five new air defense systems are promised in ukraine, fighter jets already in the summer, while the nato summit is taking place in washington. what will kyiv gain from this meeting? we're talking about it on the bbc live from london. i am yevgenia shedlovska. previously, kyiv was assured that the door to nato remains open, but now we are talking about a bridge to nato and an irreversible path to it. we'll talk about what that might mean later, but now let's look at how this summit in washington began. ceremonial opening in the hall where the north atlantic treaty was signed 75 years ago the treaty that created the alliance. and president biden assures, too strong than ever.

during this war, putin thought that nato would collapse. nato is stronger today than at any time in history. when this senseless war started, ukraine was a free country. and today it is still a free country. and the war will end with ukraine remaining a free and independent country. russia will not win. ukraine will win. and consider that this summit is for biden. important, because he has to prove to his fellow party members and voters that he can lead the country, that he is not out of date to run for a second term in the november elections. in fact, biden is now fighting for his political survival, and here's why. undoubtedly, president biden's speech at the opening of the nato summit was a kind of high-stakes test. and in my opinion, many viewers will later say, he passed this test. biden delivered his speech. his voice sounded

steady with an imperious tone. he stated that in 1949, when the north atlantic treaty establishing nato was signed in washington, in this very hall history was being made. and now, as then, history observes how ukraine continues to resist russian aggression. he used this phrase during his speech, a powerful speech. i think he managed to impress the audience with his strong performance. biden also described the differences. between the current policy and the policy of his predecessor donald trump. he drew attention to the fact that under the biden administration, 2/3 of nato member countries spend at least 2% of their gdp on defense needs, and this is much more than during the trump presidency. he also announced about the transfer to ukraine of dozens of new tactical defense ammunition. this is what volodymyr zelenskyy is asking for all the time. but along with the serious statements, there was also a relatively light moment. biden awarded nato secretary general

jens stoltenberg his term of office, which he will complete with the presidential medal of freedom. it was somewhat unusual to see the always collected and calm general secretary smiling. but i think that the attention during all three days of the summit is fixed on biden. in particular , a closed-door meeting of democratic congressmen was held on capitol hill the day before the door they discussed biden's candidacy for the upcoming presidential election and his debate performance two weeks ago. everyone is looking forward to his speech this thursday - it will be a live press conference, no prompter, no drafts, so i think it's fair to say that this time biden has no room for error. so these are additional challenges for president biden during this summit, and concrete promises for ukraine have already been made: five air defense systems, so the patriots from the united states, germany, romania, components for them from the netherlands and another sumpte system from italy. in addition...

dozens of tactical air defense systems of the near-field radio judge, and the transfer of f-16 aircraft is already in the process, ukraine will receive them this summer, this is a joint statement of the leaders of the usa, denmark and the netherlands, plus norway will give ukraine several f-16s. ukraine's expectations from this summit are clear: more weapons, more support. having not received an invitation to nato, ukraine is building its own network of alliances, concluding bilateral security agreements with by different countries, already more than 20 countries, of course such agreements do not provide protection, like the fifth article of the nato treaty, but ukraine first of all needs weapons and support. together with america, the world is capable of doing the right thing when we all act hard enough, decisively enough, and that must be our strategy, right now and right now, with all the american might that no putin can repel. and at the same time, the president. zelensky

spoke cautiously about the future. he said he hopes to support ukraine after american elections will not change. the bbc columnist analyzes how the first statements of the ukrainian president were received in washington. i was very impressed by zelensky's speech. first, it took place at the reagan institute in washington. here the answer lies in the name itself. it was an appeal to republicans. he also gave an interview to fox news journalist bret baier. and i think it was very well aimed. zelensky was trying to appeal to republicans in the united states, and emphasizing the glaring question, he said: everyone they are waiting for november, because then the administration may come to... trump. zelensky was actually quite critical. he spoke about the need for greater determination from western leaders. according to him, now is not the time to postpone decisions, it is time to focus on victory. so i think you get a sense of what his tone will be during the summit. defense against trump is becoming one of the catchphrases

