fighter vitaliy merinov returned to the ranks of the national guard as soon as a full-scale war began in ukraine, an experienced athlete, a loving father and husband, while performing a combat mission in the marine corps, vitaliy was wounded, but today he is again preparing to go to the combat zone, telling about the circumstances of his injury, the guards remembers that in the morning the enemy used to shoot a little later, the artillery joined the infantry, an intense shooting battle began , during which vitaly received a shrapnel wound from a grenade from an underbarrel grenade launcher the long-awaited meeting with family and loved ones is the most important award for every fighter, but they also deserve the highest thanks, because they are fighting for the lives of all ukrainians, join the flash mob, honor the hero

on the air from washington, the program of the ukrainian service of the voice of america, time, i am yuliya yarmolenko, i congratulate the house of representatives the day before the us congress approved its version of the country's defense budget for 2023, the document provides for the allocation of a billion dollars for assistance to ukraine within the framework of the security assistance initiative as well amendments on the allocation of 100 million dollars for the training program of ukrainian pilots and increased supervision of the aid received in order to acquire the force of law, the project that must be approved by the senate and signed by the president, more details about the main provisions of the draft budget that relate to ukraine and future american aid in general, we will also talk with ostap yarosh, who is joining to the broadcast from the capitol hill, ostap, congratulations, what are the

key provisions of this project of the us defense budget for 2023 that relate to ukraine and what they mean from the point of view of washington's support for kyiv and yulia the defense budget project for the amount of 840 billion dollars actually for this law, but it is very important to understand, as you already mentioned, there is still a long way ahead of the debate in the senate, the adoption of the final text of the bill by the senate, and only then will this project be signed of the american president regarding ukraine, there are several important points that should be emphasized , first of all, as you already mentioned, 1 billion military aid has been pledged for ukraine, which is 700 million more than was pledged in the previous budget year, but it is also very important to understand this without taking into account the land lisa program and also without taking into account the possibility to apply to the congress for the allocation of additional funds, which we saw in principle this year, another important point, this project also includes an amendment on the training of ukrainian pilots on american fighter jets, in particular f-15 f16 for this program, the

congress asks to allocate 100 million us dollars, the congress also points out to the pentagon the importance of creating a joint program with the ukrainian ministry of defense for treatment and rehabilitation of the ukrainian military, both physical and mental, including and including in this part of the bill, it is about joint training of military medics. well, it is also very important to understand, and this is also written in the draft about proper supervision of the actions of the pentagon regarding support for ukraine, in particular when it comes to yuli about the provision of american weapons to ukraine, and the republican of ukrainian origin viktorin sparz, who expressed certain concerns about the lack of proper supervision over the use of western weapons in ukraine and specifically regarding the head of the office of the ukrainian president andriy yarmak, our colleague kateryna lycenova talked exclusively with

congresswoman sport the day before, let's watch part of this interview and then we will return to the discussion, but what is the essence of the concerns of congresswoman victoria spartz, what solutions do she see and how does she respond to criticism about the political motives of these statements on the eve of the congressional elections in an interview with kateryna lisunova next let's start with the latest publication on your website regarding the introduction of supervisory review and the creation of a special working group for the general review of aid for ukraine how do you see it how do you see it working in your opinion it should be a certain group of people who will be checked on the territory of ukraine should it be a check here in the united states of america we already have mechanism that can be used for something like this, and i think that is why it is important to have a joint working group, and this is the mechanism that i demand from this administration,

but for some reason, unfortunately, president biden and the adviser from national security jake sullivan does not do this, so i believe that congress has a responsibility and a duty to the american and ukrainian people to ensure that this aid is used effectively and efficiently so that it quickly reaches the right people and russia could not arrange any sabotage that would stop the supply of aid quite quickly we are increasing our assistance, we are working on its quality and scope, so i think it is extremely important, such an improvement will not only help us improve the supervision of by supplying aid, it will help the ukrainians win this war, and i think it is important to have such a mechanism and it should be set up by the administration , then we will have more independent reporting so that we do not have unnecessary bureaucracy and all these obstacles . so, if i understand you correctly, you want the mechanisms that already exist worked properly and you had reports from the biden administration, we already have such mechanisms, they already exist, they are not

