early parliamentary elections in britain, will rishi sunak remain as prime minister? and how can changes in the british government affect ukraine? we talk about possible election surprises in today's edition of the bbc. i am olga polamaryuk. for the first time in 14 years , another party may come to power in britain. the country may get another prime minister, and rishi sunak, a staunch ally of ukraine, may lose his seat. the election race has officially started in the united kingdom. prime minister, representative of the conservative party. party announced that the election

will pass on july 4, although earlier rishi sunak spoke about the second half of the year , sunak made his unexpected, really resonant statement on downing street, the official residence of the british prime minister. in his brief speech, he said he was proud of what his government had achieved in such difficult times. now is the time for britain to choose its future, to decide whether we want even more progress, why. we want to return to the original positions without a plan and certainty. today i spoke to his majesty the king to to ask permission to dissolve the parliament. the king agreed to this request, so the general election will be held on july 4. this election will take place at a time when the world is more dangerous than at any time since the end of the cold war. putin's russia is waging a brutal war in ukraine and will not stop if he succeeds there. that war. clearly identified the risks to our

energy security. in the middle east, the forces of islamism threaten regional and ultimately global stability. aspiring extremists took advantage of this tension undermine our values ​​and divide our society. as china seeks to dominate the 21st century by stealing technology, hostile powers are weaponizing migration to undermine the integrity of our borders. but why did the prime minister take such a risky step and deliberately speed up the pre-election process? in order to understand this, let's look at how this electoral process takes place in britain. the country is divided into 650 constituencies, each of which elects a deputy who will represent local residents in the house of commons. party that will gain a majority, nominate its leader as the new prime minister. currently, the fiercest struggle is between the conservatives, whose leader is sunak, and the labor party. and judging by the polls,

the conservatives are now trailing labor by more than 20%. so why call an election now when the ratings are not in favor of the conservatives? party leader keir starmer is betting on frustration with the conservatives and is pitching his party as the party of change. whether you are a family struggling with high prices, dealing with anti-social behavior or you business owners? who have been struggling for years with an economy that is now in chaos because of this government. if you have served your country in some way, then this election is for you. now is your chance to put an end to this chaos, move on to a new phase and rebuild britain. the emphasis on early july elections has become a reality. a surprise for

most conservatives, and some ministers were even forced to cancel the planned events and urgently return to london. bbc political commentator rob watson shared your thoughts on this matter. i think the reason why he came out with that statement, we're getting hints from sources close to mr. sunak, is that he decided it couldn't get any better. and the idea that people will start to feel better economically in the coming months, even if that happens. they are unlikely to thank the conservatives, and he was also afraid of accusations from the opposition that he was allegedly clinging to power, so despite the fact that the conservatives are far behind by an average of 21% in the ratings, he decided that here in action, 14 years of political gravity against us, 14 years in power, seems like the best, or should i say the least bad, thing that could be done, but it's also true that... that the main opposition

labor party needs, so to speak, a jump in support of over 12%. this is even more than tony blair managed to achieve in 1997. when labor beat the conservatives after the conservatives had been in power for a long time, it's a tall order for the conservatives to break that line. it will also be historic a victory if labor succeeds in the end. and let me add something else, because we were talking about the leadership of labor and how unpopular the conservatives are, because it's worth remembering the conditions under which this election was made possible, which has been a cause of concern for many other parties who ... how they participate in it. poll after poll suggests that the country is in a rather depressing mood, and most people think that not everything is working right here and that the country is headed in the wrong direction. in addition, surveys and studies indicate that quite strong anti-political, anti-system sentiments. so

voters keep saying they don't like either party. none of the politicians. so to all the parties, not just mr starmer and mr sonok to... we've just heard the bbc political commentator rob watson's analysis of whether british government officials will forget about ukraine as they focus on the election, my colleague irena tareniuk is now in westminster, irena, congratulations, how will the early elections affect support for ukraine, because during the campaign , as we just heard, the issues of internal politics come first. business in because support for ukraine is a political consensus in society and social consensus, so there are two levels here: support itself and attention to ukraine. if the support remains unchanged, because it is a well-oiled logistical, political, military mechanism,