of this summit. president zelensky was asked what the return of trump would mean for him. he answered very diplomatically, did not criticize trump personally, because maybe... they will still have to work together from the beginning of next year, he spoke in the framework of politics about wanting to continue to see steady american leadership and the involvement of the europeans in the matter of maintaining military aid to ukraine, but of course they are very concerned about what a trump presidency might be like . he is a nato skeptic. he strongly criticized the provision of military aid to ukraine by the united states. his allies blocked the allocated 60 billion dollars for almost nine months. aid to ukraine. zelensky said that vladimir putin used it on the battlefield. so there are attempts to defend against trump, but that's a lot easier said than done. certain steps have already been taken here in washington, for example, now any president who wants to withdraw

the us from nato needs the approval of the us senate. but of course, if the president has control of the senate, he can still do it. and defense spending. this is one of the pain points for the north atlantic alliance and something that trump has criticized nato for. i will explain why. in 2014, nato countries undertook to spend 2% of their gdp for defense needs. it was a reaction to the russian annexation of crimea. back then , only three countries had spending at this level, and now 23. but mind you, not all. there are already 32 countries in the alliance. for example, canada, italy, spain still spend less than 2% of their gdp. the united states. as before and now they spend more than 3% of gdp. if we look at europe, then after 2022, the closer to russia, the more defense expenditures. for example, poland is more than 4% of gdp. estonia, latvia - 3%. these are approximate estimates for this year. here they are are marked in blue, and in red, as you can see,

the expenses that were 10 years ago. britain spends more than 2% of gdp on defence, but will spending increase with the new government, what will support for ukraine be like? well, for the british prime minister measles. starmer's nato summit in washington, the first international event, the first foreign visit in this position, and here are his intentions when he arrived in washington. today, tomorrow and the day after will be about coming together with our allies and discussing how we will continue to support ukraine, and we will send a very clear signal putin, that we will oppose russian aggression, wherever it is. keir starmer confirmed, i will support. of ukraine and at the meeting with president zelenskyi in washington, but here we need to take a step back and remind that the government has changed in britain since last friday, labor came to power after winning the elections, and the newly appointed ministers wasted no time before the nato summit . immediately after the appointment

of the diplomatic tour. the new minister is warmly welcomed in the polish hinterland. border affairs his mission is to win friends, reassure allies and, where possible, reset britain's relationship with the eu. we want, in particular, to redouble our commitment to ukraine, and of course to european security, including through joint bilateral projects between our defense industry and the new eu -uk security package. the walk seems to bring politicians together. she talks about her creative ideas, but it is too early to draw conclusions. this trip with a focus on supporting ukraine in relations with the eu and nato, it is not about an instant result, it is about perception, representation of a government that is starting to work.

that is why the new minister of defense is also not far behind. in ukraine, together with president zelensky, he met with wounded soldiers in odesa. britain... plays a key role in arming ukraine, and this, as the new government says, will not change. today i will also announce additional weapons that the ukrainians are using every day on the... and they say they want to speed up western aid, so i have also instructed the ministry of defense to make sure that within 100 days everything that was previously promised to ukraine will go to ukraine delivered in a moment of silence with thoughts about the high price of this war, britain is saying to ukraine, we are still here with you. what is clear is that ukraine in washington will not receive an invitation to nato. the media wrote that in the final statement of the summit they may leave such formulations as the irreversibility of ukraine's

path to nato, that is, talk about a long-term perspective. we asked the co-founder of the international victory center of ukraine, olena galushko, what this will bring to ukraine. for me, this inevitability of membership is another so-called simulacrum, which is ours partners came up with to show us that yes, ukraine will one day be with us. but not to give ukraine an actual invitation to nato, that is, they are talking about inevitability, they are talking about a bridge to nato, they are talking about the need for ukraine to carry out reforms, well , that is, i agree, i am generally an anti-corruption activist, i understand that we really have there is still a lot of homework to be done in order to actually meet the standards of the best countries, but... at the same time , one must understand that when nato was expanded, for example, by countries from the west

the balkans, or even the same romania and bulgaria joined nato, the situation with reforms, the rule of law, was absolutely on a par there, and maybe even worse, than it is now in ukraine. we hear all the time that we need to do a lot of homework, so i still see that... one obstacle to our invitation to nato and membership in nato is the russian veto itself, and when our partners talk about that the war must end, and then ukraine will be able to join nato, this is russia's own invitation to conduct this war practically infinite but on the other hand, our allies perfectly understand what they have to demonstrate. real support for ukraine, and this support is not in words, because we have heard