new, they have already been implemented from the outside, now ukraine needs to implement them internally states but sometimes they need a push and we can do it somewhere but the criticism of your position is that it can slow down the delivery of aid to ukraine it will on the contrary speed up the aid because now we have a problem lack of proper verification and inefficient logistics really slow down the process proper supervision and proper logistical improvements will actually increase the speed and efficiency of deliveries to the front line because our goal is to deliver aid to a specific destination strategic coordinator of communications of the us national security council john kirby in an interview for voice of america said that they plan to give you a proper answer why did you get any answer to your questions both from the white

house and from the office of the president of ukraine super love ukraine desire the best it seems that the president ukraine has decided to scold me using its media, which is really a shame , instead of really dealing with these issues , but you know it's politics and it's up to his voters to decide whether they like his answer or not, but as for our side, how do you know the administration should organize a special briefing because this is not the first time that i have expressed these concerns and i hope that they will really discuss this issue because many of our briefings are just moving papers from place to place i do not accept this approach to the matter friends in ukraine in ukraine exists the opinion that the criticism of the president's office is not at the right time and the issues you raise are not appropriate, how do you comment on it? here is to be proactive, it is always right, it would be wrong if we were to

discuss for 60 minutes what went wrong in ukraine yes i think it is also very correct to consider any problem and criticism and don't get me wrong president zelenskyy is doing a great and difficult job at the international level i understand it's hard for him i'm not saying this job is easy but i think if we want to help him win this war we need to give him some feedback on some things and he needs to listen to this feedback and be constructive in considering it and not destructive and try to attack because i have only the best intentions for ukraine i don't indifferent to all these young people who are dying, the best of the best, the smartest people, this will very soon become a big problem for ukraine because experienced fighters are now dying in the trenches, so i think that this is a problem that needs to be solved and ukraine should also understand that this is a very serious war and when you are at war, you need the whole country to switch to a new rhythm, you should have a united and

easy war regime. but is it fair to say that ukraine is not doing enough if in ukraine that it will lose this war in three days? i believe that the ukrainian the military exceeded all expectations. and even earlier in an interview on this topic before the war, i said that i have no doubt that ukraine will not be defeated in three days. i know people from there. i grew up with many of them. i know them personally, not only thanks to a few meetings, you know how the situation with these politicians with whom i only had a few meetings lasting one hour, but i know people with whom i have known for years, close friends, relatives, so i know what ukrainians are like. in fact, i know that they will never give up and will stand to the end, but unfortunately now we have different views collection of analysts connect your statement with mid-term congressional elections they call this an attempt to conduct american

politics at the expense of the ukrainian issue how can you comment on this i will say that these people probably do not understand how general elections work in america we have primaries in may and maybe this problem would be relevant in the primaries, but so far no one is even running against me, but this is just a headache for me. if we talk about general elections, you know because this is not the issue with the help of which you can divide society in general elections, they usually focus on problems that divide society, but polling is not even one of the actual problems. i make such statements because it is right now. but do you think that russia threatens not only ukraine, but also the democracy of the united states states, of course. this is a blow to us. let's not be naive. the russians can certainly tell all this historical nonsense. i don't want to go too far, but then he makes these statements for people who don't understand what is happening, but in the end it is a blow from the side

of russia and china against us as a superpower and an attempt to divide the spheres of interests. surely he wants to embarrass us again, as he did in afghanistan , he understands that the american president is weak today, he is driven by political decisions and not by statesmanship motives in in the sense of how a real leader should rule his own state, so in essence he is an opportunist, he just found an opportunity to hit us and he is using ukraine and i will be honest with you. i am disappointed because finally we we have a partner who is ready and willing to fight and we don't need to send our own children to fight most of our soldiers fought our children are americans who went to fight but now we have a partner who wants to fight and all we need is to provide weapons instead we do not provide adequate support it strange to me because i do not believe that it is in the national interest of the usa to have a major conflict unfolding in europe when russia attacks from different sides and destabilizes all of europe, the