then attention to ukraine will definitely decrease. but here it should be noted that the support of ukraine is that, that's right, that's the bone, that's this prize, for which... both parties are fighting, competing, because both rishi sunak and keir starmer emphasize that support of ukraine will remain unchanged, no matter what, no matter who wins, and at the same time they accuse each other of the lack of this support, which is very interesting: ryshe sunak, who , let me remind you, has a very good personal relationship with ukrainian president zelensky, his wife has met several times with first lady of ukraine. keir starmer currently does not have such charisma, such warmth in his relationship with zelensky, but this attitude and public consensus remains unchanged, which ultimately reflects the mood of the british people, because

conservatives consider ukraine's support and britain's speed and leadership in supporting ukraine's military to be one of their advantages and one of their undoubted achievements. foreign policy, it is difficult for labor to compete with what labor promises to support ukraine in the future, but what is interesting is that when, during the last visit to ukraine , richi sunak announced in april that the united kingdom was increasing annual aid to ukraine to the level of 3 billion pounds, but said kolily boristy, if they come to authorities, they will not do this, then labor urgently dispatched to kyiv... the foreign minister and the defense minister of the shadow cabinet, david lamy and john healy, and they assured their respective ukrainian ministers that if labor wins, this support will remain at the level to which

the conservatives raised it. in other words, we can see that support for ukraine has already become a political bone of contention between the governing conservative party and the opposition labor party. which is in six weeks it may well become a governmental one, so the biggest intrigue here now is who will agitate for it, lobby for the interests of ukraine at the anniversary nato summit in washington on july 11, because that summit will take place exactly one month after these fateful and unexpected elections for the british. yes, it's really only six weeks away, yes, but assuming he wins this election after all. position, why can such a significant, fundamental change take place, if we are still talking about ukraine? eh, the nuances can change, because eh approval of aid is a complex process,

political, er, it is an economic process, allocation of aid, er, nuances in what sense, er, rivshchynak says that... when the labor party comes to power, they promised to increase aid to ukraine to 3 billion, if the finances allow it, the finances in ukraine are bad, at the elections, before... the main issue is a matter of domestic politics, but both parties are talking about ukraine, because they explain the economic troubles in part by the economic consequences for the world economy, not only the british one, of the invasion of russia in ukraine, they say that in preparation for the invasion, putin reduced the energy supply, worsened, disrupted the energy supply, the flow of energy supply, and thus the energy crisis, because of which every thunder paid. citizen of britain was also an indirect consequence of putin's aggression against ukraine and against europe. but

it is interesting that grand sabbs, the current defense minister who was going to, until recently, was going to go to the washington nato summit, said that he would push for every nato country to raise the level of funding for its armed forces forces to 2.5%, so that it becomes a fundamental moment for all nato countries, precisely in view of aggression. ukraine, so in the next six weeks, olga, we will hear a lot about ukraine, because no party, no campaign can do without mentioning the brutal aggression of russia, putin's russia against ukraine. so ukraine will be mentioned, but perhaps not in the way we would like, or not in the way the ukrainian government officials would like. yes, and not so often. thanks for the thorough analysis. iryna tereniuk, bbc correspondent from westminster was in touch with us. thank you. but the main questions that will decide the fate of the elections are questions of internal british politics,

around which the election participants will build their slogans, explains financial times viewer anna gros. the key message from the conservatives: stay with us, things are starting to pick up, you are starting to see the positives. they chose yesterday to start the campaign because it was the best opportunity, people in the party say, they have achieved some economic indicators, no technical recession, inflation is down to almost normal, which is about 2.3%, so they encourage you to stay with them, they say that their plan is starting to pay off, there is no going back, and you will hear it over and over again for the next six weeks, don't go back to square one. at the same time, the message we're hearing from labor is essentially to start from scratch, which they say is better than chaos, which is the word chaos they use a lot when talking about... we hear the tories all the time, they're trying to present itself as a party of economic stability rather than