enough words: we need actions, we cannot stop russian missiles with words, we need a significant strengthening of air defense, and even better , we need the allies to finally close our skies, as well how they closed the sky over israel when iranian missiles and drones were fired at israel, not only israel. but also american troops, french, british shot down those missiles and drones, so why can't they do the same with russian missiles and drones, because the closed skies over israel did not draw nato into a war with iran, so the closed skies over ukraine will not draw them into a war with russia either. and the miracle did not happen in washington. nato secretary general confirmed that ukraine will become a member. nato, but did not say when. consensus is required to invite a new ally to the alliance. all

allies agree that ukraine will be a member of the alliance. but at the moment it is premature to say when it happens but i can say this: together with ukraine, we are moving closer and closer to nato membership. but the key, concluding statements of the nato summit, the anniversary of the 75th anniversary of its creation. we will hear tomorrow and tell you about them on our bbc broadcast, so watch at 9:00 pm and subscribe to our social media pages so you don't miss the most important news, we are on facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube you can watch our broadcast, if you suddenly missed it live, well, see you.

how we built our houses, when you stand under the heavens of the earth and the heavens open. swim away, you understand that you need to live where you are not afraid of death, build walls of seaweed grass, dig wolf holes and ditches, get used to living together with everyone day by day, the homeland is where you are understood when you speak in the spring this time we will travel to the east of ukraine,

to places that preserve the memory of life in ukrainian slobodas. where to this day the houses are painted with unique and incomparable petrikov painting. the ukrainian east is this where they are proud of their old wooden school, which survived the second world war and will definitely survive this one. and where the local residents restored the cossack tower at their own expense, because they are proud of their past, and although some of these places are under occupation today and suffer from shelling, there is something that cannot be destroyed. and projectiles. these are our memories with you. our common memory. slobodkas, that is, settlements, began to form on the site of the wild field. they were ukrainians who moved from right-bank ukraine to

left-bank ukraine. and pyserivka itself is cossack settlement, and they came for the dnipro from the body. the history of slabitska. ukraine, or as we used to say, slobozhanshchyna, is inextricably linked with the most common settlements, sloboda, where mostly cossacks and free peasants lived. the center of the ukrainian settlement was always the church, around which stood the cossack roots, i.e. light, often temporary buildings in which the cossacks spent the night and wintered. pisarivka is no exception, because here was not only a church, but also a monastery. he served as abbot in the monastery. a relative of hryhoriy savovych skovoroda, hryhoriy savovych skovoroda visited this monastery very often, came here and wrote several of his poems here in this monastery. unfortunately, neither the wooden monastery nor the church survived, although the latter stood until the mid-1990s. our church was

a wooden church of the holy intercession, there were only three of them in ukraine, and this was the architecture. such a wooden one, without a single nail, without anything, that's all, in 1995, due to inattention, the father left the electric stove and went there on a call, and the church burned down. the church was rebuilt in the same place, but no longer with trees, and nearby they decided to establish the ukrainian slobitka ethnographic museum. mlyn was brought from the neighboring village, there were almost no old houses left in good condition, but enthusiasts took parts of three dilapidated houses. and they made one, they brought it all here and put it together and made one house out of two houses, oh, honey, it’s cool here, it will be fine now, come on in, there are two rooms in this house, in one bedroom there is a bed that is more than 100 years old, embroidery from local craftsmen, household items, but the most interesting thing

here is the living room, the main room of the house it's called a light, it's a light, the sun rises in our house, the sun rose in the house, it's visible, visible, visible, visible, visible, and the sunset sets in the house, what, light, that's why this house was called a light, now you will know, yes, this wall goes north, the coldest wall, it goes north, you don't need to go away from the goal. and there was nothing anywhere, people slept here, guests cooked here, children slept here, old men, the stove was burning, it was heating up and it was warm from the sky, often folk architecture, which at first... glance cannot surpass the work architects, can actually be more comfortable for life, because when building a house for yourself from scratch, a person is primarily

interested in where the sun rises and sets, where it blows in the winter and where it floods when it rains. good architecture is not necessarily made with the participation of an architect, but very often there are cities that you... arose with incredible skill, which to this day are such tourist centers, attractions and are listed in unesco, well, these cities of yemen, in the maghreb, there are old spanish cities like córdaba, for example, or amsterdam, etc just... sterdam, what's more, what we see on all these postcards, this, it's just done without architects, there are exceptions, there are certain

