[000:00:00;00] fighting continues in the kursk region of russia, ukrainian troops are entrenched in the territory of the region, the ukrainian authorities remain silent, and the russian authorities report on the evacuation of the population and the seizure of reserves. meanwhile , the network was flooded with photos and videos of destroyed russian equipment. in kursk region. this is svoboda live, my name is vlasta lazur. this video of a destroyed russian military convoy appeared online overnight. the footage was shot 35-40 km from the ukrainian border. russian pro-war telegram channels and so -called zet bloggers claim that the column defeated the armed forces of ukraine. russia called the situation in the region a federal emergency. the russian ministry of defense

has officially confirmed that in... ukrainian troops are on the outskirts of the city of suja, and the residents of suja are recording a video appeal to putin and asking for their protection. for the fourth day in a row, the armed forces of ukraine are conducting an offensive in the kursk region. the military-political leadership of ukraine remains silent and does not directly confirm the participation of its units in the operation. at the same time, according to the analyst's opinion german edition bild by julian roebke. during the last day, the armed forces of ukraine captured eight more settlements in the kursk region. among them is goncharivka to the west of the city of suja and also the territory to the north of the city. ukraine's decision to transfer a large amount of its scarce military resources across the border with russia marks either a moment of despair or a moment of inspiration - writes cnn, and this is probably a harbinger of a new stage of the war - the publication states. on the night of august 9 , a video of a broken military

convoy began to spread online. i shoot russian military bloggers declared that it was allegedly the defense force of ukraine, burned a column with russian military equipment near rylsk, kursk region of russia. this video was shot on the route that before the war connected ukrainian glukhiv and kursk and passed through rylsk and lhiv. the convoy was attacked in the village of zhovtneve, located 8 km from rylsk, it is reported. the russian bbc service confirms the same. russian telegram channels note that the ukrainian military allegedly used hymars installations, but there is no confirmation of this information. yes, how photos of wreckage from khymers surface-to-air missiles found in the kursk region have already appeared, so it can be confidently stated that the convoy, which was standing 40 km from the border, was struck

by it, and not by any kamikaze drones. rather, the nature of the consequences there speaks for itself. this is another parallel that has been taking place since the fall of 2022 in the kharkiv region, where the enemy also hit columns with reserves that were going to plug the front with hymers. the video shows more than 10 burned trucks, some of which contain the bodies of soldiers. according to the estimate military analyst yan matviev, an entire battalion was destroyed. just watched the morning video from the scene of 14 tented military units and teams. with infantry, many dead, part of the vehicles burned to the ground, it seems that the whole column was carrying infantry, they were with weapons, platoons per vehicle, most likely three or four companies, the whole battalion was destroyed, judging by the appearance of the column, about half died , this is one of the bloodiest and most massive strikes, most likely hymers, of the entire war. meanwhile, russian bloggers are outraged at commanders who ordered the military to move in column in the combat zone. from behind

the columns, which are all the more standing. on the sidelines in the affected area , you have to beat the enemy with rocket and artillery weapons, just take the senior columnist like a dog, stomp him with your feet until he starts vomiting under himself. who ordered to move in columns in the observation area of ​​the copter, according to hymers' impression. not only that, but he should be sentenced according to the laws of wartime. today it is an assault squad. by the third year of the war, mafa could already be taught. but no some emotional staff general who gives orders for such murderous marches in the front-line zone. the ukrainian authorities did not comment on the events in kursk oblast and the destruction of the convoy. meanwhile, in the latest report, the ministry of defense of russia denies the advance of the armed forces of ukraine, declares the elimination of almost a thousand ukrainian soldiers in the direction of kursk, and does not mention the destruction of the military convoy.

