be careful because the enemy is not sleeping, and by the way, tomorrow we are waiting for good news from the united states of america, the agency, of course, with a message to its sources, informs that tomorrow the united states may announce record aid for ukraine in the amount of 3 billion dollars. this is military aid and supposedly tomorrow, the white house will say about it well, they call the figure 3 billion dollars, it is also contracts for drones for other weapons and other equipment well, what about drying the press seriously, er, a reputable source, we will believe it now, your attention, bbc we are watching it together from ukraine good evening we are from ukraine on bbc news ukraine and olga palamaryuk is in the studio and today we are talking about such days

of increased danger until independence day in ukraine mass events have been canceled the united states is asking its citizens to leave ukraine what to expect crimea in the eu promises zelensky gathered precisely from the crimean platform how millions of troops and defense virtuosos will return control over the peninsula the war changed the armed forces of ukraine as a bolt turned into a model for world armies ukraine celebrates flag day and prepares for independence day everything is in the shadow of threats of a possible new large-scale attack from russia, ukrainian intelligence warns about it, intelligence also warns about it, the american embassy of the united states even called on its citizens to leave ukraine in kyiv,

mass events were canceled, people are asked to be as careful as possible, but the eyes of the world are once again chained to the ukrainian capital, in the next 30 minutes we will talk in detail about all the threats , analyze the main events of the day, but we will start with an outside view of what is being said and what foreign journalists are talking about ukraine. this is what the bbc correspondent james waterhouse paid attention to. on this day, president zelenskyi walked along khreshchatyk in a designer black suit, followed by an armed military column, which was a show of force. on central street, now and then russian equipment is damaged or captured, the mood is much more gloomy, accompanied by a warning from the us state department however, in his opinion, russia will increase attacks on government buildings and infrastructure, i think this is a

precedent for 8 years of russian aggression against ukraine, usually around this time of the year, before ukraine's independence day, russia increases its activities, previously it happened because of militants in the east of the country, but today everything is completely different there are also reports about the largest nuclear power plant in europe. i spoke with the ceo of agtera file grosi. he says that he expects to get access to the plant after weeks of institutions providing this access and expects to receive it in a few days. -what a moment it is, here is a short summary on the eve of the independence day from the

british correspondent of the bbc, james waterhouse , and then we will go over the main events of the day in that volume including what james mentioned in his report at first about a notable diplomatic event in kyiv, the presidents of ukraine and poland met despite the threat of russian shelling , held a press conference right on the street near the verkhovna rada, zelensky even asked duda if it was not scary for his polish colleague to stand in the open that duda only smiled and asked in response. and the polish president assured you that he supported and will always support ukraine and stated that the ukrainian people and the government can count on the two presidents opened poland and the poles in kyiv, but also courage, which is located near the verkhovna rada, and the first star of courage is dedicated to duda, and later, duda took part in the summit of the crimean platform - this is another important diplomatic event of the day. the crimean platform is an international initiative whose goal is to return kyiv

's control over the ukrainian peninsula, opening the meeting, zelensky stated that crimea was not just ukraine and after deoccupation it will become part of the eu. this is the second meeting of the initiative on deoccupation peninsula, the first was in august of last year, but this year the geography of the crimean platform expanded due to the countries of africa and the other side of the atlantic. the leaders of germany, britain and france also addressed the participants via video link. ukraine is united as never, we introduce unprecedented sanctions , we support ukraine financially, we will continue to provide weapons, in particular, systems against defense armored vehicles ammunition in the face of putin's aggression we must continue to provide

our ukrainian friends with all the military humanitarian economic and diplomatic support they need until russia puts an end to this terrible war and withdraws its troops from the entire territory of ukraine what is happening now in ukraine concerns not only ukrainians, of course, first of all, it is a struggle for their independence and freedom, but it concerns all of us, because the consequences are felt in all countries, and most importantly intelligence management urges ukrainians to be especially careful on independence day due to the threat of missile attacks from russia, intelligence officers emphasize that the air alert is a serious signal and it should be paid special attention to in the next two days, meanwhile, the united states has intelligence data that russia is planning new attacks on civil infrastructure and state facilities of ukraine writes the raiders agency with reference to an american

official, given russia's track record in ukraine, we are concerned about the threat that persists as in russian strikes are for the civilian population - this is what the publication quotes its source, and a few hours ago the president of ukraine held a press conference with her, my colleague zhanna bezpyachuk has returned, she is joining me from kyiv hello zhanna, so tell me the main thing is what you heard there greetings olya i would like to single out several important messages and messages of comments voiced by volodymyr zelenskyi. first , the president commented on the so-called trials of azov ukrainian prisoners of war in mariupol and in donetsk. it is known that in mariupol the occupation administration and the russian troops planned the so-called trial of the ukrainian military precisely for the independence day of ukraine and also for the day of the city in september, the president of ukraine

clearly said that russia can forget about any diplomacy in the future if it dares to judge ukrainian prisoners of war in spite of and in violation of international law and ukrainian laws, the next important block of today's press conference of the president was canceled because of the most obvious dangers for ukraine, first of all this is the situation at the nuclear power plant. volodymyr zelenskyy for the first time announced that russia had already tried to disconnect this power plant from the power grids that today ukraine controls in the south of its territory, and this means that, according to the president, there was an attempt to connect it, that is, to actually steal it . to connect the ukrainian nuclear power plant to the power grids that russia currently occupies and controls in the south of the country and in