state institutions, in most of them it was just such an understanding of certain principles that went hand in hand passed down through the generations and it was so good enough. engineering, technical solutions, which were based on those resource opportunities that were nearby and some such certain social structures, and that is why ukrainian vernacular architecture is the same as with borscht, and he, he has and hundreds recipes, and they are very dependent on these recipes, and what grows in the garden in this area. it is interesting how in the past people created a comfortable dwelling, having almost nothing but the knowledge that was passed down through the generations and the materials that were at hand. here in the house there was a large

collection of gas lamps, since there was no electricity then, candles were expensive. today, due to a power outage, the museum's exhibits unexpectedly became useful to the residents of piserivka. they come to me and say: "you borrow for a while, while it 's still daylight, if not." i say borrowed under i borrowed three receipts against the receipt , yes, they buy gas, and that it works, the lamp is normal. it is interesting how open-air museums preserve time and how sometimes it is strange to immerse yourself in history and draw parallels with today. if cossacks once lived in pisarivka and had to protect the russian empire from the tatars, now it is defended against russia, because only 15 km away on... prostets is the border, and during the recording of this interview, we heard artillery fire again and again: bugka i shared it, it's not buga yet, it's not buga yet, bhakka, when sokla

they tremble, then bangs, then it’s scary, honestly, it becomes scary, but people have experienced it when you fly overhead, i myself saw a rocket fly, then the air defense stopped, the explosion and they fly away, pieces fly in the field, fighter jets fly by, well, glory by god, everything is fine, everything is fine so far, everyone is great in pyserivka. understand who is shelling ukrainian cities and why, however , portraits of lenin still stand in the nearby historical museum, which leonid also cares for, next to the stand about the terrible holodomor. we saw the same picture for a second in the ethnographic museum of the village artichoke well, it is precisely the ethnographic museum, where there are many references to lenin.

although we came to artyukhivka to find old shacks under the roof, in which people still live, we saw a completely different picture, namely expensive villas with swimming pools and... cars are parked nearby, close to kharkiv itself, if you have a car, then it's 40 minutes and you're already in kharkiv, a pioneer , if it was the former governor of the kharkiv region, this is dobkin, if the idea spread that this is kharkiv's switzerland, i don't know there, rublevka, baden baden. traditional local architecture, of which there was a lot in artyukhivka until recently, is being destroyed, and new villas are being built, based either simply on one's own taste, or, at best, on foreign ones.

samples, if you look at some new buildings there, some chalets, what just doesn't happen there, there are some mediterranean villas, something, the people are clearly working on that exotic copy-paste, and you know, as a rule, people speak this other language, no understanding this language, it is so certain there is some kind of... globalization, but it must have some limit, as a rule, this folk architecture cooperates very well with landscapes, when it is like a plant from some meadow, and put in a vase somewhere, something is not right, for example, somewhere in switzerland or there in austria, or maybe in finland, she was constantly somehow

transformed there. but based on these certain traditional techniques, technologies, resources and everything else, today there is almost nothing left of the authentic clay artichoke, the clay has gone into the ground, ecological local materials have been replaced by more functional and modern ones, however, in the village until now there are houses in which life continues under the roof. tok tok my parents bought this house after the war, who built it, how it was built, it was back in the 50s, it’s over there, you see, it’s a pile of rubble, it’s been there

a long, long time, it was in... houses in addition to traditional clay plasters, interesting examples of wooden architecture can still be found in the north of slobozhanshchyna. because there was a small pool like this and a fountain, and here and there the fish swam, and here there was like this and the alley all the way to the road, it was well-kept, well, in general, it was here. the fairy tale was and is now look, carefully, indicate, written by lk, see, written, leopold koenich. this is a wooden estate, dated 1880, built by a german named leopold koenich. he was a very successful entrepreneur who in the 19th century had a parquet factory, distilleries, brick and sugar

factories, and this house in slobozhanshchyna. he built it just for the manager of the sugar factory, the master or the manager lived all upstairs, and the servants lived all the way down there in the basement, all the rooms were such that they lived there, cooked food, they cleaned, everything was done downstairs, only the fireplaces went up, which was warm, this house... then everything was brought from karelia, we don’t have such types of trees, the bottom was made, one row was made of oak, and then the karelian pine was all gone, everything we have, all the architecture somewhere inside our borders, it 's all ukrainian architecture, it can be somehow austrian.