entire middle east, destabilizes africa, africa in one of your last flowers was literally declared that you want the resignation of the head of the office of the president of ukraine andriy yermak, how do you comment on this, and the operator, i really do not think that this is in favor of president zelenskyi, his reputation should be transparent because all these doubts harm ukraine, unfortunately too much many people are guided by political decisions and not by what would be the right thing to do. if i were a statesman and didn't know what to do, i would decide what to do with my reputation and a number of serious mistakes already made the decisions and advice i gave everything just looks bad because my partners have to rely on me i have to look at this person and think i trust her because a lot depends on her especially during the war the office of the president performs many functions the president does a lot on the international stage level, so the head of his office

deals with internal issues. i have to trust a person when i provide him with all this help. there are all these doubts, it creates uncertainty that ukraine does not need. i want to be sure that we can trust the people around the president of ukraine and these concerns should be addressed in particular by the administration of the american president, but unfortunately when people don't want to answer questions they start attacking and this is a very strange answer, i was very disappointed by such an answer from the ukrainian side as well, but in the end it is up to the ukrainian people ukraine and racing and finally, is there anything that you would like to add to of this interview, i can speak ukrainian, but i have n't spoken that language for 40 years, but it was

still my first language, and i recently remembered when i was little i learned a poem i would like to quote fragments from it love ukraine like the sun love like wind and grass water an hour happy and in joy a moment love an hour of bad weather love ukraine in a dream and buy a cherry your country is beautiful forever alive and a language and a nightingale glory to ukraine such was the interview with congresswoman republican viktoria spartz the full version of which can be found on the online platform of the voice of america in ukrainian and we will return to the discussion with my colleague ostap yarosh ostapa heard my interview with viktori sparz during the week we also heard reactions to concerns about the proper use of american aid from representatives of the ukrainian authorities and from the american, in particular, in the state department stated that the supervision mechanism exists and kyiv trusts it. yesterday i had

the opportunity to talk with the chief ukrainian diplomat in washington, oksana markarova, who is in constant contact with the american authorities, what does she say about the proper supervision of the aid received and, in general, about the future of american support? oksana markarova says that she fully understands such concerns, because we are talking about huge sums if we are talking about financial assistance for the budget of ukraine and about the allocation of a large number of weapons, in particular the newest weapons for ukraine, but at the same time, oksana marka says that ukraine absolutely cooperates with the united states in terms of transparency and accountability, in particular at the level of the white house and at at the level of the pentagon at the level of the state department and ukraine is only interested in whether this transparency was this trust and as much as possible helps the united states to see how these weapons are used yulia i also talked with oksana markarova and about how the land lease program will work and about other things let's listen to the interview of ms. oksana. we also saw certain

concerns from some legislators. in some media it appeared that there is not enough transparent supervision of the weapons provided by the united states states for ukraine at the same time, a white woman to constantly communicate ukraine understands those concerns and is ready to contribute to this supervision as ukraine is now ready and what ukraine is doing to ensure that this supervision is transparent in terms of how weapons are used and what is done with them, see if i am involved , you can to all communications, of course , i can't tell about all of them, because most of them are closed communications. but i think of such a level of cooperation, understanding and mutual transparency as we have now. well, i don't remember ever, yes, that is, we this is at the moment and you have actually heard communication from the white house and from the pentagon about what is actually in this very difficult situation when there is no place in ukraine that can be called conditionally safe when really the enemy does not stop there are no

red lines for him that that we manage together with our partners so effectively and clearly not only to deliver these weapons to our borders, but also to transport them across the border and deliver them everywhere is a big, big credit, and of course we are as much as possible, again considering combat conditions e exchange information and give our partners a full understanding of where we are in addition to e e information exchange with the pentagon we also constantly inform about this we have briefings again of different kinds we try to inform not only our administration partners but also congress and we even went to that, it was an initiative of the ukrainian side. when we started to allocate the first funds specifically to the budget, it is just direct grant aid, the budget and we already have eight and a half to date