anastasia potapenko, radio liberty. roman kostenko, people's deputy, voice faction and secretary of the committee has already joined our broadcast matters of national security, defense, intelligence, roman, my greetings, good evening, well, judging by these... public in russian pro-war circles, there is panic, well, it is, because our troops are advancing and making an impression on the enemy, so of course, and the most important thing , which is being promoted quite professionally, and i have already said about it, i will repeat it again that maybe this is one of the few operations, maybe the only one, when, despite modern optical reconnaissance. well, intelligence, despite the modern means of transmitting information there, was exactly that the effect of suddenness was achieved, which i will say again, which is quite difficult to achieve in modern warfare, and these are the consequences that are now

going on, we found the city where the enemy was the weakest and are developing success, striking the enemy with blows, blows with all available means, we now let's talk about this operation in more detail, and what can you say about... this is the destroyed column of equipment that we just showed, and now we will show it again, is this a serious gain? yes, i will not say, of course, that it is, as was just commented, that it is the biggest impression there by heimer missiles, uh, in general, if it was hit by heimer missiles, but let’s say this, if we talk specifically about heimer missiles, then there were also bigger impressions, that’s right, the columns were included, or... personnel there, but this something that really once again shows the professional detection and unprofessionalism of the military, and once again we can say that, look, in the donetsk region and in the south of ukraine,

the russians do not drive like that, but here it was, well, this shows that some parts were taken that probably did not have combat experience, which tried to plug this hole at the border, and they abandoned it, they just drove. they were told to stop, and during that, a blow was struck. roman, in general, in principle, how would you call or characterize what is happening now in the kursk region, it is a raid like those that have already been there before and left, that is, there is an expectation that in the near future ukrainian troops from there will leave, or is this a new front, when they entered and established themselves? look, about the whole operation, i think we will find out later. is that we see that these are going now intensive actions, yes, they are their own, let's say this , what we see exactly in the mass media, they are like a raid, that's why the offensive goes there along six roads, along the main

highways and attempts to quickly, let's say , capture territories, that's why it my observation, i say once again, only the general staff knows the very consequences of the operation, there i think that some part of the stake of the supreme... commander in chief, understanding what exactly the tasks are and what kind of problems we have, well, everything will also depend on that , what reserves we we will be able to throw which one in order to go further, but if we talk about the operation itself, this is just like an example of asymmetric actions, the ones that we talked about a lot, and we saw that this operation is quite from the point of view of how it now developing it can be seen that it was well planned from the beginning of the planning, the training of the personnel, the accumulation of it secretly, and there and well and then the implementation, and now this silence that exists, then i will say there, even based on some data, that

the enemy does not understand now where our troops are there, and it panics him, they are not know how to fully resist, where to build their lines of defense, because they do not know where we are, where we are not, because we do not prove ours. they mentioned what is happening, well, that there is silence, the ukrainian command and the ukrainian political leadership talk about it in a very veiled and indirect way , they say that russia should feel on its own skin what war is like, and so on, but no specific statements is heard, although it seems that absolutely no one has any doubt that the armed forces of ukraine are there, i would even say more, the spokesman of the general staff is there his official... on his private pages on facebook, he says that ukraine is returning its own, that is, it is such an open secret, it seems to me that everyone understands that there are ukrainian troops, but during the almost 30 months of full-scale war, ukraine has already carried out similar actions several times raids there with the support of russian volunteer

battalions, everything was always accompanied by photographs and videos there, but it seems that this raid is radically different from those that were before, well... radically, here you are right, fundamentally, because it is precisely a military one the operation, i would call the raids that were before that, they were more, i think, such special operations, or intelligence operations there, they were aimed specifically at... that's what you're talking about, this operation, it it looks like there, regular troops are working there, it is much larger, and about the goals, i think we will see what we will achieve, but this is what it looks like on the scale of where our troops have reached and what they are there continue to move, the goals are much larger than those before, the occupation of parts kursk region, well, only the general staff knows this, i think we will see, but there are many goals, not only, for example, the occupation,

when, well, including, i think, this is the right story when we talk about asymmetric actions, so what to take, for example, how many brigades are currently working here in this direction, and they are showing themselves quite well, the same 80th brigade that we recently discussed with you is also helping here, the guys are working heroically, and other brigades and... here is a question in that, well, we have to understand first of all that everything will depend on beyond the availability of forces and means, and, let's say, in order to be able to continue this operation, but one of the points is not only the capture of territories, but also the distraction of the enemy from the main directions of attack, where he is now concentrated. in its units, in particular the east, where it is most

