and oleksiy honcharenko, as well as diplomat oleksandr khara. however, before starting our big conversation, i suggest you watch a video of how ukrainian defenders magically destroyed a russian t-90m breakthrough tank, soldiers of the shadow unit dropped an american m-67 grenade on it, enemy equipment was destroyed in the area of ​​tonenko in donetsk region. let's see how it all happened.

glory to the armed forces of ukraine and. death to the russian occupiers. friends, we are working live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms, for those who are now watching us there live. please subscribe to our facebook and youtube pages and take part in our survey. today we ask you about whether you support the decision to mobilize convicts into the armed forces of ukraine. yes, no, if you're on youtube, it's pretty simple as long as you have a personal opinion.

opinion, please write it in the comments below this video, and if you are watching us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote in this poll, yes 0800 211 381, no 0800 211 3872, all calls to these numbers are free, vote, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote. we have our first guest, roman kostenko, people's deputy of ukraine, secretary of the committee of the supreme council on national security, defense and intelligence, colonel of the security service of ukraine. mr. colonel, i congratulate you and thank you for being with us today. good day, studio, each other. first of all, mr. colonel, let's talk about what awaits ukraine over the next month, or a month and a half, because according to the forecasts of the main intelligence department of the ministry of defense of ukraine and the supreme

commander-in-chief, that during this period the russians will launch an offensive and launch an offensive sufficiently widely. what to expect at the end of may or from mid-may to the end of june? well , at least we should expect that the actions of the russians will intensify, er, if we analyze the situation, what is on the front, now the enemy, er, does not have such forces to lead. strategic directions, offensives, but they are even now conducting such offensives, which, let's say, consist of tactical directions, but if you omit these moments, they may turn into an operational success of the russians there, but i will say that i, as the secretary of the committee , received, received there a few days ago, well, we will receive information on the material and technical assistance that comes to us according to intelligence, then... it was nice

to see the latest from our partners from there, the amount of ammunition that was given to us, recently, when before the aid was voted, yes, the europeans provided us with our partners, others, but there you constantly seen it diminish, particularly the range of precision munitions from our overseas partners, and that, let's say, they had such a very large high impact on the battlefield, in particular. hymars is there and others, and when it was opened now, we even looked there with some colleagues from the committee, so let’s say, as they say, they were pouring, and that’s good, and i hope that while the enemy is preparing for the offensive there, well, let’s say so, if all this will be brought to the battlefield and used correctly, then we have, fortunately , something to meet him now, and i think that...

the enemy will not achieve any significant success, understanding what forces and means we have, and this is only what has come, and there is much more to come, so we must understand that we have something to fight with, well... on in the near future, of course, the question will be all about boys, soldiers, about the mobilization potential, which should use everything that our partners give us. the spokesman of the operational strategic grouping of khortytsia troops, lieutenant colonel nazar voloshyn, says that the enemy does not stop trying to storm the city of krasnohorivka in small groups, but the defense forces are being held for... to quote the lieutenant colonel: the ukrainian soldiers managed to eliminate part of the groups that broke through to the refractory plant in krasnogohorivka, and those who remained are in a difficult situation, as they are practically deprived of ammunition supplies and

armored vehicle support, and currently there are ongoing battles there , well , this is the situation near the city of krasnohorivka, but mr. colonel, how do you assess the possibility... of the russians deploying a front, creating a north-eastern front, sumy, kharkiv, because there are also different assessments, there are different forecasts and that russians can use additional forces to go to sumy and kharkiv, is this possible? look, it is possible, but the question is, what goals do they want to achieve? if we say just go and establish ourselves with... make a sanitary zone, as they say, there, then of course they need to raise the troops and everything depends on us, but this is not the story when they wanted and they did everything, so that we have troops there, we have a prepared border, everything is mined there, it is not even a border there in 22nd year, it is

