russia has opened the kharkiv front, commentators are talking about a number of captured villages, why this happened, how far russian troops can advance, we analyze in today's edition of bbc ukraine, i'm olga polamaryuk. in recent days, the russians have achieved success along the border in the kharkiv region. the active offensive began at the end of last week, when russian groups tried to break through the defenses. in four days of offensive operations , the russian army is believed to have been able to capture almost a dozen small villages near the state border. she could advance about 5-6 km deep. of ukrainian territory and 30

km wide. the main intelligence agency says that they knew about the russians' plans. well, you see footage from vovchansk, why did the kharkiv region become the target of the russians? analysts believe that this is how they are trying to draw ukrainian forces away from other areas of the front, and also to create a buffer zone for the protection of bielgorod. by the way, vladimir putin also spoke about the buffer zone. according to experts, russia was preparing for this offensive. and pulled about 30,000 troops to the border, and what about the advance of the russians it became possible, we will also talk about it a little later, but for now we will look at the situation in vovchansk, a city that was under russian occupation in 2022, and which they are trying to capture again. the bbc's jonathan beale has returned from there. the road to russia, only a few kilometers from the border, and evidence that the russians have again... returned

to the kharkiv region. the city of vovchansk was liberated during a surprise attack by ukrainian troops less than a year ago. now it is again in the hands of the russians. alexei, the local policeman is calling again population to leave. he says it is better than dying. the shelling is constant and chaotic throughout the city. we move quickly after hearing the sound of a russian drone. and look at the copter, and that's all, that's all that's left of serhiy's house, go through, it's gone, familiar russian tactics, turning cities into ruins, but serhiy says he can't leave, he has to look after the goats, that's all, what he has left you can hear, the day before

it was more intense, what was once one man's house has now been destroyed by a russian guided air bomb, and this is the sound jet plane. russia outnumbers ukraine in armaments and numbers and uses aerial guided bombs for destructive action. oleksiy simply says: "look what's happening." this forced some to make the final decision to evacuate. although it breaks alexander's heart.

he grew up in this house and does not know if he will ever return here. the ukrainian authorities claim that they were ready, but not everyone agrees. this drone video shows russian soldiers crossing the border unimpeded. two hours, i'm at the front. the same territories you already fought for before, in the 22nd year, the same again. the same ones. are you angry very. denis, the commander of the intelligence unit of the armed forces of ukraine, helped push back the russians in the 22nd year. now he has to fight again for the same territory. we saw it, the russians just went out on foot, without an unmined field, they just went out on foot where they couldn't go. ukraine says it is repelling the offensive because... that

they sent reinforcements, but russia is testing the entire front line over 1,000 km long, and the russians found a weak spot in the kharkiv region. we are talking about the situation in the kharkiv region, with our guest, the executive director of the ukrainian center for security and cooperation , dmytro zhmailo. mr. dmytro, good evening, thank you for joining us, we just heard the words of a military man that the russians actually entered kharkiv oblast on foot without any obstacles, as he says, how did they manage to advance like that, well, it is worth understanding the emotional component, because our troops they perform their tasks in extremely difficult conditions, we must understand that the russian federation in this direction has created a fairly powerful group, which has up to a thousand units of armored vehicles, up to a thousand units of arch systems, about 400 tanks, and they are now really trying

to attack while they have, as they think , time, until help arrives. if we talk about why this is so, then we must understand that the logic of defense is not based on... geographical borders, not on the state border, but on military positions, respectively, those settlements where the russians are now, they are mostly are located in the lowlands, where it is difficult to hold the defense, so we try to counterattack and repel these attacks of the defense force at more advantageous positions for ourselves, at more advantageous lines. it is impossible to do so, to dig a real continuous line of trenches along the state border, to fill everything with concrete. build it, unfortunately, it does not work like that, that is why we have an active defense, the armed forces are constantly maneuvering, we know that vovchansk is one of the key areas for this operation of the russians, so today the attack was repelled there and stopped, despite to the fact that the number of armed clashes is constantly

increasing, and an operation by the armed forces of ukraine to clear these territories from the russians is currently underway in the northern outskirts of vovchansk, so the situation... yes, it remains extremely difficult, but the new team of the general staff knows what it is doing still remains under ukrainian control, although the fighting is very heavy, the situation is indeed very tense. yes, and in your opinion, this breakthrough in the kharkiv region is the main direction of the russian offensive, which the military and political leadership of ukraine itself it was announced, yes, that it is being prepared, but is this exactly how the ukrainians are distracted? forces, i would, if we look at the maps, we can clearly see that the front line is more or less flat, it corresponds to the silhouettes somewhere near the state border, so i would not speak in terms such as breakthrough. the russians are pursuing several goals with this operation,