active, and the enemy will either have to remove units from the battlefield, we have not observed this yet, but everything will depend on what actions will be taken in the future, or take reserves that were prepared, fighting reserves in order to throw them east and throw them here, but we also have to understand that this is also such an indicator of her further possible actions. because we have more than 300 km of borders with the russian federation, and a thousand of them are where, well, active hostilities, or there is a part of the occupied territory, come into contact with it, everything else is about the same, that in the sumy region, therefore the border is not controlled, that's right, well, let's say, it is controlled, but it is controlled by the military, this once again shows that in russia currently does not have enough combat units, which would be full, as, for example, the east would close the border. and carrying out such raids, let it be a raid, i don't know how

they will get out there tomorrow, or, for example, they will be entrenched, but at any moment russia will understand that at any moment these groups can go in any direction within 200 km, if on a stretch, and for this purpose a combat reserve must be kept somewhere, not in the south, for example, not in the east, but somewhere in the center, somewhere in kursk or in lipetsk, where, by the way, we we saw that it also arrived today and it was quite good... it also arrived in crimea, this also indicates that asymmetric actions are taking place in parallel with this operation, in parallel with the fact that we have a difficult situation in the east, where our soldiers are fighting with all their might , but here too we have success, and this success, in addition to what i have mentioned, it, well, i think everyone will agree here, had a rather good moral effect on our society, which recently saw only the waste of our troops and perceived them as defeat, i say again, it was not a defeat, it is...

the main one, so far this is one of the factors, it is not the main one, but they also raise such actions and it is important, one of the serious factors, it is definitely not until this operation is completed, and we do not know how it will be completed, experts said yesterday on our broadcast , that in the end there are even risks of getting encircled there, if russian russia pulls a lot of its reserves there. look, this is already about the skill of our commanders, about conducting intelligence, about the use of all means of combat support, intelligence, artillery, well, and all the others that are engineering there, and that's all of course, now everything is on the shoulders of the general staff, on its planning, everything can happen, you can be surrounded, you can be defeated, or you can retreat from the occupied positions, or you can dig in, adjust logistics and hold the territory, what is the plan again? i say, well , no one knows, and this, and that’s good, i think,

the information that we are currently voicing on the air, in principle, is information from open sources, information that is published by the media, this is what i already tell our viewers, who now they will try to accuse us of saying something that is not allowed to speak, so the american publication forbes writes that they learned from their sources that at least three brigades with up to 200 ukrainian servicemen are currently deployed in kursk, and they are listed here as 22 and 88 mechanized brigades and 80 -the amphibious assault, you mentioned it, we talked about it a week ago, that there is support for unmanned artillery and air defense, it plays an auxiliary role, of course, no one understands what the purpose of the operation might be, but here, as the german notes analyst julian röbke, osin and the biltt analyst, he says that this operation can be both brilliant and suicidal, and he says that just now, he states that russia

is transferring, has reported transferring some number of units, and we know , that only the northern group of russian troops has there... about 48,000 military personnel, are you afraid, roman, that there are risks that at some point the targets will simply become, well, very disproportionate, you know, he says 50 to 50, maybe be brilliant, can be a failure, well i'll say that if you evaluate it like that, well, any military operation can be either brilliant or a failure, and if it is based on whether to start or not to start, i believe that in a situation like ours, if there is a good one there. .. for the operation to achieve some goals, and the goals, well, my subjective point of view, which were achieved, are the capture of russian territories, the destruction of their personnel, i don’t know, the achievement of some boundaries, the withdrawal of reserves from the main directions, because once again, if we these brigades, how many there are, i won’t

name them all, they even transferred pokrovsk or teretsk under there, well, they stopped the enemy’s advance for a while, but everything is already fixed there, cabs, artillery, the advantage of everything, well, they would be a little, but then there would be a possibility that they would erase them, the initiative is still on the side of the enemy, and these are such asymmetric actions, this is an example of how you can intercept the initiative, because now to intercept the initiative somewhere in the east of our country, well, believe me, it is unrealistic, and this here is an example of interception, now we have it here intercepted, and the enemy will now have to maneuver. we, it's expensive, it's inconvenient, we need to look for it in the reserve, we see these columns that are starting to advance, yesterday they were showing off in the mass media as well , a five-year-old or some brigade, or a speck, which is on these, on the loaves, 100 loaves were traveling there, they do not have any heavy equipment, this means that the enemy also has problems with reserves, and we are stretching them,

