in the next few months, stay with us, ukrainian forces are gradually advancing. in the kursk region at a time when the russian army intensified its attack on the side of pokrovsk. will the advance of the armed forces in russia force the russian federation to withdraw from the eastern direction? we are talking about it today on the bbc. jafer umerov is in the studio. the ukrainian offensive in kurshchyna has been going on for more than two weeks. during this time, as of august 20, ukrainian troops control 93 settlements in the region. this is oleksandr silsky's statement. on this you can see roughly where the fighting is going on.

conclusions about the presence of significant forces of the armed forces in the region can also be made on the basis of the statement of the russian ministry of defense. the armed forces were able to achieve tactical success, but the shock of the first attack on the russians passed. and russia is now trying to build defenses and stop the advance of ukrainian forces and gather reserves. but, as observers say, moscow obviously does not want to weaken the front-line units in ukraine and is sending them to defend the kursk region. parts of units that are collected from different places, and in this way the russians sent a bridge-shooting regiment to the kurdish direction aerospace forces and conscript soldiers, this is information from the russian independent press and social networks, british intelligence says: the russian army has a shortage of personnel to protect kurshchyna, but there is no accurate data on the number of both russian and ukrainian troops, and there is no evidence that russia is withdrawing its troops from ukraine a little, - says correspondent... bbc on defense issues

jonathon beale. it was an audacious surprise attack by ukraine that few expected, both in russia and among ukraine's closest western allies. ukraine published the other day new footage of how its most experienced and battle-hardened troops crossed the border with russia two weeks ago. and they quickly gained an advantage over a relatively weak defense. ukrainian troops absorbed the territory. and advanced 35 km deep into russian territory. the pace of this offensive has slowed, but ukraine is now building defensive lines and blowing up bridges and pontoons to hold the area and prevent any russian counterattack. all this was a blow to president putin, his clumsy military reacted relatively slowly, but president putin may be waiting... focusing his resources on

making progress in eastern ukraine, so what does president zelensky and his military command hope to achieve with this risky strategy? one of the goals was to ease the pressure on ukrainian troops in other areas of the front. so far, there is little evidence that this is happening, but kursk could also be a bargaining chip for political negotiations. if ukraine decided to consolidate. but the way they blow up bridges and dig in now in kursk oblast, suggests they've decided to try to hold off, at least for the next few months. i think their logic is that if donald trump is elected and the ukrainians are suddenly forced to negotiate from a position that would be extremely weak, they need to have something to trade with the russians to trade what russia values ​​politically, and so in this in the sense of maintaining the territory in the kursk region may make sense. despite the high cost to

their own forces in men and equipment. the reality is that the military is limited ukraine's resources are stretched even further. let's not forget, ukraine already maintains a defense on the front line with a length of more than 1,000 km from the southeast. the renewed russian offensive in the kharkiv region has created even more tension, and now this pocket in the kursk region in the north has to be defended as well. and all the while , russia... is still slowly advancing elsewhere, often at great cost. pokrovsk in eastern ukraine, a key supply hub, was the last city to be evacuated. as the russians approached, civilians were told to flee. so we don't know yet will this big risky game of ukraine in kurshchyna pay off? currently , the cities of turetsk and pokrovsk in the donetsk region remain under strong pressure from the russian army. zapokrovska is this. the largest railway and transport

hub in the west of the donetsk region, the russians took after avdiivka, 45 km between them. in six months, they managed to advance 30 km deep, and... now the fighting is going on 10-15 km from the outskirts of the city. another point where the russians are making maximum efforts is turetsk, the capture of which will open the way for russia to konstantinovka and the temporary ravine from the south. and british expert hemish de brenton gordon considers it strange the refusal of western partners to allow ukraine to use western long-range weapons in the kursk offensive. let's listen. in my opinion, it was brilliant. this operation is planned in complete secrecy, and even so-called experts like myself and journalists missed it. we missed it just like the russians, and it was really a red line for putin. but again, the russians are not able to resist this, they were captured from denynatsk. this is a huge raid

