it is quite optimistic for ukraine, because it means that because of this shaky majority of the republicans in the house of representatives, any subsequent bill will only be approved by a bipartisan majority and bipartisan support, which is actually a positive side, the moment of this situation for ukraine itself, and i will note , that the speaker will now be under more pressure from both far-right republicans and democrats, because the speaker's future steps will depend on their position him. thank you, i will remind you that it was my colleague kateryna lisonova who talked about the events at the congress. speaking against aid to ukraine, margery taylor-creen, who calls herself a christian nationalist, repeatedly repeated the kremlin's propaganda thesis that ukraine persecutes christians, while russia protects them. at a time when american intelligence convinced the speaker of the need to help kyiv with intellectual arguments, believers in ukraine and the united states. joined forces to create

a spiritual connection with ukraine for johnson. the former chief of staff of one of the republican congressmen, steven moore , told tetyana voroshko about how christians brought the truth about the russian persecution of protestants in the occupied territories of ukraine to members of the congress and the speaker personally. please tell me how this process started. in december 2022, i met a guy named viktor. victor was an evangelical pastor in luhansk and he told me that when he was taking a group out of luhansk, which included a pregnant woman and a newborn baby. the russians detained them, they pulled him out of the car, took him to the basement, where he was tortured for 25 days. one day he was tortured with a stun gun, and a russian orthodox priest... performed

an exorcism ritual on him because he was an evangelical christian. it struck me. around the same time, tucker carson started talking about zelensky's government persecuting christians. this is just nonsense. you know, i live in ukraine. i can see with my own eyes that this is not true. and so i realized that takar carlson, speaking this lie, which repeats russian propaganda, hides the real crimes of russians who torture and kill evangelical christians in ukraine for their faith. but takar carson's lies drove republicans away from ukraine. so i felt i had to do something about it. you can talk about your previous experience, why victor talked to you and why you started talking to republicans in the house of representatives. i worked for seven years as chief of staff to one of the republican leaders in the us house of representatives. and then i went to ukraine and lived there for a year. i just fell in love with this one

the country, you know, the people here are amazing, i love them for the very qualities that we consider american, they are hardworking, they are entrepreneurial, they are independent, they are free-spirited, they are courageous. when the russians launched a full-scale invasion in february 2022, i returned as quickly as possible to help. i was in ukraine already on the fifth day of the war. so at some point i realized that one of the most important things i had to do was to get quality first-hand information based on reliable data to then pass it on to my former colleagues on the capitalist hill, so i started doing it, can you elaborate a bit? in the summer of 2023, i began to realize that the republicans were moving away from ukraine. i thought that if only they knew about the horrors that the russians are committing against the christian population of ukraine. this would give

them a chance to look at ukraine in a different way. so my colleague karl algren, also a former congressional staffer, and anna shvetsova, who is our ceo, and i talked to about 100 congressmen. until last october , no one talked about it, no one knew anything about it systematic torture and murder of ukrainian christians by russia. and that's why we attracted such partners as together. we told them about this problem and when we started to spread. a lot of things started to happen among our partners, there were many visits from ukrainian church organizations, we personally twice brought the former deputy of the verkhovna rada pavlo unguryan, who is a good communicator for ukraine and ukrainian evangelicals. he has met with speaker johnson at least twice, and we believe that to be true changed the situation. anna shvetsova and i spent christmas eve launching the website rashatortures christian.org, where we host the testimonies of dozens of different people. of people who

survived torture in russia are pastors who talk about how they were tortured. we launched a social media ad in speaker johnson's district, and we did that outreach around the 17th. in different electoral districts, so we are creating mass awareness about russia's persecution of christians in ukraine. they all repeat russian propaganda, which is not corresponds to reality. they also said that the ukrainian government persecutes christians in ukraine. so out of the 100 or so offices that we talked to, probably about 30 asked about... but you know, that's not true, but we have the truth. we showed videos of people talking about torture to members of congress, to their staff. some of them shed a tear. they see people who pray to god just like them, but who are terribly tortured and

oppressed, and their churches are closed. so it gave people an emotional and spiritual connection with ukraine. of them it was hard to believe what we were saying, but russian propaganda is powerful, you know, according to some estimates , the russians spend 2 billion 400 million dollars on propaganda efforts around the world, and we are a small public organization, we were glad that we were able to spend on this effort is over $100,000, one of my friends who is close to...johnson told me that speaker johnson was inspired by the story of esther, a jewish woman who was raised to royalty and was able to save the jewish people from the king of persia because god placed her in this position of royalty. there is a bible verse in the book of esther: why have i been made