first of all, they want to transfer part of the ukrainian military units from donetsk region, so that they can be tied up in battles here, so they want to push back... our positions so that ukraine does not attack military objects and legitimate military targets in the belgorod region, which suffered from ukrainian strikes and attacks. and yes, the russians want to expand the front line in general, because while we are talking, the world's attention, which is naturally focused on the kharkiv region, is growing critical in other directions, and the chasivry in the kramatorsk direction, the pokrovsky direction, and the lymansk region are still under threat. in this direction , the number of skirmishes and strikes increases, but at the same time , the defense forces effectively destroy the advancing enemy forces, only in the kharkiv direction, which we are talking about today, in a day more than 100 occupiers were destroyed, military equipment and other means of defeating

the enemy were burned, so yes, the situation is really dynamic, our defenders are constantly trying to counterattack, and we are talking, well , really about... that the operation of the russians, this is their blitz cry , about which we have given in advance, it did not succeed, and if we talk about the prospects of this development, then the russians have this group, it is definitely not enough to attack the city of kharkiv, they need to at least triple the size of their group, which at the moment is not seems possible for them. yes, of course, dmitry, stay with us, we will talk with you, but in the meantime, western experts. they say, the russian offensive in the kharkiv region also highlights the problems of ukraine, about weak points on the front line, about slow mobilization, as well as about the lack of ammunition, while the united states delayed the allocation of aid for more than six months. and this is what

semiel ramani, an observer from the british royal institute of defense studies, said on the bbc. apparently, the russians had been planning to start for some time military operations in kharkiv region. russia follows an old strategy, ukraine understands this. since the beginning of 2023, they have been evacuating civilians, but i think that russia is now intensifying its operations due to the fact that it feels in ukraine that there is a shortage of personnel resources and a lack of military equipment. in the temporary yar and in donetsk region , the russians are not making the progress they had hoped for and are counting on. if the ukrainians redirect their limited resources to kharkiv, they will be able to achieve the results they need in large populated areas on daughters even before the american congress approved the aid package for ukraine , there were discussions about the fact that the aid would be delivered within one or two weeks. and it will include air defense systems, anti-aircraft missiles, artillery shells, and this is

the most important thing at the moment. the most important thing for the front in the kharkiv region is artillery shells, they will help not only to stabilize the ground offensive of the russians, but also to counter what the russians are doing from the air, because kharkiv is much more vulnerable to attacks on energy infrastructure and russian missiles than other large cities of ukraine, such as kyiv and odesa. yes, this was the opinion of a western expert, and we are returning to the conversation, information also appeared about personnel reshuffles, about the change of the commander responsible for the kharkiv direction, dmytro, could such changes in the commanders indicate that the defense of the kharkiv region didn't go according to plan? i don't think it can indicate that something went wrong, because if something went wrong, we've been seeing for days. fighting continues, and they will continue, we must be prepared that the fighting in this area may last

for a month or two, but today's personnel changes i still connected more with the operative reaction of the top military leadership to the situation that has developed, this rotation , which was carried out in this direction, brigadier general mykhailo trapatoy was appointed, this is a combat officer who also participated in anti-terrorist operations. operations, in particular, when he led one of the battalions of the 72nd brigade, this is exactly the battalion that in the 14th year released mariupol, he was also involved in managing operations on the right bank of the kherson region, that is, he is a military man with real combat experience who knows what he is doing, so this is most likely, i repeat, an operational response to the situation that has developed and those personnel changes, just in order to improve the situation that we have... about something not going according to plan, or about the russians making a breakthrough and

the front line falling somewhere in this area, there is no question, that is clear, and experts also say that russia is attacking because of delays aid in ukraine, there is a lack of ammunition, we also talked about this with you, but i wonder if you see signs that the kremlin is in a hurry to take advantage of this, there is absolutely, he understands that he has about two months until... we won't build up these forces, so in these two months he will try to squeeze everything out of the situation, while ukraine lacks all these weapons that are just coming in now, so this is the time for them really to seize as much territory as possible to improve their situation at the front, we see how much their losses are growing, well, in the hundreds, in the hundreds of personnel, as the equipment is destroyed. russian, they are now just trying to outnumber us, they are

actually driving their people to their deaths and simply in order to extract maximum dividends for themselves, because in july the 75th anniversary of the founding of the north atlantic alliance will take place, and they need to show that it is not our incapacity and the reliability of the entire western democracy and the western system, that 's why it's a... bad time for them, they will continue to put pressure on us, but we already know that in particular, those russian soldiers who are participating in the kharkiv operation in the north of kharkiv region, some of them are already beginning to refuse to carry out their tasks precisely because the enemy's losses are now too high due to such a pace, they have increased by many positions. thank you, dmytro zhmailo, executive director of the ukrainian center for security and cooperation, was with us, thank you for. analysis, and bbc ukraine correspondents will monitor the situation, and read more about the battles in kharkiv oblast