so of course we, i say again, any operation, of course, can end in failure, but as of now what is, she is continues, we are only talking about... its existence, about the fact of its preparation, we know something about the fact of its promotion through these cadres of the russians themselves, but the idea itself, from my point of view, is correct, and its goals have already been achieved from a large point of view from the media, from the military, and from the political point of view, now the most important thing is to support our military and do everything so that the plans they have conceived will still reach such a logical conclusion, we will continue to talk about political goals today, i have one last question, we know. that the 80th airborne assault brigade takes part in this operation, not only it, but it also, about a week ago we talked about the fact that the brigade commander was fired, or he went for a promotion, nevertheless the fighters performed there with a statement that they do not support this dismissal, and then emilii shkulov became known as the brigade commander, and then it became known that he had

a dispute with the command, because the command set before him a task disproportionate to the strength of the brigade, do you think could... could he go to resignation precisely because of this operation, maybe he was talking about this particular task? i don't know what to say here, you don't know, thank you very much, roman, thank you very much, roman kostenko, people's deputy, voices faction, secretary of the committee on national security, defense and intelligence, we were talking about the so-called kurdish front, or kursk raid, well , we don't know for sure how to operate correctly, what terms to use when we talk about the operation in the kursk region, thank you very much. in the united states, they are not afraid escalation on the part of russia due to the events in the kursk region, as pentagon spokeswoman sabrina singh said. ukraine's advance in the kursk region is consistent with us policy, but the united states still does not support long-range strikes on russian territory. here is such a rather incomprehensible, but

at least at first glance, rhetoric. as reported by the washington post, the attack on the kursk region used armored fighting vehicles, transferred. kyiv by the usa and western partners. at the same time, as reported by this publication, the ukrainian leadership applied to the united states for permission to use atakams for strikes on the territory of russia after the invasion of the armed forces of ukraine in the kursk region. this may allow kyiv to hold part of the region for a certain period of time. the events in the kursk region coincided with a visit to ukraine by a bipartisan delegation of the us house of representatives. congressmen visited odesa and kyiv, saw the consequences of russian attacks, talked with ukrainians. two members of the congress also conducted an exclusive interview with president volodymyr zelenskyi for radio liberty. democrat jimmy panetta, who supported the transfer of f-16s to ukraine, voted for the allocation of aid to ... well, also republican celestemelo, who was recently elected to congress and did not support the allocation of an

aid package for ukraine. this is what they said about the operation in the kursk region and the limitation of the us to strike deep into russian territory? listen. the us position regarding the limitation of strikes deep into russian territory has not changed. can you explain why this ban still remains? well, look, we're talking about after . how did the real operation in russia on the territory of the kurdish region and after the raid near crimea, these are things that, in my opinion, are not black and white at the moment. obviously, everything will depend on the conditions on the battlefield, and i think that the united states and our political advisers at a much higher level than i understand the importance of not giving russia the opportunity to hide its weapons on the russian border. i think we're starting to see changes in that policy based on an understanding of how russia operates. we have to make sure they can't hide behind the front lines and that if they are going to carry out these

attacks, whether with artillery, whether with rockets, whether with rockets, whether with air attacks, we should play defensive, and also partially go on the offensive and penetrate deep into the russian front line. and what was your reaction? we were on the road and i didn't have a chance to go into the details of what was going on, but i think everyone in the free... world would root for any country that stood up to an invader. every time ukraine wins against russia, the whole world feels like it's us won, and therefore it is very pleasant to see how ukraine goes on the offensive and achieves success in the fight against russia. whenever things go backwards, we all feel a little depressed, and when ukraine behaves defiantly, like with snake island, or when grandmothers make cocktails. and fighting back, as far as i'm concerned, we all feel that the world is getting a little better, a little freer.