royalty, if only for such a time as this. this is the poem that inspires speaker johnson. so we used that in our content and put it together on a billboard near. churches. speaker johnson was a baptist activist before he was elected to congress. and the baptists are a very large denomination in ukraine. the cia and the department of defense provided speaker johnson with an intellectual case for support of ukraine. and our efforts were able to ensure a spiritual and emotional connection with ukraine. 60% of republicans are evangelical christians. last fall, we conducted a survey that showed that 70%. evangelical christians who vote republican are more likely to support ukraine if you tell them that russia is torturing and killing people who worship the same god as they do. it's not just about the lack of religious freedom, it's not about interfaith dialogue, it's about russians torturing and killing

protestants, evangelicals in ukraine for their faith. more about how ukrainian protestants and their allies in the us. told american legislators about the persecution of believers in russia and how it affected aid to ukraine, read on the voice of america website in ukrainian. meanwhile, the recent statements of french president emmanuel macron that europe should be open to discussing the idea of ​​sending nato troops to ukraine were joined by the deputy minister of foreign affairs of estonia and. former permanent representative of estonia to nato. under during a discussion at the hudson institute , the diplomat said that the critical situation on the battlefield in ukraine was caused by too slow pace of aid provision by the allies, but they can still fix it. the debate

began when president macron floated the idea in march. there are many different options for this idea that we have to consider. and one of the options is sending... sending troops to places, in fact, sending troops to ukraine, not to actively fight against the russians, but, as you said, for exercises or some special tasks. we are open to this discussion, instead of saying all the time that we are not going to do anything to help ukraine during this aggression, we should say that we will consider options. as far as i know, no such mission is currently active or planned, but all options are on the table. ukraine's victory has and will have a direct impact on our security. ukraine is actually now fighting for our security, and we are doing everything we can to help militarily, politically, financially, economically, etc. in turn, beijing perceives

the russian war against ukraine through the prism of geopolitical rivalry and with the united states, experts warn. during a six-day tour of europe, sydney pinh tried to reduce. the level of tension and deepen ties with china-friendly countries. at the same time, beijing is hardly ready to distance itself from russia. oleksiy kovalenko will tell the details. chinese president xi jinping is on a six-day tour of europe. among the countries he visits are france, serbia and hungary. against the backdrop of tension over trade issues and european accusations against china in espionage, for the first visit to the old world in the last 5 years, xi jinping chose the countries with which beijing has the most friendly relations. the first country on the tour is france. president emmanuel macron makes statements from time to time. as for strategic autonomy, these words are sweet music to xi jinping. next,

xi jinping visits serbia and hungary, which are much more receptive to chinese investment and chinese diplomacy than other european countries. china is trying to avoid a trade war with the european union over disputes over exports china's cheap electric cars, the production of which is subsidized by beijing. another problem is the restrictions for european companies on the chinese market. about imbalance. trade relations between the eu and china have been warned by european diplomats for a long time. it is in our interests to find a common language, to correct the imbalance in trade relations. otherwise, we will have to significantly accelerate the process of reducing these risks. experts call this tour an attempt to reduce the level of tension and the likelihood of the european union using political measures restrictions against china. the trip is aimed at

de-escalating the situation and reducing the risks of actions from the european side, if beijing does not respond to concerns, whether it is about china's support for russia or about the issue of european competences related to trade, concerns about economic security, various measures will be applied eu. hungary and serbia, which the chinese president is visiting after france, are favorable . to the deepening of economic ties with china, and repeatedly expressed interest in billions of dollars of chinese investments and the expansion of the production of electric cars and batteries outside china, however, no less important for the economy is the political justification of the direction of the chinese leader's tour. china is interested in what macron calls strategic autonomy. some call it the chinese strategy of divide and rule. the other two countries are quite favorable to putin, despite the fact that china is also quite favorable to him. china

also invested symbolism in this visit. the president of china arrived in serbia on the day of the 25th anniversary attacks by nato troops on the chinese embassy in belgrade. during operation allied force, when the alliance militarily forced the yugoslav leader milosevic to stop the repression in kosovo. the authorities in china still consider this a sign of nato's aggressiveness and an example of why russia... seemed to feel threatened by the alliance before invading ukraine. beijing is further deepening relations with moscow, expanding economic ties and exporting dual purpose equipment. the reduction of the risks of the consequences of the proximity of beijing and moscow, experts call one of the the main diplomatic goals of xijin ping's visit. diplomatically, i think that china understands that the deepening of relations between china and russia, china's support for the russian military and industrial sector. bases, the deepening rapprochement between beijing and moscow has a devastating effect on china's relations with europe,