a completely different story, so they will have enough it's difficult to do that, that's a fact, well, plus , i'll say it once again, having received the help there, which is now available, fortunately we have something to meet them, but they did not... refused the so-called sanitary zone, as they said 20-30 km after the russian volunteer corps and other russian volunteers there periodically crossed the border and, let's say, caused and sabotaged, and even attacked the russian regular forces, conducted combat operations there, of course they want to ensure security, because it has quite a strong influence there including reputation putin, they will try to make this zone, but... i say once again, we have something to meet, so it is likely, but such global forces that could, well, many are afraid that they will seize kharkiv there, see , if you do everything right, of course, you can drop everything and run, and then, of course, you can capture there, but if the defense is properly organized with even

the existing forces and means that we have now, plus the help that we have now there is, the fact that they will succeed there is unlikely, the main thing for our commanders and general plan correctly, protect the personnel correctly and use the available weapons correctly, and let's say, well, at least we will be able to hold out, as for further actions there, we have to look at the situation. mr. colonel, jake sullivan, the national security advisor to the president of the united states of america, says that in 2025, ukraine plans to launch a new counteroffensive after receiving military aid. of the united states of america, how do you assess the possibilities of deterring the offensive russians, to our possibilities of transition to a counteroffensive in a year? look, a year is such a long period of time, and let's put it this way,

it is very difficult to predict what actions we will have in a year. we can plan, of course we can plan, say that now we are in strategic defense, and in a year... we will go on the counteroffensive, but there will be many, but there will be conditions under which we could, and we need these conditions, fulfill them, achieve certain goals, so that we can do it, for example, mobilize a certain number of people, which would allow us to move into this counteroffensive, to make large reserves of weapons and equipment, ammunition, we are currently being supplied with ammunition, they are enough for the current conduct of hostilities, to go into... a counteroffensive is needed there, well, from my point of view, there are ten times more ammunition there, because those , who are advancing, understand how it is done, how it is planned, and this is a fact, so we have to plan, but these plans

must be accompanied by many actions and preparedness, if it happens, again, how it will happen behave as an enemy, if the enemy will continue to exist to build up their potential and will produce next year... not 2 million there, but 4 million ammunition, yes, we have to think about it, if we do not have air superiority, er, it will also have to be taken into account, then our defense industrial complex, so we can plan the issue, but there are many components, which are homeworks that we have to complete to make it a reality. mr. colonel, today the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, also gave an assessment of what is currently happening at the front, during meeting with the head of the european parliament , roberta metsulai, he said that, taking advantage of the lack of... weapons in the armed forces of ukraine, the russian army increased the pressure on the north and the east, but the defense forces will stop

this offensive after the arrival of new batches of weapons in ukraine, in particular from military package adopted by the united states of america. let's listen to what zelensky said. we did not have enough forces there, there was an increase in forces in the east, vdiivskyi, poprovskyi, you know all these directions. oh, and... it's really complicated there the situation is not the first day, there are deliveries, but not the volumes that were, thank god, once again and grateful once again, but not those that were voted, as soon as they arrive, we will stop their initiative in the east of the state. mr. colonel, why do our western partners always... give us weapons in such dosages so that we do not violate parity with

the russians, so that we do not do more than is necessary, or only to deter russia, but no, take bigger steps, for example, expel them from the borders of the ukrainian state, well, and accordingly with a counteroffensive, possibly on the territory of the russian federation, what are they afraid of? these questions should be directly asked first of all by our diplomats and the supreme commander-in-chief, when he talks about it, he knows why this is happening, i will say that yes, a certain amount of everything reaches us, but there are two sides of the coin here, first of all, yes i would like more and for them to give everything and we put it together on the territory and some russian missiles immediately flew there, this is also a factor that we have to take into account when transferring ammunition here, and unfortunately, there were cases when and on my... who was walking with his feet, scattering, let's say, cluster munitions, when the russians hit large warehouses, and honestly, well, my heart