andres umland, an analyst at the eastern european research center, stockholm, has already joined our broadcast. i congratulate you. hello, thank you for the invitation. as do you think why the western partners seem to have agreed to this operation in the kursk region. what do you think changed why they agreed. i think they just believe that this can become a way to some kind of victory for ukraine, and that, well , ukraine knows better how to behave here, and uh, well, this again conveys that the initiative in ukraine is in the hands of ukraine, and and of course, this is probably a good development, and there is hope. of course, what will happen there, and probably it will also be a good signal for future negotiations. but precisely against the background of this operation

ukraine is asking the united states for permission to strike targets deep in russia, to use american weapons for this, do you think the partners are ready to go even further and give this permission during this kurdish operation? well i hope so, it's amazing. the policy of the united states and others is that they limit these actions of ukraine, and well, all these fears, it seems to me, they are, in part, at least the result of russian psychological struggle, psychological campaigns there, it is in germany, i know germany better, it is also there , there are people why. think that if germany hands over these taurus missiles to ukraine, it will be the beginning of the third world war. but you see,

this operation in the kursk region, it shows that there are no red lines, at least if we talk about the red lines drawn by putin, that if there is a threat to the territory of russia, then he will, i don't know, get a nuclear suitcase there and launch a nuclear missile, i'm talking about the fact that now, well, the whole world can be convinced of... because that's all, that's all not true, that you can raise the rates, yes, but people, unfortunately, are afraid, i think the biggest such factor here is that the war will go beyond ukraine and russia, and that it will all turn into a world and nuclear war, unfortunately, there is such a fear , and here... politicians, who also, if they manipulate this

fear, are not necessarily some agents of moscow, it can be simple. just populists who, with this fear, if they want to get some kind of electoral support, and therefore these restrictions unfortunately remain, but it is very strange, agree, yes, on the one hand, both the european and the american partners say absolutely clearly, yes, the kurdish operation, it has nothing, there are no objections from our side, but at the same time, using our weapons to strike somewhere in... it is no longer possible, some kind of illogical, it looks illogical, yes, but i think this is all a reaction that also applies to the internal politics of these countries, because there is a public demand not to give ukraine everything, all the weapons and not to give all the permits, well and this is such a political topic, but with

on the other hand, this happened and of course i... i think the majority of politicians, there are diplomats, experts, they, they support ukraine, and they, in such a case, they, they simply support these actions, ukraine, and, well, and this, well, there is no political struggle, internal, regarding this, uh, now precisely against the background of this, this kurdish operation, in ukraine and not only in... in ukraine, many people are talking about possible negotiations, about preparations for the peace summit, about who will be present at this peace summit, you and i too it's been talked about recently, and a lot of people are speculating against this background that this is this kurdish operation, that this is an attempt to get some additional bargaining chip, i don't know, to seize some territory, then turn it into

a bargaining chip, as far as this assumption sounds logical, because there is such an opinion that... that before the negotiations they do not raise the rates, on the contrary, they lower them, and such an escalation in general is an extra step before the negotiations. what do you think of the version that this is all done in order to raise the stakes in negotiations? yes, i think, well, i suspect that this is one of the motivations for this operation, there are probably other strategic reasons for this, but if there really is a new peace summit and if suddenly... russia really comes there, then it will probably succeed to do some kind of such a trade in territories, and i think it also has to, well, maybe it's a bit too idealistic, but probably it can also be a factor of internal politics in russia, that there

is probably a certain faction there, let's say economists, who would like to. .. end the war, and if now if there is such a situation that it is possible to come to the end of the war due to such a trade in territories, well, this faction in moscow, it will be, if it were to use it, i imagine it like this, what do you think, will this situation affect putin's ratings internally , inside russia? i think this is a big problem for him, especially among the patriots and among the elite, because it is a certain loss of control over his own territory, and this is a factor that is really problematic for putin, because he just, well, does not support somehow

there is a liberal or some such opposition, and this is just a problem for him. among his own people, these security forces, for them it is naturally a shameful situation, and if ukraine is there, ukrainian troops are there, they can stay there, i think it is a big internal problem for him, as much as it is a big external problem for him, well, he has there are friends there in the countries of the global south in the countries of asia, china is friendly towards it, how much these all... the leaders of these countries are watching what is happening, as you think, in the kursk region, and how much it can become a problem for putin in foreign policy, so it changes the picture, as it were, the image of this war, suddenly it is no longer about ukrainian territory, but about russian