about the following: do you support the decision to mobilize convicts into the armed forces of ukraine? yes, no, if everything is quite simple on youtube, if you have a personal opinion, a separate opinion, please write it in the comments under this video, and if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote for it survey, yes 0800-211-381, no 0800-211-382, all calls to... are free, vote, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote. we have our first guest on the phone, this is roman kostenko, popular 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, mr. colonel, let's talk about what... awaits

ukraine in the next month or one and a half, because according to the forecasts of the main intelligence directorate 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 the middle of may to the end of june, well, at least... we have to wait for the actions of the russians to intensify, er, if we analyze the situation, what is on the front, now the enemy, er, does not have such forces to conduct strategic directions, offensives, but they are even now conducting such offensives, which, let's say, consist of yes on tactical directions, but if you miss these moments, they can turn into an operational success of the russians there, but i i will say, as secretary of the committee... a few days ago i received

received, well, we receive information on the logistical assistance that comes to us according to intelligence, it was nice to see the latest reports from our partners, 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... you constantly saw how it decreased, in particular, the range of high-precision ammunition from our overseas partners, and this, let's say, they had such a very large high influence on battlefield, in particular hymars missiles there and others, well, when it was opened now, we even looked there with some colleagues from the committee, let 's say, as they say, they were pouring, and that's good, and i hope that the enemy is there preparing for the offensive. well, let's put it this way, if all this is

brought to the battlefield and used correctly, then we have, fortunately, what to meet it now, and i think that the enemy will not achieve any significant success, realizing what forces and means we have there is, and this is only what has come, and there is still much to come, so we must understand that we have something to fight against, well, for the near future, of course, the question will be all about... guys, warriors in the mobilization potential, which should use everything that our partners give us. the spokesperson 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 holding their positions, i quote the lieutenant colonel, part of those groups that broke through.

ukrainian soldiers managed to reach the refractory plant in krasnogohorivka liquidate, and those who remained are in a difficult situation, since they are practically deprived of ammunition supply and armored vehicle support. at the moment, fighting is going on there, well, this is the situation near the city of krasnohorivka, but mr. colonel, how do you assess the possibilities of the russians to deploy a front, to create a northeastern one. the sumy front, kharkiv, because there are also different estimates, there are different forecasts and that the russians may use additional forces in order to go to sumy and kharkiv, is this possible? look, uh, it's possible, but the question, what goals do they want to achieve? if we say just go and establish a foothold, make a sanitary zone, as they say, there, then of course they need to pull up the troops. everything depends on us, but this is not

the story when they wanted it and they did everything, because we have troops there, we have a prepared border, everything is mined there, it is not even a border there in 22. this is a completely different story, so it will be quite difficult for them to do it, this is a fact, well, plus , i say once again, having received the help that is currently available there, then we fortunately have something to meet them, but they did not give up 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 attacked the russians... the regular forces were conducting combat operations there, of course they want to secure it, because it affects the reputation there, including that of putin, they will try to do this in this area, but i say once again, we have something to meet , ago it is likely, but such global forces that

could, well, many are afraid that they will capture kharkiv there, look, if you do everything right, of course you can drop everything and run, and then, of course, you can capture there, but if it is properly organized. defense even with the available forces and means that we currently have, plus with the help that we currently have, it is unlikely that they will succeed there, the main thing for our commanders and generals is to plan correctly, to protect personnel correctly the composition is correct use the available weapons, 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, this... the president of the united states of america on national security says that in in 2025, ukraine plans to launch a new counteroffensive after receiving military aid from the united states of america. how do you assess the possibilities from deterring the offensive

of the russians to our possibilities of transitioning to a counteroffensive in a year. look, it's a year such a long gap. time, and, let's say, it is very difficult to predict what actions we will have in a year, we can plan, we can certainly plan, say that now we are in strategic defense, and in a year we will go on a counteroffensive, but there will be a lot, but , there will be conditions that we could, and we need these conditions, to fulfill them, to achieve certain goals, so that we can do it, for example, to mobilize a certain number of people that would allow us to... go into this counteroffensive, make large stockpiles of weapons and equipment, ammunition, we are currently being supplied with ammunition, they are enough for the current conduct of hostilities to launch a counteroffensive, we need there, well, from my point of view, there are tens of times more ammunition there, because those who are attacking understand how it is