was bleeding, i don't know, i just wanted to scream, when you saw how many munitions were destroyed there, i'm not saying, there are millions, but, but for certain directions it was critical, it must also be taken into account when you say, give us everything, so we have to understand that there must be someone who says that we, for example, for a month amount of ammunition. such are needed, for example, to conduct defensive operations, we can provide the storage of these munitions, we can ensure that they are put to their intended use, and everything else, i think has to be stored somewhere that is not accessible to the russians, because they after the announcement of this package, after our partners voted everything, they they do everything in order to invent er find and find the warehouses of these ammunition, they do not spare their own for this. agent to burn, which they have preserved here, has been for many years, not expensive missiles, no forces at all,

or no bribery there even of any foreign representative offices in order to understand where the weapons are going, well, the weapons are being messed around on the territory of ukraine, so here we have to be very careful, why are the partners giving us exactly, you know it here, this is a question that cannot be answered on the air, because there are a lot of factors and for each individual species. agreements are being made regarding weapons, somewhere they have problems themselves with some types of weapons, somewhere there are problems with supplies, somewhere they are, but i see the nomenclature, and now you can understand which ammunition they have and which they don’t, for example, there are just 155- what are you looking at? nomenclature measures, and i understand that there are also nuances, i will not talk about them, but there is a large number of some, there is a smaller number of completely different ones, when you look at it, maybe it would be better here, so let's say, in them they are so ... divides, because they have a war not only in ukraine, we see that now they have stopped

supplying weapons to israel, they are also at odds with each other there, so they dispose of these weapons and see where they can to influence and win their interests more, well, to help the country they are trying to help. mr. colonel, president zelenskyi conducted regular personnel rotations among the top military leadership. leadership dismissed serhiy lupanchuk from the post of commander of the special operations forces of the armed forces of ukraine and appointed hero of ukraine oleksandr tripak to this position, the president also appointed him as the commander of the support forces. dmytro gerego, who was dismissed from the same position only on march 24. and today, zelensky dismissed the former commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine valery zaluzhny from military service, and by another decree appointed him ambassador of ukraine to great britain. so what is happening now with the special operations forces, because, as far as i remember, serhiy lupanchuk

was appointed commander quite recently, and now oleksandr tripak is on the next rotation. will be the new commander, what is the reason for this, i.e. are there any objective reasons, or in principle the president selects a team so that, well, it is a team, one team, they play equally, have certain results, and accordingly evaluates the work of these commanders, i will not judge from yours permission of lupanchuk or other commanders there, they will be appreciated by them. subordinates, soldiers, from the battlefield, but i will say that i am glad at this point that general trepak is appointed, uh, and because i said a long time ago, there with respect to some of the past commanders who were in the ssso, uh it

's wrong to appoint commanders from other countries to ssso. er, there are military lines there with guru, for example, with all due respect to guru, this is a very serious organization, but the sso is a separate institution, it can be said that, an alternative to guru, well, it is not complete, because they are not an intelligence agency, but in the future i hope they will become one, because i believe that there should not be a monopoly on military intelligence in the country, but they will have to acquire capacity, and this institutional capacity should be managed in the ssso with... point of view, especially during the war, they are like a family there, i was in that family for a long time, more than two years, at the beginning of the war, let's say, i watched as a conscript, and it took a long time for them to get used to it to people who come from outside, this is despite the fact that,

i repeat once again, there are families who grow from koman group commander, then to the team. detachment, company commander, detachment commander, there are deputies, brigade commanders, they occupy some positions in the command, they grow along the career line and look up, and then they understand whether they are appointing someone from completely others, from other bodies, and this is very wrong , because i say once again, special units are always such a family, there is a different atmosphere, different relations, well, than, for example, there in the infantry or tank troops, this is a fact, you cannot argue with that here, here with all due respect to all, but... this is a special body, and this institutionality must be here, unless, for example, in the entire special operations forces, once there are more than 30 thousand, there will not be a person who can manage special operations, knowing each other and working on trust, and not there, and not putting on top, so that she was someone's person, and not a person of the sso. the ssso should