instability they talk a lot about the confidence period, they also mention businesses not knowing what to expect from a tory government. i think the tories will talk a lot about migration, which may backfire, but this is a key area where they say they have a plan, and they never tire of repeating that labor has no plan here. labor will want to talk about public services and that they can breathe new life into this sphere and support it, that is, support and... the national health service, schools, the education sector, prisons. when you talk to people, especially outside of london, people are frustrated by the 14 years that things haven't improved. the economic situation has become worse, prices have risen. trust in politicians is very low, so i don't think people are particularly inspired by the party of rishi sunak or keir starmer. this can be detrimental to both parties. when you look at the polls, both the leaders are not very popular with the people. what? the next six weeks will be in a pre-election mood for britain. early elections will be held in the country on july 4. as

the struggle is expected to be difficult. the current prime minister is betting on the economic situation, which has improved recently, as we heard, the inflation rate has fallen to 2.3%, on the contrary, another labor representative is betting on changes, and support for ukraine depends to some extent on the results of these elections. as my colleagues have said, if labor wins, the country can focus more on domestic issues. well, subscribe to our pages in social networks, so as not to miss the most important news, we are on facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube you can watch our episode, if you missed it on the air, comment, share, like. well, that's all for today, look for more stories on our website bbc.ua, also on our pages in social networks, and again on the air, tomorrow, as always, at 9 p.m., good luck, take care.

in russia, and don't be afraid to offend china, mr. vitali, we have to catch you at your word, we are now adding espresso, and we will immediately continue this conversation with you, so. on youtube of the project, velikiy lviv says, we are already working, and the espresso tv channel - all-ukrainian broadcasting together with the project speaks velikiy lviv, in fact it joins us in literally a few seconds, i understand, well, if we are ready to give the initial cap, tell me an ear and we will give it.

congratulations to all the viewers of the tv channel, this project is called velikiy lviv, traditionally, we meet every thursday in our lviv studio, on the largest discussion platform of our country, but we start from our openness room with vitaly portnikov traditionally, congratulations, thank you for joining us, now we everyone is watching ukraine is on the espresso tv channel, velikiy lviv is speaking on the youtube channel, the whole world is watching us and... we were asked to write where you are watching us from: poland, the czech republic, italy, i see, we also congratulate you and are glad that you are also with us. in a few minutes after the conversation with mr. portnik, we will go to the big studio, there are already guests, people's deputies, experts, military, we will talk with them about all important topics, so leave

your questions in the comments, who watches us on youtube, comments, it is important to us, we will have together with you and the guests have such a conversation. discussions so, mr. portnikov, you and i started this conversation even before we joined the viewers of the tv club, we talked a lot about international relations, in particular, how ukraine interacts with china, but we would also like to hear the conclusion of the answer about this, and in general today, president zelensky said that russia will do everything possible to disrupt the peace talks in switzerland, and what resources the russians have and what they can have. in order to disrupt this important meeting for us, where there is also more, as far as i am concerned i understand, the question is completely open, including the presence of the chinese delegation and its, let's say, who will represent it, at what level. i think that russia will now work with the countries of the global south so that they either refuse to participate in

this forum at all, or significantly reduce the level of representation. and we know that both the president of brazil, lula da silva, and the president of the south african republic, cyril ramaphosa, have already refused to participate in this forum. i think that there will be a lot of such people in russia will put a lot of effort into this, and china by and large helps russia here, why? china offers an alternative plan, a conference at which both ukraine and russia will be present, and china can say to the countries of the global south, why would you go to switzerland? let's have a real meeting. where will be the two countries that are currently at war, let us give them a platform with our participation, and let them agree among themselves how they can stop the war, because if you go to a place where russia is not there, you will just participate in the scenery peace process, which will be beneficial only to ukraine and the west, only to the united states, not to you, and you will be extras for joseph