almost four billion are already in our accounts as soon as the first tranches began to be allocated, 500 million, then 500 million, as soon as the funds were exchanged for hryvnias and spent, we provided not only to the administration, not only to usaid, the world bank, through whose account these funds enter full reporting, but the same the reporting is sent in full by the world bank and we send it to the congress on our behalf, and if we are talking about weapons, then here it is simply a question of the weapons themselves, and here we very clearly conduct an exchange of information, and we, for our part, more than once declared that we are actually ready not just for greater transparency, we are also ready for all our partners to apply not only to the united states, it is a pleasure, we are ready to show them to open everything, including on the spot in ukraine , on the ukrainian side, there are definitely no delays here we will not only be grateful to our partners for all the

help that is provided. we also understand that transparency in the use of efficiency is a guarantee that this help will continue to be provided on our part, there is complete openness of what now the ukrainian embassy understands how the loan lease program will actually work if we also take into account that all the other programs are also available. when this is possible, we can expect it. is there any kind of communication ? carries a certain pre-regulation in other programs that are more easily provided and this was also in this law, he introduced land forest as a tool that did not exist before, that is, that we can also take in any leasing programs or rent equipment, of course, leasing programs or renting - this is not free use, it is clear that there are certain specifics in leasing or renting e-e weapons, yes , because it is clear that during the war weapons are also lost well, we are already going into such

details for today. according to the latest changes to the budget, which were included in the total sum of 40 billion, there are three more programs that have enough funding to actively provide it to us. the position of the pentagon is now because now that these programs actually grant and free transfer, we focus on them, that is, the pentagon, now find the weapon we need as quickly as possible and provide it to us using one of these programs. and that is, english is an additional tool that we will use, i hope more actively if there is a need, he will see that it is completed funds for some programs because when we run out of allocated funds already then there will be two options: either we quickly connect lend-lease at this moment or we go to return to the congress with additional requests, uh, well, accordingly, we

turn to the administration, the administration turns to the congress, so uh, today we expertly work out the lend-lease, we look at how it can be, and so on, but hmm, we are actively now uh, using those programs that are already available and according to which it is actually only a matter of finding weapons and, accordingly, going through all the procedures to obtain them or purchase them and deliver them to the field . what exactly is ukraine asking for now ? refers to long-range artillery, everything related to rocket salvo systems , everything related to various combat drones, everything related to means of counter- battery combat, that is, in fact, what we are getting now. and some things that we still in discussions, but first of all, this is, of course, everything

we need in order to win this artillery duel that is currently happening in the east. but not only that, because we also have a lot of everything that we need, starting from, well, all diverse weapons, i don't want to list them there, but there is a need for anti-tank anti-tank weapons and the means that we need for demining, in fact, we have coordination, you see that both at the level of minister secretary austin and at the level of his counterpart, general miley, but the same coordination is taking place in fact, at every level of cooperation, therefore, we are very, very actively working out all our needs, and i can say that the pentagon reacts quite flexibly, important messages were heard in oksana markarov's interview, thank you ostapa for contacting from the capitol hills with the results of the week was my colleague ostap yarysh, one of the topics that

us president biden is currently discussing during his visit to the middle east is aid to ukraine, a state in the region believes that the white house should consider strengthening support for kyiv, especially against the background of the deepening of the alliance between russia and to iran that on the eve of the trip, us national security adviser jake sullivan said that, according to washington, tehran is preparing to sell hundreds of combat drones to moscow. if this happens, they will probably be directed against important targets in ukraine, in particular against long-range artillery systems of ammunition depots of air defense systems , samuel bendad , an analyst at the us naval analysis center, who has been studying the development of russian military technologies since 2014, researches the development of russian robotics, drones and artificial intelligence , told about this in an interview with my colleague yerena matviychuk part of the interview with an expert, then the defect itself, the fact that the russians need iranian drones, what

