples for you, the reluctance of the authorities to prepare for war, and in general it should be viewed not even as no... but as open sabotage in favor of the russian federation, and over time i think that these dots will be placed by certain structures under a different government , which generally refers to the question of whether he was able to if our defense-industrial complex could achieve something even more, of course it could, but at certain moments these things should be done covertly, without pr on it, because we remember the pr actions of the leadership. then russian rockets arrived at enterprises against the background of which certain reports were made, i am not talking about the shameful case when

the state audit service of ukraine presents the results of the audit of ee with specific components for the missiles of the luch design bureau and on december 26 they present and on december 29, all related enterprises that cooperated on the occasion will fly in. er , russian missiles, but if this had not happened, the results could have been much better, therefore, unfortunately, at certain moments, our defense-industrial complex, due to the incompetence of their leaders, is more engaged in pr than in the practical implementation of its functional responsibilities mr. general, this year in february , the forces of unmanned systems were created in the armed forces, in the structure of the armed forces, it is clear that drones for... play a very important role in this war and probably much bigger than we imagined two years ago, but today there was a message that the government supported

zelenskyi's decree on the creation of a separate type of troops in the structure of the armed forces, now the ministry of defense will prepare and submit the corresponding draft law to the cabinet of ministers, 3 months have passed, i.e. in the conditions of war, are such terms justified when the forces of unmanned systems... are being formed for so long, that is, when they actually exist, but where are these incomprehensible legal agreements, provisions, why so long? if the children of officials of the cabinet of ministers of the verkhovna rada and the ministry of defense were fighting at the front, i think that the issue was resolved in two or three days from the moment president zelenskyi signed this decree, and when their relatives do not... do not fight and they absolutely sneeze, it drags on for a long time process. i will give you an example, three months ago, the number of russian drones used per day at the front was calculated at the level of 45-70

units. currently, the number of russian drones that the fp will drive away, which are used per day, is already more than 550 units, and in certain moments even more. here is an example of how quickly the russians react to certain changes in this war. if we want to win these wars, the children of the officials must fight, we don’t have that, and the officials themselves are not interested in this victory, you are talking about the fact that the russians now have much more drones than we have, and it is clear that they transferred their economy to military rails, we did not, and obviously there are a lot of questions about this million drones, whether and whether these million drones were promised by zelensky, or will something change on the front during? year, but there is an absolutely logical question, how exactly are we supposed to cope with the volumes that are necessary for the front, well, can’t

the western partners still bring us drones and produce and do what, in principle, probably in the conditions of war ukraine she could fix the production herself. ukraine can do this, but for this, the enterprises that exist in our country must take care of a defense order with a perspective for one, two, three years, and then the entrepreneurs themselves, the heads of these enterprises will be able to find both resources and a new surplus to increase the output and quality of these products, so everything again depends on us, and it is certain that the event, if it can help us in any way, is by supplying certain components, no more, no less. well, that's the end of our conversation, mr. general, what do you think, the event has already been clearly decided. what should he do, well, our western partners, that is, what should they do with russia, i.e. are they ready for the defeat of russia, are they not ready for the defeat of ukraine, are they ready

are they before the defeat of russia? they are not ready for the defeat of russia, and they are absolutely not interested in the collapse of russia as a state, because the only thing that prevents them from this is not even the raw material markets, the sales markets that they have, first of all, a great fear of the fact that the huge nuclear potential of the russian federation, control over them will be lost, and then a certain number of terrorist organizations will be able to obtain these nuclear weapons and blackmail the countries of zaha. to these nuclear weapons, this is the very first such powerful, you know, fear that they have european countries, meanwhile, it can be solved quickly enough and simply by carrying out certain special operations to capture the nuclear arsenals of the russian federation on the territory of russia, this can all be solved, but from our side we must produce these things and convey them to our

partners. do the current leaders of our special operations understand these things? i have the number one question: do they know something about it, or do they understand it, i'm not sure. thank you, mr. general, for the conversation, it was a reserve major general, the first deputy commander of the sso in 2016-19, former deputy secretary of the national security council, serhii krivonos. so, friends, i remind you that we work live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our platforms. on youtube and facebook, for those who are currently watching us there live, please subscribe to our pages, and also take part in our survey, today we are asking you about whether you are satisfied with the work of denis shmyhal's government, yes, no, everything is quite simple on youtube, if you have your own personal opinion, you can write in the comments under this video, if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote if you are satisfied with the work of shmyhal's government (0800-211

381), no. 800 211 382 all calls to these numbers are free, vote, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of our vote. next, we are in touch with roman tsimbalyuk, journalist, former vlaskor unian in moscow, a person who worked for a very long time in the russian federation and saw what was happening in russia on the eve of the war and personally asked putin questions, roman, i congratulate you, thank you for being with us today i congratulate sergey, right away. i will advise our tv viewers to your youtube channel, subscribe to the youtube channel of roman tsymbolyak, a millionaire journalist who has more than a million, 200 subscribers, please become 100 00, please become subscribers to the youtube channel of roman tsymbolyak. well, what, roman, the so-called inauguration of the so-called president, the so-called putin, took place, and the holder of the warrant of the international criminal court about...

proclaimed the president of russia, that is, the first, probably in the history of russia, so exactly, i don't know, or humanity, the holder of the warrant of the international criminal court becomes the president, the so -called president of russia, what does this mean for the world and for ukraine? in fact, nothing, nothing changes in this case, you can criticize as much as you want the conditional french ambassador who received from paris for... how to go to the inauguration or, on the contrary , praise him for his cunning there and diplomatic skill, you can be happy about the position of the state of ukraine, which is not recognizes putin as the president, anything can be done there, someone likes it, now there are beautiful horses on the screen, maybe someone will understand, the question is that this person, she

controls the power in the russian federation, she... is the center of power in the russian federation, she has a nuclear button, well, this is one of the aspects why in fact, they will continue to tolerate vladimir putin. what he said and what he does, well, it is clear that he is a man of war, while he is walking around this hall like this and these plebeians, excuse me, are applauding him, as if he is not a fairy, but the war will continue, well, this one must probably realize and build with... this is what life is all about, when the russians get tired of dying and killing, well, that’s a big question, for now, well, it’s clear what they have for, excuse me, for the constitution, it’s an old hand for him already, so he’ll still crack a little more , but the nuance is that according to the norms they have, they...