be managed by people from the ssso, and this is very important, and when i served in the troops, i served in the airborne troops and in alpha. and this institutionality, this family of special operations forces, forces special purpose, it has a very serious effect on the atmosphere inside, and when someone comes from the outside, the best, with all due respect to them, i think it's wrong, because it's this unit that has to get people out themselves, so i'm glad that this commander came, i do not idealize the military, i have the right to do so, because i am a military man myself and i have always believed that... always, let's say, the best platoon leader can be a good company leader and vice versa, sometimes a bad platoon leader can become a good company leader, that's a fact, and i hope so after all, general trepok, he is in the family, and he will become a worthy commander who will further lead the sso in the fight against the russians, well, he

has all the opportunities for this, and his experience, and his, shall we say, past in the sso, and respect from the side of the sso fighters, this is a good start, then everything will depend on him, i wish him good luck in the military. mr. colonel, one more topic that is relevant enough, which will be brought up-to-date already from may 18, is mobilization and a new procedure for mobilization, a new procedure for paying fines for those who violate, who will violate military registration and mobilization, the verkhovna rada has already passed. bill on fines, those who will violate the mobilization of military registration during the martial law will be forced to pay fines from 17,000 to 25,500. the council decided on the mobilization of those convicted of minor crimes. people's deputy of ukraine mykola knyazhytskyi during the meeting of the verkhovna rada called on the authorities to take responsibility

for the mobilization. let's listen to what knyazhytsky said. now is the time to unite. now is the time for everyone and the ministry of economy to calculate, who exactly is needed and at which enterprises, because it is impossible to bleed the economy either. now is the time to tell. according to mass media, that our soldiers are preparing in training centers, that they do not throw a tank at a grenade, that we have a strong army, that we are ready to defend our country shoulder to shoulder, but when we say shoulder to shoulder, then shoulder to shoulder there should also be a president who should not just address and talk about the necessary offensives, but also call for the mobilization of the parliament, all these laughs that we see on... the marathon on tv channels, when the military is ridiculed, which outrages the whole society, it does not promote mobilization. mr.

colonel, to briefly summarize the process that has already begun, which will probably unfold in the next two or three months in ukraine. how do you assess the legislation that has been adopted and the prospects for attracting conscripts to the armed forces of ukraine. well, i hope that we will improve the mobilization climate, in particular in the country, because, you know, we have always had a history when the law had to be passed there, it is still necessary that it worked correctly, and we, as a rule , always had something wrong at this stage, so there are a lot of questions now, in particular, how the data will be restored, how people will be recruited, how they will pass the vlk, and of course here... a lot of work government and the ministry of defense, in particular the general staff, in order for people to be educated, healthy, and correctly, mr. mykola said in his speech, precisely without breaking away from military

production, this is very important, i say once again that the last week there i engaged in what sometimes in manual mode i took away people who work at serious military enterprises, where they make, excuse me, there are ammunition and everything else, who came there to update data to get armor, and they are for... they say, well, they have a legal basis for this the right to do so, it is not defined by any resolution, and this is a very big problem, we then talked about it with the minister of technology, and with the ministry of defense, and i believe that they should work for the right thing, that if there is some enterprise that is made, here they do not have to go and beg to eat gave armor, this is the task of the ministry of defense, the ministry of strategic industries and all others interested in coming to this. enterprises and say: guys, how many people do you have, give us surnames and don't think about anything, make us shells so that the guys fight at the front, that's how it should work, but now often on the contrary you go around

and prove what you need to do to the guys shells to the front, this is wrong, this needs to be changed, and this is a fact, but no one wants to do it yet, but we will continue, let's say yes, to fight, where we need to help in manual mode, because we understand that one of the... rights on the battlefield, our soldiers fight, but no matter how many soldiers there are, if they do not have shells, if they don't have weapons, then they will die there, and that's a fact, and someone has to control it. thank you, colonel, for the conversation, it was roman kostenko, colonel of the security service of ukraine, people's deputy of ukraine. friends, we continue to work live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. for those who now we are viewed on youtube and facebook. please subscribe to our pages and take part in our survey. today we ask you about whether you support the decision to mobilize convicts into the armed forces of ukraine. yes, no, everything