does this mean for the russian army, for the current war in ukraine, this is a very interesting question and i'm sure that it confused many observers, including me now, and russian and ukrainian military attrition, they lost a lot of equipment, lost soldiers, of course. there were many losses in their armies. russia claims to have shot down 1500 ukrainian drones is trying to fill by contacting its international partner if this deal is concluded russia really wants to have kamikaze drones these systems had a very significant effect in the nagorno -karabakh war in 2020 in ukraine we don't see many of these drones and that's why i want more russian kamikaze drones there is also a lack of a significant

number of combat drones, especially those that can fly at short distances, over the past few decades, iran has developed a number of drones of all types with a range of armed kamikaze radars they actually have a lot of technical capabilities that russia would like to have maybe news for ukraine the cost if russia gets kamikaze drones from iran then i think the ukrainians will be very worried that these drones can hit their important targets long-range artillery reactivity of salvo fire systems other systems that launch missiles against russia ammunition depots controls iranian drones flew a considerable distance across the arabian desert to strike targets in northern saudi arabia and in of the united arab emirates and flew into the territory where the american air defense systems were located. if these drones will really be purchased in large numbers by the

hundreds, as reported in the news, then this definitely causes concern, what is generally known about the use of iranian drones in military conflicts in the world, how successful they are with the first in the world to develop its own military unmanned aerial vehicles, they have been developing and operating these drones for over three decades most of them are used in the middle east iran has donated or transferred some of its drones to its henchmen and allies such as the houthi clan of course hizbollah is an ally of the keramivlivani sbulla now has one of the largest drone forces in the world many of them are supplied from iran iranian drones have also been used in iraq in syria against the us allies, however, iran did not have much success in exporting its drones outside the middle east, in particular, the iranian military drone did not perform very well in ethiopia due to mechanical malfunctions irene seeks to

develop not only military or economic cooperation but also drone diplomacy they have actually started production of their drones in tajikistan some of their drones will be produced in tajik factories iran has also exported some of its wood technology to venezuela venezuelan drones have not been used in combat but they are in latin america drones do not necessarily have to be successful they are often a show of force and a headache for the country they target if russia will purchase several hundreds of iranian drones, this will create a headache for ukrainian air defense systems, they heard from the white house that iran will start training the russian military , probably already this month. if this agreement is concluded, how long can it take for export and training until drones appear in ukraine, iranian the technology of unmanned aerial vehicles is obviously somewhat different from the russian one, but the russians themselves are familiar with the technologies and control of

various types of drones, most likely the russian military will not need much time, i think they will appear on the battlefield in a couple of weeks maximum from what i see ukrainian let's talk about ukrainian drones at the beginning of the war the whole world talked about the turkish bayraktars they were used successfully now you hardly hear about them or have the russians learned to hide from them because i think most of them were actually shot down by russian air defense systems and electronic warfare systems before the war, the russian military and their defense industry enterprises actively discussed the barracks they said that they would not be a threat to the russian army, in particular, they say, because of russia’s latest air defense systems, so when barractars began to actively hit russian targets , it was a cause of great shame for them, so probably a lot of resources were spent on hunting precisely for barractars. after all, they do not fly very high

and do not too quickly they are actually a relatively easy target for modernized air defense systems so most of the drones were probably destroyed by the russians what new drones does ukraine need and where could they be ukraine is definitely looking at the american drones that it wants to get. in fact, there are not many countries that produce military drones that could be used in such a conflict. only a few countries, the united states, israel, china , turkey, iran, and russia also produce their own combat drones for their military, but in very a small amount, so if ukraine wants to buy military drones, it will not find many sellers, the united states is one of the sources for ukraine, israel could get drones also but israel is not yet going to supply its military drones to ukraine if the us does not supply its gray eagle drones to ukraine then the ukrainians and the armed forces will have to continue fundraising this was an interview with samuel benditt

an analyst at the us naval analysis center the full version of the conversation and more you can find expert opinions on the voice of america website and on youtube and facebook pages, and this is the end of it. thank you for watching voice of america in ukrainian. see you next week. take care se pa-pa events, the most important events, events that are happening right now and affect our lives