so xi jinping is trying to present china as a reliable mediator between russia and ukraine. china is trying to show itself as an adult, mature diplomatic mediator in the international arena. the issue of russia's war against ukraine has become one of the expected key topics during xi jinping's visit to france. during the european tour, the chinese leader xijin ping said that... china wants to promote peace in europe and in ukraine in particular, but again did not condemn russia for aggression, and continued to call the russian full-scale invasion the ukrainian crisis. george town university professor denis walder called china's policy towards ukraine false neutrality. i think it's hard to be a mediator in a conflict if you don't even say that russia invaded ukraine. china trying to avoid any condemnation. it is hard to imagine china influencing what putin is doing. in fact, what they are doing

is supporting russia's war effort with dual-use equipment, which president biden's administration has talked about in detail. during the european trip , the chinese leader said that he is in favor of the path of negotiations and supports a peace conference that will unite all parties and be recognized by ukraine and russia. this position is not very different from the so-called peace plan of china, which beijing made public in february 200.23, which spoke of respect for the territorial integrity of all countries, while ukraine was not specifically named. see in this breakthrough, some time ago we already saw china's 12-point peace proposal. in fact, my friend asked gpt chat to make this 12-point offer, and it's hard to distinguish from the chinese one. both are general and do not go into detail. frankly, before russia is ready to sit down at the negotiating table with the intention

of achieving peace, and it doesn't look like they will ready now, sidney pinh can talk about any support for the peace meeting. dzego shtek also doubts the likelihood of china's desire to influence russia's aggressive policy. the expert emphasizes that beijing perceives the russian war against ukraine through the prism of geopolitical rivalry with the united states. from a european perspective, the big problem is the language used by beijing, equating the victim and the aggressor, trying to give the same platform to both in all discussions about peaceful settlement russian aggression. beijing perceives the russian invasion through the prism of geopolitical rivalry with the us and spreads narratives similar to those spread by moscow. experts note that with the help of the european tour, the chinese leader is trying to reduce the level of tension on the economic and diplomatic front, and at the same time make the political emphasis that china needs and deepen ties with

china-friendly countries. at the same time, beijing is unlikely to be ready to distance itself from russia or offer realistic proposals. peaceful plans settlement of russian aggression in ukraine. oleksiy kovalenko, oos of america, washington. the soviet union paid a very high price for its position of false neutrality. meanwhile, in the united states, at the university of southern california, a course in innovative technology and design has created a program for startups that can help ukraine. devices. for demining, solutions for the environment and even programs to increase empathy. students presented their products to potential investors. khrystyna shevchenko also saw all this. at the university southern california has had a class of innovative technology and design for six years. here they teach to offer non-standard technical solutions.

ukraine became the main topic of the class two years ago. danielel dragora, a teacher of romanian origin, suggested it. we witnessed a full-scale invasion of ukraine, as a non-roma, i witnessed our neighbors, the ukrainians, coming to our country, and the state they were in broke my heart. we had to do something about it. i called the dean and said: what do you think about getting involved and helping ukraine? and he said that it should be done. our approach was let's take a group of students from all kinds of disciplines, mostly engineering, but add other disciplines. let's offer them crisis situations where they can really develop empathy quickly. now the so-called furnace of projects is taking place in the class. students practice presenting their product

to potential investors. here, for example, is this demining device. we are the sky guard team, we create accessible systems mine detection, it's just a lightweight set of sensors that you attach to the bottom of any drone, and then you fly the drone over the affected area, and it uses artificial intelligence and image recognition and transmits the data via gps, drawing points that are available to everyone, to stay safe and this team presents immersive storytelling. the stories of women who suffered in the ukrainian war are told in virtual reality as if the audience experienced this experience personally. we aim to change the way stories about war, in particular by bringing to life the stories of ukrainian women, because very often their stories are neglected. and many

times people become so desensitized to the suffering of war. a total of nine teams worked on different projects in the class. while developing their ideas, the students came to western ukraine, as well as to romania, where they communicated with ukrainian refugees and volunteers. this month they had the opportunity to present their projects to real investors in california. the whole point of this class, to turn projects into reality, is not a theoretical exercise, this is for real life, for people who have. real needs. the university is partially funding these projects to bring them to this point. we already have some of these projects working in pilot mode. some projects, for example, a heated blanket, are already being used at the front in ukraine, the students themselves say that, while creating their projects , they were deeply influenced by the issue of the war in ukraine.