biden and volodymyr zelensky, that's what volodymyr putin and sidzenpil will say to their colleagues. mr. vitaly, today's, not today's, but this week's statements that already blinkin somehow says that if, well, it would not be desirable for ukraine to use american weapons to strike targets on the territory of the russian federation, but it is for ukraine to decide, mike johnson, about it was you who also said on our youtube broadcast, declared, says that it is necessary to allow, as you think, this is the turning point of it. week is happening in our country, because very often we hear such statements that it is necessary to provide, we will think, and then they provide, and here we need to think, but in principle, already american weapons can theoretically be used by ukraine, an important episode of this week, which began has started to pour into the mug, and sooner or later it will overflow and we

will be able to hit, the main thing is that this water has already started pouring, you see, it is filling this... this mug is filling, filling, filling and will soon spill over, which means that some military facility on the territory of the russian federation will be destroyed, and this is important, because without the destruction of the russian military potential with the impossibility of its quick recovery, russia's war against ukraine will continue forever. we cannot fight someone else's military potential with drones alone and we cannot use them. western weapons only on the own territory occupied by the aggressor, this is not a military approach, you understand, it can be a political approach, but there is no no to war, as a process. there is no logical connection, and i have been talking about this for how long, i don't remember, it's been a long time, but it's not just me, i say, ukrainian leaders are talking about it,

the ukrainian military is talking about it, and the west should listen to it , because this is just healthy nonsense, and to say that russia will attack us because we will use our weapons to destroy some of its airfields or factories there, but i apologize, they can attack you because your missiles are hitting the crimea, if putin wants to... strike, he won't ask you from which he inflicts such hell, the west stopped being afraid, this is already the final question of the russian federation and why, and natalya zahid did not stop being afraid, but the west began to understand that without raising rates, he will not win, this is the first step to recovery, and the continuation of the story about khodorkovsky, we also mentioned this on youtube, that he told the west that we need to give more weapons, otherwise... it will simply be taken over by russia in parts, russia will do it and start with kharkiv, and end with lviv, lviv is the only one that has a chance to protect itself, and that's it viewers in

in the appendix, they write that khodorkovsky demotivates the west in this way, because if we lose, then it makes sense to give us weapons, we need to speed up negotiations and freeze them, we lost, it makes sense to give us weapons so that we do not lose, because if we are not given weapons, we can lose . and the more we are given weapons, the more chances are that we will not lose, but win, and always, you know, the problem is that we always want to think in one option, and there should be several options, and if we understand that there is a positive and the negative version, we we understand how to react to the negative option, if we say, we will win anyway, well, win, but if we say, we can lose, it means that we need more money, more weapons, more support, more. .. pressure on russia, confiscation of russian assets, i am right as at a rally, but all this must be done. thank you, vitaly portnikov, we traditionally start with an analytical conversation with a journalist,

writer, tv presenter, publicist and political observer . go to our large studio of the largest discussion platform of ukraine. gentlemen, we congratulate you, we are ready to introduce those who... are with us today in the studio and we will have a discussion, a conversation with you. evgeny magda is with us, candidate of political sciences, director of the institute of world politics, good evening. olena zhivko, head of the veteran organization association of volunteers, good evening. andrii andreykiv, with us, candidate of legal sciences, military-political expert, member of the aspen club of ukraine. taras batenko, people's deputy of ukraine, chairman of the deputies groups for the future. taras tetskiv is also with us, people's deputy of ukraine for five convocations. good evening. mykola golomsha, military-political expert, first deputy general prosecutor 2003-10 and 14-19 years, good evening. to everyone who watches us on youtube, velikiy