to russia, which resulted in the capture of 1,500 km of territory. well, of course, kursk is the psychological dna of the russian people, because it was there that they defeated the nazis in the second world war, and that battle turned the entire course of the war, that is , part of their sacred land was taken away from them. many russians are now questioning moscow and putin, who fed them lies about russian military power. i think that now the turning point of this war, and the fact that there are no red lines in russia, has only push the west to action, that no escalation will happen and that putin will not strike with nuclear weapons. ukraine must... be provided with everything necessary for victory, for example, the use of stormshadow missiles, which for unknown reasons are still not allowed. for some reason, the british prime minister still imposes restrictions on their use, which would greatly help ukraine in its defense in the kurshchyna operation. more about the advancement

of russian forces, let's talk with bbc correspondent oleg chernysh. greetings oleg. why are the russian troops still in spite of heavy losses? managed to advance... to advance, here's what helps them in this, well, it should be noted that russia's main advantage is still in the air, it uses massively, in particular in the pokrovsky and turkish directions, kabit, these are guided aerial bombs, which they just literally destroy whole houses, multi-story shelters of the ukrainian military, and this is actually their main weapon, thanks to which they are advancing, well, also... we should not forget the well-prepared infantry, and i would say not that well-prepared, but large volumes of this infantry, which, despite the tremendous losses, is moving forward , capturing ukrainian positions and, as you rightly said, advancing quite rapidly towards pokrovsk and turetsk, well, these are the two

main advantages of the russians in these directions, but do the ukrainian forces now have the ability to stop this advance and potential the capture of turetsk and pokrovsk? this is quite a difficult question, in fact, the ukrainian forces in these directions are quite exhausted, they have been fighting there for many months, literally the same brigades, on the one hand they have ammunition and drones, of course not there huge quantities, but they still have, on the other hand, there is still fatigue and a certain demotivation there, perhaps the staff is showing signs of a shortage of personnel. also, therefore , in fact, this is a very difficult question, i want to note that this advance, yes, it deters the russians, but so far the situation is not catastrophic, there are still literally 10-15 km to pokrovsk and there are still chances to hold

the russians in front of the city, no let it be captured, but of course, it will all depend on whether ukraine will have the strength and reserves to do it, and there are signs that... the russians forced to transfer their troops from donbas to protect their own territory in the kurt region? certainly, certainly since august 6, when the kursk offensive of the armed forces of ukraine began, a rather significant decrease in the number of combats was recorded, but the main nuance is that this decrease in the number of combats was primarily in the south in zaporizhia oblast, kherson oblast, partly in kharkiv oblast, but unfortunately for ukraine, not on pokrovsk. and turkish directions, i.e., let me explain, russia removed some units, but removed them again from the south and partly from the kharkiv region, that is, putin and the chief of the russian general staff , gerasimov, obviously show that for them the attack on

pokrovsk and toretsk is an absolute priority, and they are ready to keep their best units here even to the last and not transfer them to kuyshchyna in the kuysk oblast. risking a lot, actually in the kuiv region, but this is their main strategic goal, so yes, there is a transfer of units, but unfortunately it is not significant, and by the way, these are separate. the unit usually has certain rear, marines, special forces companies, that is, those units that russia came out, so to speak, to sacrifice the ukrainian direction on its own course, and here we heard a british expert who considers it strange the refusal of the western partners to allow ukraine to use western long-range weapons in the offensive on the kursk region, as far as these weapons are concerned, they would change the situation for the ukrainians forces exactly. in kurshchyna, in my opinion, and here i agree with the expert, it significantly changed the situation, and here i

return to the beginning of our conversation, reminding that the main striking weapon of russia in these areas is aviation, and precisely long-range weapons would make it possible to destroy these cab carriers at the places of their deployment , precisely at the airfields, which russia had moved in advance from the line of combat collision from the corridor, that is, it uses airfields in the depths of its territory, which cannot be reached by a- and ukrainian missiles, its drones and other munitions available in the armed forces of ukraine, but actually long-range foreign missiles, the same atacoms or stormshed, this would be an extremely significant advantage of ukraine precisely for destruction. carriers in kaba, this is the main one, if i think the motivation behind all these requests by zelenskyi and other officials,