is quite simple on youtube, if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote. if you support the decision to mobilize convicts into the army. 0800-211-381, no, 0800-211-380. all calls to these numbers are free, vote at the end of the program, we will sum up the results of this vote. next, we will be in touch with oleksandr khara, an expert on foreign security policy at the center for defense strategies, a diplomat. mr. oleksandr, i congratulate you, thank you for being with us today. good evening, mr. sergey, thank you for the invitation. let's start, mr. oleksandr, from today, because there was a parade on red square in moscow. pobedobesia, the day of victory, central asia and belarus were present, the russian dictator putin, during his speech in moscow, threatened again

nuclear weapons of the enemy. russia, let's listen to what putin said. russia will do everything to prevent a global collision, but at the same time we will not allow anyone to threaten us. our strategic forces are always on alert . mr. oleksandr, since may 7 of this year, when putin was once again crowned as the president of russia. he repeats this mantra about nuclear weapons, about nuclear weapons, about forces, strategic forces, that is, as you predict, having gained another legitimacy, well, the so-called legitimacy that we do not recognize, but nevertheless, having moved on to another six years at the head of the russian federation, will he continue to draw

this trump card. ace constantly as a nuclear weapon and blackmail the whole world with it? yes mr. sergey, you are absolutely right, it did not start today or yesterday and it will not end tomorrow, you know that in fact the russian political leadership, well, at least for the last 20 or so years, well under putin, there is such a, one might say, bipolar disorder , on the one hand it is a big... nuclear power that has to decide the fate of the world, and on the other hand, well , in fact, the fact that it constantly threatens with nuclear weapons, since it cannot achieve its goals in ukraine, a non-nuclear state that is alone at war with the russian federation, so they help us with weapons, ammunition, money, but in fact, with our own forces, with our people on our own territory, we do not allow russia to capture us, and therefore this... this

bipolar disorder, it will not go anywhere, it is part of their political culture and rhetoric, unfortunately, this disorder is actually implanted in the cities of our partners, primarily in berlin and washington, and they are really afraid of the escalation of the use of nuclear weapons, either in ukraine, in a third country, or somewhere in another city, well, maybe in the arctic in order to show the seriousness of their intentions, but they are also afraid of the collapse of the russian federation, which is exactly why... there are restrictions that are still in place, ridiculous restrictions, strategic restrictions that are in place regarding ukraine, and you know, when you showed these footage, such a moment is very important, in fact, around putin , there are two with with asian faces sat katsaps, who were identified on the network as those who were involved in crimes, war crimes, crimes

of resistance in buch and in other cities. ukraine, i think that it is no accident that these people gathered around putin, because in principle, this is again part of the russian and russian tradition, yes, when such cats are part of the system and connected by blood, therefore it is clear, that this action, this coven, it simply shows the inhuman nature of this regime and the danger it poses not only to ukraine. mr. oleksandr, but we saw it. what happened two, literally days ago, when there was the so-called inauguration of the so-called president putin, and you saw the statements that came out, or you heard the statements that came out from the united states of america, when they talked about the fact that the election was not free, but they admit that putin is the leader of russia, representatives of six european states, including france, were at this so-called

inauguration, and what the... thinks the world should clearly place the emphasis and look at the facts that the elections in russian federation, or pseudo-elections, they took place in violation of all the rules, in violation of the observance of legislation, some norms, world norms, well, including whether these elections took place or pseudo-elections took place in the occupied territories of a foreign state, and that is more than enough here. evidence to call putin a self-proclaimed president, a dictator, or to come up with some other definition for him in order not to say that he is a president, in order not to talk to him as a president, as a full-fledged president of russia? well, you know, it works here the argumentation of political realism, that if we all did not like putin, no matter how much we considered him a criminal from the point of view

of international law and... he was issued a warrant by the international criminal