done , how it is planned, and this is a fact, therefore - we have to plan, but before these plans we have to... a lot of actions have to be carried out and preparedness has been brought up, if it will be, again, how will the enemy behave, if the enemy will further increase its potential and will produce for next year, not 2 million there, but 4 million ammunition, yes, we have to think about it, if we do not have superiority in the air, this will also need to be taken into account, then our defense and industrial complex, so we can plan the issue, but there are a lot of components that... there is homework that we have to do to make it a reality. mr. colonel, today the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyi, also gave an assessment of what is currently happening at the front during

a meeting with the head of the european parliament robert mytsulai, 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. in the east, but the defense forces will stop this offensive after new shipments of weapons arrive in ukraine, in particular from the military package approved with the united states of america, let's listen to what zelensky said, we didn't have enough forces there, there was an increase in forces in the east, vdiivsky, pokrovsky, you know, all these directions, and there is a really difficult situation, not the first day. there are deliveries, but not the volumes which were, thank god, once again and gratitude, 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, so dosed so that we don't... violate parity with the russians, so that we don't do more than necessary, or just to deter russia, but don't do bi steps, for example, to expel them from the borders of the ukrainian state, and accordingly with a counteroffensive, possibly on the territory of the russian federation, what are they afraid of? look, well, i think these questions should be directly asked first of all by our diplomats, and the supreme commander-in-chief, when he talks about this, he knows why this happens, i will say that yes, a certain amount of everything comes to us, but there are two side of the coin, first of all, i would like more and for them to give everything and we put it in... in our territory, some russian rockets immediately flew there, this is also a factor that we

have to take into account when transferring ammunition here, and on it's a pity, there were times when, even in my memory, i walked around with my feet, scattered, 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 that there are millions, but, but for certain directions it was critical, it is also necessary to take into account when you say, give us everything, so we must understand that there must be someone who says that we need, for example, a certain amount of ammunition per month, we need such, for example, to conduct defense actions we can provide the storage of these munitions, we can ensure that they are put to their intended use and everything else, i think it has to be stored somewhere that is not accessible to the russians because they are after this package is announced. after our partners voted, everything, they are doing everything to invent,

find and find warehouses for these munitions, they don't regret it, they don't burn their agents, which they have preserved here for many years, and the missiles are expensive , no power at all, or no bribe there even some foreign representatives, in order to understand where they are passing, well, weapons are being fiddled with... ukraine, so here we have to be very careful, why partners give us exactly, here it is, you know, this is a question that cannot be answered on the air, because there are a lot of factors, and there are agreements for each individual type of weaponry, somewhere they have problems themselves with some types of weapons, somewhere there are problems with supplies, somewhere they, here i see the nomenclature, and now you can understand what ammunition they have, and which are not, for example, you just look there on the 155th, which one the nomenclature of measures and you 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 others, when you look at what might be better here, so, let's say, in them they also divide, because they have a war not only in ukraine, we see that now they have stopped supplying weapons to israel there, they are also at odds with each other there, so they dispose of these weapons and see where it can affect and more win their interest. and help the country they are trying to help help. mr. colonel, president zelenskyi conducted regular personnel rotations among the top management, the military leadership, dismissed serhii lupanchuk from the post of commander of the special operations forces of the armed forces of ukraine and appointed the hero of ukraine oleksandr tripak to this post. the president also appointed dmytro gerega as commander of the support forces of the armed forces of ukraine, who was dismissed from the same position only on march 24. well, today zelenskyi 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, here is what is happening now with the special operations forces, because as far as i remember, serhiy lupanchuk was appointed commander very recently, now here is the next rotation , oleksandr tripak will be the new commander, with what it is related, that is, there are some... well , objective reasons, or in principle the president selects a team so that it is a team, one team, plays equally, has certain results, and accordingly evaluates the work of these commanders, i will not rate with your permission, lupanchuk or other commanders are there, they will be evaluated by their subordinates, soldiers from the battlefield, but i will say that i... uh, at the moment, i am glad that general trepak is appointed, and