ukrainian officials, is to allow the destruction of cab carriers, which are, unfortunately, an unsolvable problem for ukraine, and in fact, when russia gets rid of this advantage in the air, i think that its the offensive on the ground, in the same pokrovsky direction, will either slow down or stop altogether. thank you, oleg, bbc correspondent, oleg. chernysh was in touch with us, and by the way, on our website bbc.ua you can read his article: will russia stop the offensive in ukraine to save kurtshchyna? many experts are skeptical that such a rollover will happen quickly and in large numbers. however, after the beginning of the kursk breakthrough, the military began to record a decrease in fighting in most areas of the front. beginning at ukrainian offensive on russian territory surprised not only russians, but also many western military analysts,

and the successful advancement of ukrainians made the russian authorities nervous, says nigil gulis, an expert at the institute of strategic studies. this is quite such an extraordinary development of events. it has passed more than two weeks since ukraine began this operation, and it has had almost no obstacles in its advance. the same area of ​​russia as ukraine. now occupies roughly the size of the territory that russia has captured in ukraine since last october. so, in two weeks , the ukrainians achieved the equivalent of what russia did in almost a year. this is quite unusual. i think what's really striking about putin's response is that he's not doing what one would expect him to do, which is to tell his people. listen, we ran into occupation, invasion, for the first time in 80 years. the time has come to rally to save the country, you must all

volunteer, or more of you must join the army than have been the case heretofore. in fact, russia is having difficulty replacing its huge losses in ukraine, and he has done nothing about it, on the contrary, he seems to be trying to downplay it, and there is a feeling that in the territories that ukraine now controls, the local population, as what evacuates, and what remains is directing its anger at moscow, not at ukraine, so i believe that in fact, the kremlin is nervous, it does everything possible not to cause alarm, it does not want to incite and mobilize, it does not want the local population to sound the alarm. and we are at the end, trying to introduce troops into this theater in order to somehow help the advancement of ukraine. the kremlin is doing everything it can to avoid withdrawing troops from its own offensive in ukraine. instead, he attracts a prize.

greetings, friends, the second part of the verdict program is live on the espresso tv channel, my name is serhii rudenko, and for the next 45 minutes we will talk about the following. ban activities of the russian orthodox church in ukraine. the historic decision of the parliament requires decisive actions of the government. how the ukrainian authorities will further eradicate the moscow church. suja, kursk and further, moscow. can the offensive of the ukrainian army

force putin to withdraw from ukraine. forecasts and scenarios of the possible development of events in... the next few months. ratification of the rome statute. ukraine fully joined the international criminal court. how will it affect those who defend ukraine with weapons in their hands? we will talk about this and other things with our experts in the future the next 45 minutes. well, let me remind you that we work live on the tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. for those who are currently watching us live on these platforms, please subscribe to our pages, take part in our survey, today we ask you about whether the moscow church threatens the security of ukraine, yes, no, everything is quite simple on youtube, either yes or no, if you have a separate opinion, please leave it in the comments below this video, if you are watching us on tv, take your smart phone or phone and

vote if you think that the moscow church threatens the security of ukraine, 0.8 211 381 no 0800 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. i would like to introduce the guests of today's studio, this is viktor boberenko, an expert of the bureau of policy analysis. mr. viktor, i congratulate you, thank you for being with us today. good health, i don't have electricity, but the internet seems to be there, i'm with you. thank god. we will watch you and communicate with you despite lack of light serhii taran, political scientist. mr. sergey, i congratulate you, thank you for joining the broadcast. i congratulate you. gentlemen, since we are asking our tv viewers whether the moscow church is a threat to the security of ukraine? it seems like a rhetorical question and

the answer is obvious, everyone should have it, but here is a preliminary survey in the previous program. in the previous part shows that 7% still do not think that the moscow church threatens national security, what do you think about this, let's start with mr. viktor, well, in fact, the threat is of course there, and we must react, although the threat is exaggerated, because the majority of the population is indifferent. to the question of religion, they are actually believers, yes , the majority of ukrainians there will say that they are orthodox, but a large part of the patriarchate is confused, and they will also say that it does not matter which church you go to, if you go twice a year, you will consecrate the pasochki and there , well, maybe there i'm recruiting, is there a salvation now