on our website bbc.ua, in the article: russia opened the kharkiv front, why did it happen and what will happen next? well, that's all for today, we'll see you tomorrow, as always, at 9 p.m. all the best and take care. greetings, friends, this is the second part of the verdict program, my name is serhii rudenko, we work live on the tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. today we will talk about personnel changes in ukraine, and not only in ukraine, because putin is trying to reshuffle the power bloc, which means during the russian-ukrainian war a change of allies, or rather, not even allies, but partners with others, why is putin doing this, and what does he want

to achieve as a result? we'll talk about all of this for the next 45 minutes, today, as usual. on mondays i will have my comments on the events that are happening in the world and in ukraine, the world and how it affects ukrainian life. i would like to remind you that in addition to live broadcasting, we also work on the youtube and facebook platforms. for those who are currently watching us live there, please don't forget to support our broadcast of like, and also participate in our survey. today we ask you about this. do you think the influence of the president's office on other branches of the ukrainian government is excessive? yes, no, everything is quite simple on youtube, if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote. if you believe that the office of the president excessively influences other branches of government in ukraine (0800-211-381, no

0,800-211-382). all calls to these numbers are free, vote at the end of the program. we will sum up the results of this vote. literally a week ago, the so-called inauguration of the so-called president, the so- called putin, took place. on may 7, at five o'clock in the kremlin , putin was crowned, he wanted to say, he was inaugurated, he was crowned, because what happened both during the so-called election campaign and in the recognition of this election. campaign, especially in the results of these elections, shows that part of the world continues to perceive putin as the leader of russia, as a person who usurped power, but part of the world is still forced to go to his inauguration, to talk about the fact that, well, the elections were illegitimate, obviously they

were not free, but putin is the leader of russia, well , in this situation... it seems to me that the west and our western partners, including partners , should add that putin is the self-proclaimed president, since the elections that took place in russia on march 17, they were also held on the territory of the ukrainian state in the occupied areas, luhansk, donetsk, zaporizhzhia and kherson regions in the republic of the autonomous republic of crimea, which does not comply with any international norms, and so literally... a week passed, putin began, excuse me, to demonstrate how he runs the country, personnel changes, a change of prime minister, a new old prime minister, but the most important thing is that six days after this inauguration, putin announced a replacement the minister of defense, or rather

the minister of attack of the russian federation. serhiy shaigu is this reindeer breeder who is a hero. of the russian federation, the so-called hero of the russian federation, by the way, he received this title in 1999, and is a general, wears a general's uniform, and on victory day 9 on may 10, he received a parade on red square and reported to putin, here is such a handsome general, he is no general, he did not serve in the army, he did not manage the army properly, but he stayed in office for 12 years. the minister of defense, that is, a person who has absolutely no concept of zeleny, what a service is, what an army is, but finally putin realized that he does not understand anything about it at all, he dismissed serhiy shayga, a separatist, a man who is a war criminal, yes , as is vladimir putin, because for the last 10 years they

have been waging war against ukraine, the 11th year already went and over the past two years, they have been striking all over the territory of ukraine, conducting a large-scale attack on the ukrainian state. shaiga was transferred to the position of secretary of the security council of the russian federation, in this position during almost the entire period of putin's presidency, with the exception of a few years, was mykola patrushev, the man who, after the election of... the president, president putin in 2000, headed the federal security service of ukraine, this is the same patrushev who planted explosives under. civilian houses in in moscow, in algadonsk, in budonovsky, in other cities of the russian federation, he planted these, according to the testimony of the disgraced russian

oligarch boris berezovsky, he blew up these houses together with the residents, the residents of these houses, in order to accuse the chechens of organizing these explosions, so this is nikolay patrushev, who was considered one of... putin's top associates , has so far been removed from the post of secretary of the security council of the russian federation, but obviously he was and will be a member of putin's inner circle, although it is currently unknown which he will hold the position, it is now known that the new minister of defense of the russian federation is to become the former deputy prime minister and former adviser, by the way, to putin on economic issues. andriy bilausov, uk defense secretary, grandshaps, commented on the replacement of defense minister sergei shuigu with andriy bilousov

as follows: russia needs a defense minister to reverse this disastrous legacy and put an end to the invasion, but all they will get is more one puppet of putin, the fact that it will be a puppet of putin no one knows doubts, because this same andrii bilousov, who replaced sergey shaiga. does he change the position of minister of defense, he supported putin when the annexation of crimea began, and the annexation of crimea actually took place, he was putin's economic adviser at the time, he told putin that everything was right, and in such conditions it is necessary to act in such a way way, that is, this is another war criminal who sits next to putin and who gives him advice on capturing other people's property. by the way, this andriy bilousov, who is called in the kremlin a person who understands the economy there, and who helped putin avoid a catastrophe,