before working in this class, i was like the people we want to target. i knew about the war, of course, because we did we often hear about her in the news, but it seemed so far away from me and i was more immersed in my own. daily life, but after we did user research in this class, we talked to many ukrainians, that's when, i think, i felt sympathy for these people, and that's why i wanted to work on this project. i joined the class to work on a project for ukraine simply because the question was about an urgent need, but i just didn't understand the magnitude of how urgent the problem was until i i have not been there personally. the students hope to attract investments to their pilot projects, so that they will soon begin to be produced and improve the lives of ukrainians affected by the war. khrystyna

shevchenko, bohdan shevchenko from los angeles for voa. download the voice of america mobile application. the application allows you to bypass blocking automatically thanks to the built-in vpn service. read news, watch informative programs and videos. and also listen to podcasts of the ukrainian service of the voice of america. friends, that's it say goodbye, read breaking news, analytical materials on the website of the voice of america in ukraine. watch live streams, full versions of interviews and stories on our youtube channel. and of course, subscribe to our social networks to always be aware of current and true news. and also watch our daily briefings at 18, from monday to friday. thank you for staying with us. have a peaceful night, see you, there are discounts

represented by coco discounts in may for esthesiphin 15% in the pharmacies psyllanyk, bam and oskad. is discounts represent coco discounts of may on eurofast softcaps 20% in psarynsky, bam and oskad pharmacies. exclusively on the air of our channel. congratulations, friends, politklub is on the air on the espresso tv channel. the most relevant topics of the week: russia's war against ukraine, the war in the middle east, the crisis on the border between ukraine and poland. topics that cause resonance in our. society, drone attack on kyiv and other cities of ukraine, drone attack on moscow and other cities of russia. analysis of the processes that change the country and

each of us. the country has to get the right start negotiations on joining the eu. vitaly portnikov and guests of the project: we are bored because there is nothing to fight about. let's make it up. they help to understand the present and predict the future. for the world, a second trump presidency will be terrifying. project. for those who care and think politclub. every sunday at 20:10 at espresso. an unusual look at the news. good health, ladies and gentlemen. my name is mykola veresen. sharp presentation of facts and competent opinions. and in america they also say, let's make better roads, it would be even better in us. a special look at the events in ukraine, there will be some katsaps on the border of kyiv. its limits, which the world dreams of, well , norman, we can imagine it, all this in the informational marathon with mykola veresny. on saturday 17:10, sunday 18:15 at espresso.

verdict with serhiy rudenko is now in a new two-hour format. even more analytics, even more important topics, even more top guests: foreign experts, inclusion from abroad, about ukraine, the world, the front, society, and feedback. you can express. his opinion on the malice of the day for with the help of a telephone survey, turn on and turn on, the verdict with serhii rudenko, every weekday from 20 to 22 at espresso.

today in the verdict program with serhii rudenko. oleksandr kubrakov was dismissed from the post of vice prime minister and minister of infrastructure without discussion or warning. what government reform is planned in the office of the president? propaganda parade. putin used the may pobedobesia campaign to glorify russian

aggression in ukraine. and nuclear threats of the west. which of the foreign leaders came to moscow on the 9th may? strengthening of failed mobilization. the verkhovna rada allowed convicts to serve and increased the punishment for draft evasion, whether the late decisions of the parliament will correct the situation. glory to ukraine, this is the verdict program, my name is serhiy rudenko, i congratulate everyone and wish everyone good health. for the next hour, we talk about ukraine, the world, the war, and our victory. on the day of victory, putin again threatened the world with nuclear weapons, ministers kubrakov and solsky retired, and the mobilization of prisoners, as it will take place in ukraine and who will fall under this mobilization, about this and about

other things during the next hour. we are talking with our guests, two people's deputies of ukraine, roman kostenko 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, fighters of the shadow unit dropped an american m-67 grenade on it, enemy equipment was destroyed in the area of ​​the don river. or not, let's see how it all turned out.

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 currently watching us live there. please subscribe to our facebook and youtube pages and take part in our survey. today we ask you about the following: do you support the decision to mobilize convicts into the armed forces of ukraine? yes no. if you are on youtube everything

is quite simple, if you have a personal opinion, separate opinion, please write it in the comments below this video, and if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote in this poll: yes 0800-211-381, no 0800 211382, 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 ours on the line. the first guest is roman kostenko, people's deputy of ukraine, secretary of the verkhovna rada committee 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, colonel, let's talk about what...