, yes, although it's so strange for me... here i live in sumy, from my window i can see two so far to the left, moscow is far away the ukrainian language apparently became this bad and apparently it became about four times more ukrainian than moscow, that is, the people reoriented themselves, well, at least in terms of what they bought for what they sold for, so i watched today's study of who is actually loyal to the ukrainian orthodox church. there are some, well, some, according to which almost 13% of the entire population believe that there is, this is their position, well, this is also there, which can be assumed that there is, like aristovych, he has his own team there, yes, some for ukraine, but like with pushkin and bulgakov, that's somewhere

approximately this version, these are people... elderly youth, i say once again, identiferous, well, in the majority, in western and central ukraine, where young people go to church, they go to the ukrainian church, but these people, as a rule, are not a threat represent, but now, but, but still, taking into account the fact that there is not much harm from them, i think that they are exaggerating, there is harm, and therefore it is very right, very right. ban the moscow church, that is, i am absolutely for it. thank you, mr. victor. mr. serhiy, does the moscow church threaten security of ukraine? well, it must be said that we are not talking about the church now, we are talking about a subdivision of the russian state, which they call the church, and which is used by

the kremlin authorities to promote their narratives to promote their influence, by the way, not only in ukraine, but also in ukraine in particular, but we understand very well that this is not exactly a church, precisely because it is an integral part of all... state structures, but representatives of this so-called church are always present at all events with the participation of putin, they always sanctify everything that, what putin says, they support, well, in russia, in general, this church is part of the state, so the question is whether the russian state threatens us now, the question is of course rhetorical, it is just such a huge strategic mistake to constantly call it a church and say that it is actually religious . issue, it's not a question of religion, it's a question of security, just as, for example, in the united states , they would never allow al-qaeda or various extremist, islamic movements there,

even though they may be religious too, and the same and it will be strange for ukraine if, in general, it is strange that until now this structure still existed legally in ukraine, the whole western world is fighting against terrorism, even if these terrorists are motivated by any religious slogans, because it is about... not about religion at all , it's about security, that's why this situation with the russian so-called church is purely a matter of security, and what they call a church, well, if we believe them, then let's call skabeeva a journalist, let's call it russian propaganda, which is not only in ukraine, and in europe, and by the way, it is already banned, russian channels, tv channels, are banned in europe, call them freedom of speech, and not russian propaganda, then you can come to the point that er... terrorists to call the militias in the east, and to say that the russian army is carrying out a liberation operation, instead of starting aggression against ukraine and has been conducting it for the third

year, so you should not just pay attention to this word church, you should just understand what it is doing, and what it is doing she did systematic, subversive work against the ukrainian state it was done before the war, it is being done now, and the decision of the verkhovna rada is definitely late, but well... better late than never. well, beyond any doubt, especially if you take into account the fact that for 2.5 years they tried to introduce and finally adopt a decision on the banning of religious organizations that are connected with the russian federation. there is such a decision, the verkhovna rada adopted it, commenting on this law on the activities of religious organizations, the representative of the orthodox church of ukraine, metropolitan epiphany, called on all orthodox... of ukraine to dialogue and the final exit from moscow's yoke. let's listen to what metropolitan epiphany said. the law makes it possible

for all religious structures that have not yet done so to truly free themselves completely from moscow's control now. and we, for our part , call again and again to all the orthodox in ukraine, who have not yet done so, to throw off the russian yoke, after all, we are open to dialogue without preconditions, and this was recently stated again in my address to metropolitan onufriy and those who are with by him mr. viktor, yesterday's vote for the law on religious organizations connected with russia on the banning of these religious organizations is called a historic decision, which... historic actions are now needed by this historic law, well, all the insiders told me that stefanchuk sent them on vacation ,