an economic catastrophe during the last two years, he is a person clearly focused on vladimir putin, i don’t know, maybe putin didn’t really trust patrushev, and even more so this scamaroch as a general . shaigu's form, that he decided to finally sit next to him an economist who would create a military economy there, that is, an economy that would correspond to wartime, an economy that would make more drones, an economy that would make more tanks, an economy that would make more planes. the financial times writes that putin's unexpected appointment of bilousov as the head of the ministry of defense indicates that putin wants serious changes. in the approaches to its two-year invasion of ukraine. according to ff, the appointment of whitebeard, a champion of statist industrial policy and a technocrat without his own power base,

indicates that putin wants closer control over russia's record defense spending of more than 10 trillion rubles. well, another reason for the possible shaigu's resignation could have been the case, the so -called case of him with... the deputy, the deputy minister of defense, who just a month ago was caught by the security forces, and he stole there, they are talking about the billions of rubles that he embezzled from the ministry of defense of the russian federation, or whether it is true or not, the court will prove, of course, the court, obviously there are no officials in russia who do not steal, it is absolutely obvious to me, but in this situation, this whole story simply played against what... that is, shaigu is now transferred to the security council, he secretary of the security council, dmitry medvedev does not remain his deputy, well, they will get along somehow, as

they say, two not-not-not-quite-smart men, they will find some kind of work or, some certain hobbies, they will be united, because medvedev is such a semi-alcoholic or alcoholic... character and shaigu, who always says something wrong, they will obviously be a good duet of the security council of the russian federation, what about bilousov himself, who will now be the new shoigu in putin's circle, he once worked in academic circles before joining the government in 99 to year, then, as i have already said, he was also an adviser, economic adviser to putin and vice-premier. minister and headed many different positions, the only question is what sibiluso will do now, because it is strategically important for ukraine, the position of minister.

of the minister of defense of the russian federation, how he will lead this ministry of defense, the course of the russian-ukrainian war will depend on how he will lead. the president of lithuania, gitanas nauseda believes that the decision of the russian dictator to change the minister of defense shaiga is connected with the desire of the russian regime to continue the war of aggression against ukraine. let's hear what nauseda said. i trust this regime, that i do not believe in their motivation and their decisions. all this is done for the domestic market, all this is done to continue this war. and let's not have any illusions that vladimir putin is ready for some kind of peace talks. he feels that he has now gained the initiative in the war. he sees the delay in helping ukraine from the west and feels capable of doing what he does. there is no other way

to stop it than effectively. support there is simply no ukraine, the main thing is to do it quickly. well, one could ponder how bilousov is better than shaigu, how shaigu is worse than bilousova, how shaigu is better than patrushev, how patrushev is worse than shaigu. but, friends, we have to understand that the entourage of the russian dictator is the entourage of criminals, they are war criminals, they are people who... violated all laws and all international law, they simply pissed off the security system that was created after the second world war in 1945, they are absolutely people who walk in complete chaos, i.e. this is a gang that sits in moscow, that also manages the russian-ukrainian war, they are trying

to do their best. in order to destroy our state, and besides, they ignore international law, that is, they are people who live outside the law, outside the norms of international law, and therefore, whoever heads the ministry of defense of the russian federation, whoever heads the radbe from the russian federation, this proves only one thing, that as long as this gang is in power, all of patrushev and shaigu, and putin, and bilausov, this means that until then they... will act unjustly and not only in relation to ukraine, but in relation to other states. by the way, i mentioned patrushev, that he is a person who has been close to vladimir putin for quite a long time. so, while the fate of the appointment of patrushev the elder, patrushev the younger, this is denys patrushev, the son-in-law secretary of the security council of the russian federation, is still unknown, he will become

the vice... prime minister in the new government, and earlier, earlier, when it was still about heirs, who could be putin's heir, so denis patrushev, patrushev's youngest son, was called a person who could be he is putin's heir, because patrushev leaves the fsb, and putin is from the fsb, the fsb does not want to give up power in the russian federation, everything is simple there. spied on by the special services, and therefore patrushev is calculated on the fact that putin will one day hand over power, to whom he will hand it over, he hopes that denis patrushev, but from these two patrushevs, even putin no longer knows what he should do, so obviously denis will to work in the government, and mykola, or mykola patrushev, will obviously find him some other position, he will have influence, but not so much anymore big, as it was until now, what exactly?

on the eve of all this, this personnel reshuffle, which putin is now trying to conduct, there was a victory parade, there was a so -called parade where people gathered who have absolutely no idea what happened in may 1945, and here they in general, because it started to snow during this parade, in short, the whole situation... was not as festive as putin would have liked, but during this so-called parade, where oleksandr lukashenko also came, the self-proclaimed president of belarus, the first, i mean, putin started saying that we have nuclear weapons, and we will use them to deter the whole world, as if someone is threatening them, instead, it's about...