lviv says, we want to offer the option to choose the viewing format of this project in 4k, in the settings you can choose us, in fact, the first ukrainian media project that will be permanently broadcast in this format, although the most important thing is the contents , and therefore the first questions to mr. andreykiv. today , syrskyi is often quoted as saying that , to generalize, it is not necessary to retell syrskyi's entire post that, in principle , the situation in kharkiv oblast is stabilizing, it is difficult to stabilize, because even the phrase from our commander-in-chief that in vovchansk the russians are in charge "we got into street fights, on the one hand they got stuck, and on the other hand the street fights continue, mr. andreykiv, your analysis... of the current situation in kharkiv oblast, has this already critical period really passed?" good evening, we are three weeks therefore, it was said that the emphasis of the russian federation

in the elite company will be concentrated on stretching the forces and means of the armed forces of ukraine throughout the entire area of ​​combat. let me remind you that our land border with russia is almost 200 km, of which 900 km is the zone of active hostilities. actions russia is not abandoning its global plan, which is to reach the borders of the luhansk and donetsk regions and preserve the land corridor to crimea. for this, we have already noted, and this is confirmed by western analysts, that they will be in the near future to try to stretch the forces and means of the ukrainian troops in the area of ​​sumy, kharkiv region and possibly also from chernihiv region. take it like this. a city like kharkiv is certainly a russian dream, but its realization is extremely impossible and doubtful. that's why they manage, as far as the city of kharkiv is concerned, this implementation. constant

terror against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure, and from the point of view of military tasks and objectives, they will maximally accumulate the forces and means necessary in order to to withdraw the number of our armed forces to this section of the border, and at the same time preparing the main strike where they currently have reserves, reserves are formed in the kupinsky direction, in the lymansky direction and in the... zaporizhzhia direction, obviously, the main theater of combat the actions of this summer will develop right there, and the russians, i think, are accumulating and pulling up as many forces as possible along those logistical routes that were damaged by the ukrainian armed forces due to the task of striking warehouses, accumulating, as equipment, as well as ammunition, ammunition,

fuel and lubricants. they are changing logistics, they are changing communication, but they are accumulating strength and resources. some things are obvious. along with this, the russians are forming a zone of tension at the contact of their borders with nato countries. we know that they recently took the initiative to unilaterally change the maritime borders in part of the russian-finnish border. the entire length of the border of russia, as well as belarus, from narva to... suvalsky pass is a zone of tension, because they have introduced troops, they are conducting announced the implementation of training activities in the summer period, they once again brought forces and means of long-range damage there, we know, and this is already open information about the presence of iskander brigades directly near the polish border, which demonstrate an aggressive policy and conduct

training and training there in the last . period, so the situation remains tense, but at the same time it is obvious, it is to pull the ukrainian forces away from one side, to create tension in the international arena, in the clash or in the area of ​​contact between belarus, russia and by nato countries, including those that joined the north atlantic bloc very recently, and at the same time preparing the main strike to fulfill the basic task, which is the exit to the administrative border of luhansk. and donetsk oblasts, volodymyr zelenskyi spoke about this today after the bid was held, he said that they had just listened to syrskyi, and it is important from the president's words that he stated that we know how to respond, so everything is under control , here we hope for our military, of course, who know what they are doing, but from what the president also said something important, and we received

information from our service. intelligence that russia wants and plans in some way to disrupt this peace summit, which is to be held in switzerland on june 15-16, it is not so far before this date, and it is clear that we have already repeatedly mentioned it on the air, so what is important is which countries will come, how will they express themselves, what will they say in support of us mykola golomsha, you have a word, what do you have for... do you have thoughts on what russia can really do, maybe you can comment more about what their intentions might be? well, first of all, it should be noted that russia has serious problems, both internally and in the topic, ah, military, and this exercise that they have planned, and with tactical nuclear weapons, this

is ... confirmation of that, it is also manipulative in that, indeed, one of the components, their desire is to disrupt the summit and prevent aid from being given to ukraine, but i would like to draw attention to the fact that these manipulative measures taken by russia have been taking place since the very beginning . the threat of using nuclear weapons, and it affects the our partners, because the partners do not understand the psyche of such goons, as in russia, who actually do not have any strategy, they have a strategy of fear, scarecrows, terror, and they, of course, suspended the supply of weapons,

supplies. and accordingly and