conditional leave, precisely because they didn’t have, there weren’t enough votes, they found these votes, it’s clear that the opzzhists were there, they tried to confuse it all in three pine trees, but the votes were found, but now i... think what the next thing will happen is that they, just as they had a party of regions, well, they banned the party of regions, well, they banned the party of communists, but the communists did not divide the regionalists anywhere, they reformed the regions, we see now in the rank of opzzh some kind, yes, i think , that now all these anfriivites will create some kind of ecclesiastical opzzh for faith, yes there. and they will deal with it so that only, well, well, roughly speaking, well, the sign will be removed, yes, but will

anufryi become ukrainian. do you believe he will become a patriot of ukraine? no, he is anyway there will be prayers for kirill putin, for putin to come, nothing will change these people, and we have to relate to it, yes, but, let's put it this way, i myself personally know one father who clings to the moscow patriarchate, what a man he is, as he told me that i am ours. the bishop consecrated me, i kiss his hand, he consecrated me, i, if i move with him, if he doesn’t move, i won’t move, although he sings the songs of ukrainian soldiers, he says patriotic things, i was at one of the funerals, well, he is very sincere, very correct, very cool says, but at the same time, the servant of the moscow church there is to blame, i talked to him, well, there i say, why not go over, he says, well

, i don't know everyone. all the motivations, all the fathers of the priests are the same, but everyone has their own, their own opinion in their head, why they transfer or not, i will repeat again, again, again and again, many priests of the moscow patriarchate, they are patriots, they together with their clergy, they are together with their people, but their episcopate is serhiy rightly said, they are the fsb colonel. they are at least majors there, fsb colonels. i remembered that in the 21st year i was in severodonetsk, there i read an important training for the press services of the military, and i drove into this, well, holy mountains, i drove in with my wife, then she, not me, even, i already have my eye on me to all these kagibists, she says, says,

and... the guards look like them, well , there are at least lieutenants, and the nuns and monks are running around, young, yes, but the correction, there, you know, there, the formation lieutenant of the fsb, at least, yes, they look 22-23 years old there, but they look like an fsb lieutenant in ryas, this is what they look like. thank you, mr. viktor, mr. serhiy, mr. victor mentioned this whole story from the party of regions for good reason. and this is what we watched, well, over the past 10 years, how this party of regions tried to strangle it, or at least somehow limit it, including politicians who were part of the party of regions, they were constantly reborn as opz, there was an opposition bloc, then they were transformed there part, probably went to the sharia party in the localities, well, that is, it was a constant transformation, some parties were banned,

other parties... emerged, if you recall the 20-year history in general, and what happened 20 years ago, we even had a party supporting vladimir putin and it took part in the 2006 parliamentary elections, although they won a significant percentage there, and sevastopol, but this also happened in ukraine, won't it be the same as with the opzz faction in the verkhovna rada, because it is already there that they are dying for life, not opzz. they call themselves in a completely different way, whether or not it will be the same with the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate, or in this case, well, since there is no mention of this in the law, so we are talking about all organizations that can be affiliated with the russian federation in one way or another, well, it was different in the history of ukraine, there was also a communist party that disappeared, but we have to

understand. that laws alone will not help matters here, of course, the verkhovna rada and ukrainian e-e officials must pass the right laws and make the right decisions so that those structures that work against the national interests of ukraine cannot operate in ukraine, and ukraine needs to separate where there are actually freedom of conscience, and where there is simply the activity of an enemy state, but the fundamental question is that... the voters should never vote for this again, never again vote for those people who literally for days in the verkhovna rada will continue to support this moscow yes the so-called church, but they will move on to other political projects, they can vote for them again, so the key issue is that our voter has a better memory, so that voters, going to the polling stations, understand and know who

they are voting for, so that they... be interested biography of these people.