because i said long ago with respect to some past commanders who were in the ssso, er, what is wrong to appoint to the ssso er commanders from other ee branches of the military there with guru, for example, with all due respect to guru, a very serious organization, but the ssso is a separate institution , it can be said that, the alternative of 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 capabilities, and this institutionalization should be managed in the ssso from my 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 since the beginning of the war, let's say, observed as

a participant, and very... let's say , it takes a long time for them to get used to people who come from abroad, despite the fact that, i will repeat once again, there are families who grow from the command of the group commander, then to the squad commander, company commander, squad commander, there are deputies, brigade commanders, occupy some positions in the command, grow along the career line and look up, and then understand whether they appoint someone from completely different 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, with all due respect to everyone, but this is a special body, and this institutionality should 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 lead the special

operations forces, knowing each other and working on trust, and not there and not putting her on top, so that she is someone's person, and not a person of the sso. sssos should be run by people with sssos. and this is very important, when i served both in the troops in the airborne troops and in alpha, and this institutionality, this family nature of these special operations, special assignment, it has a very serious effect on the atmosphere inside, and when someone comes from outside the best, with all due respect to them, i don't think it's right, because it's... uh, this, this unit has to educate people themselves, so i'm glad , that this commander came, i do not idealize the military, i have the right to do so, because i myself, the military, and i always believed that not always, let's say, the best platoon commander can be a good company commander and vice versa, sometimes a bad platoon leader can become a good one by company, this is a fact, and i hope that after all

general trepak, he is in the family, and he will be a worthy commander to lead. then 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 soldiers of the sso, this is a good start, then everything will depend on him, i i wish him good luck in the military. mr. colonel, one more topic is relevant enough, which will be actualized as early as may 18, this is mobilization and a new one. mobilization procedure, new procedure for payment of fines for those who violate, who will violate military registration and mobilization, the verkhovna rada has already adopted a bill on fines, those who will violate military registration mobilization during martial law will be forced to pay fines from 17,000 to

25,500, and the council has also adopted a decision on the mobilization of those convicted of minor crimes people. mp 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 the ministry of economy should calculate who exactly is needed and at which enterprises, because it is impossible to bleed the economy either. now is the time to tell through mass media that our military is 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 shoulder to shoulder, then the president should also stand shoulder to shoulder, who should not just address and talk about the necessary offensives, but call for mobilization and the parliament, all these jokes that we see

at the marathon and on tv channels, when the military is made fun of, which infuriates the whole system. this does not contribute to mobilization. mr. colonel, if you briefly summarize the process that has already begun, which will probably unfold in the next two to three months in ukraine, how do you assess the legislation that was adopted and the prospects for attracting conscripts to the armed forces of ukraine. well, i hope to improve ours. mobilization climate, in particular in the country, because, well, you understand we have always had a history when the law had to be passed, it still needs to work properly, and we always have it at this stage. i missed something, 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 there is a lot of work by the government and the ministry of defense, in particular the general staff, to ensure that people are trained and healthy , mr. mykola correctly said in his speech exactly without breaking away from military production, it is very important, i say once again that the last there for a week i was engaged in the fact that... 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 their data to get armor, and they were closed, they say , well, and they have the legal right to do this, it is not defined by any resolution, and it is a very big problem, we then talked about it with mr. techprog, and with the ministry of defense, and i believe that they should work on it is correct that if there is any enterprise that is manufactured. they are not here should go and beg to be given armor, then the task of the ministry of defense, the ministry of strategic industries and all other interested parties,

come to this enterprise and say: "guys, how many people do you have, give us names and nothing think, make shells for us so that the boys fight at the front, that's how it should work, but now it's often the other way around, you go and prove that you need to make shells for the boys at the front. this is wrong, this is necessary." change is a fact, but no one wants to do it yet, but we will continue, let's say so, to fight where we will need to help in manual mode, because we understand that one thing is on the battlefield, our soldiers are fighting, but no matter how many soldiers there are, if they do not have shells, if they do not have there will be weapons, then they will die there, and this is a fact, and someone must control it. thank you, colonel, for the conversation, this was roman kostenko, a 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 are currently watching us on youtube and

facebook, please subscribe to our pages and also 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. everything is quite simple on youtube. if you watch us on tv, take your smartphone with you. phone and vote if you support the decision to mobilize convicts into the army 0 800 211 381, no 0800 211382, all calls to these numbers are free, vote at the end 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 of 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

the victory day parade took place on red square in moscow, and central asia and belarus were present. during his speech in moscow, russian dictator putin once again threatened russia's opponents with nuclear weapons. 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 president of russia, he has been repeating this mantra about nuclear weapons. nuclear weapons about the forces, strategic forces, that is, as you predict, after gaining another legitimacy, well, the so-called

legitimacy, which we do not recognize, but still, having passed for another six years on the head of the russian federation, will he continue to draw this trump card constantly as a nuclear weapon and blackmail with it. the whole world, 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, has such , you can say bipolar disorder, on the one hand, it is a great nuclear power that should decide the fate of the world, and on the other hand... well , in fact, it is constantly threatening with nuclear weapons, since it cannot achieve its goals in ukraine, a non-nuclear state that is alone at war with the russian federation,

yes... they help us with weapons, ammunition, money, but in fact we do not give with our own forces, with our own people, on our own territory, in fact, russia wants to capture us, and therefore 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 bridges of our partners, primarily in berlin and washington, and they are really afraid of escalation application of nuclear. whether in ukraine, or 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 effect, senseless restrictions strategic ones that act in relation to ukraine, and you know, when you showed these shots, such a moment is very important, in fact also around putin, there are two with

asian ones. we sat katsapas, who were identified on the network as those who were involved in crimes, war crimes, crimes opposition in buch and other cities of ukraine. i think that it is no coincidence that these people were gray 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, it is clear that this action, this shab'. it simply shows the inhuman nature of this regime and the danger it poses not only to ukraine. mr. alexander, but we saw what happened two, literally days ago, when the so-called inauguration of the so-called president putin, and saw the statements that were made, or heard the statements that were made by the united states of america, when they said

that the election... was not free, but they recognize that putin is the leader of russia, representatives of six european states, including france, were at this so-called inauguration, and what prevents the world from clearly emphasizing and looking at the facts that the elections in the russian federation or pseudo-elections, they took place in violation of all the rules, in violation of the observance of the law some norms ee. world norms, well, including that these elections took place, or pseudo-elections, took place in the occupied territories of a foreign state, and that is, there is more than enough 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 president, in order not to talk to him as a president, as a full-fledged president

of russia. well, you know, the argument of political realism works here, that if we all did not like putin, if we did not consider him a criminal from the point of view of international law, and a warrant has been issued for him by the international criminal court, but this person heads a state, the largest nuclear state in the world, and a rather large army and potential, and it is clear that such a person still has to be reckoned with, and such a person... they do not want to interrupt contacts or potential, the potential possibility of such contacts in order to avoid a possible direct confrontation between the russian federation and nato, well, and accordingly a possible escalation with the use of nuclear weapons, well, i also think that in the united states and in france you do not rule out the possibility of resuming the dialogue with putin under certain conditions, when it becomes

clear that russia... to make certain compromises, well, at least, as they will be considered in, let's say, in paris and washington from the point of view of how this war will end, you know, a very demonstrative example of france, which on the one hand sent its ambassador to take part in this action, in the masquerade of the so-called inauguration, on the other hand , let's say from the other side. the french ambassador was summoned to kover to the kremlin, more precisely to the ministry of foreign affairs with a démarche for mr. macron's words about supporting ukraine, about the possibility of deploying french troops on the territory of ukraine, and here on the one hand it looks like a strange situation, yes, macron does not call, does not talk, then he supports ukraine, he says , which can place

troops on the territory. of ukraine and even potential for them to fight.