crimea, the president said that there really is a one hundred percent nuclear threat in connection with the situation that is happening there, for example at night the russian army, the military representatives of the russian authorities probably asked the ukrainian personnel of the nuclear power plant to leave its territory and brought cars there with unknown cargo. well, here is an example of what is happening there, how difficult it is to predict the situation today ukraine as volodymyr zelenskyi explained, he insists that the representatives of the megathems should enter for the inspection from this situation to the power plant there exclusively through the territory controlled by ukraine and according to ukrainian laws, and not as proposed before through the crimea through the territory occupied by russia and regarding the threat

of missile strikes, according to volodymyr zelenskyi, there is a significant difference between what the country is experiencing every day . whether it's kharkiv or chernihiv, and it will be a powerful, powerful response. and this is what concerns the threat. yes, thank you, zhanna. it was zhanna bezpyachuk, and we were talking about the press conference of volodymyr zelenskyi on the eve of independence day, and as i already mentioned at the very beginning of the program, the independence day of ukraine in such conditions attracts the attention of the whole world, especially to the fact that millions of people have been living under the constant threat of air attacks for six months, and today the co-director of

foreign policy and international security programs of the razumkova center , oleksiy melnyk, was a guest of the world service. shared with the world audience the realities of ukrainian life and this is what they heard about ukraine in different parts of the planet oleksiy, i would like to congratulate you. a warning like this from the united states that an increase in attacks on civilian infrastructure is expected, this problem of russian attacks is actually a problem every day and every night, i want to say that almost 70% of russian missiles hit civilian targets or infrastructure, so we are sufficiently prepared morally and also people listen to advice from the authorities these are not orders but these are advice to stay away from military facilities of the authorities even outside of kyiv these are not orders this is advice this morning i was driving from my apartment to the office and i did not see anything like that extraordinary or extraordinary. so oleksia,

what else is expected in ukraine regarding what may happen tomorrow, what kind of strikes are people expecting? we are not expecting anything new because we have been in this terrible reality for the past six months and people are reacting differently, some are behaving quite cautiously listen to the alarm signals but there are also such especially young people they are not so careful they can sit and drink coffee but as i said this is a kind of new normality for us because it is valuable for you this kind of intelligence the information that we hear from the usa is actually quite strong. ukrainian military intelligence is quite strong, there is a high level of cooperation with american intelligence. of course, they do not give all the information, but at least the united states confirms the same expectations and the same conclusions that we have from our sources. tomorrow and what it means now six

months from now and six months since the beginning of the russian attack and we feel of course, if you put aside all these terrible feelings of being in ukraine is at war, i have been in many war zones. as a former military man, it is different when the war is at home, but in general, we recently published the results of a survey and 90% of ukrainians are quite sure that ukraine will defeat russia and people are mostly optimistic about our future, this is encouraging in a way us all of us it's very interesting that people plan and look ahead to the future it's not a situation in which they just try to live one day how it felt a few months ago that's exactly what makes us to live and what gives us hope and gives us the strength to fight and in russia it was reported that a projectile hit the headquarters of the

leader of the dpr group denys poshilina in donetsk. on the background of a damaged building, so a real shelling or preparation for a provocation on the eve of independence day, military expert oleksandr kovalenko is in touch with us. i congratulate you. how did you personally perceive the news about the shelling pushylin's headquarters, and don't you see in this an attempt of a kind of justification, it is possible that the house will be on the ukrainian authorities tomorrow good evening yes , i think it is really so, why? the dnr does not decide anything for you, why? well, because everything is decided by its curators, he is most like a puppet, so his, let's say, liquidation, if it was necessary to stop it in the whole of ukraine. well,

she did not decide anything, i will say more the ammunition that had to be destroyed, well, this is, for example, or high-precision creates 155 caliber or film 40 timers, it was much more effective , and if it was written out against a warehouse with ammunition and not against a--a pushylina, therefore, i think that it is really , well, about what and on to the ukrainian government , intelligence reports this, but exactly how protected is the government quarter, russia has never fired at, let's say, a bank because there is a powerful anti-missile defense there, or they simply haven't aimed yet, and not only that, they actually have no reason to they did not have the strategic goal of destroying the government quarter directly, because they were trying to somehow

demonstrate that they are ready for dialogue, moreover , repeatedly in the russian propagandist environment, it was emphasized that they recognize zelenskyi lelekyt is recognized as the legitimate president of ukraine, because the russian criminal authorities need exactly the signing of the capitulation of ukraine from the legitimate president, so they will try to capitulation from the government of the legitimate government of ukraine, but this will never happen, that's why all these plans are useless. but this is more a fantasy than something real, and i also want to ask you about the possible further development of events at the front, a number of experts and on our broadcast, in particular, they stated that russia had transferred part of its units to the south, and the moment for the counter-offensive of the ukrainian army has already been lost. is it true, it looks like the

truth , yes? concentrated a very large amount of forces and resources precisely on the southern bridgehead, but it must be understood that today this is the southern bridgehead and it would be almost cut by the dnieper, that is, the right bank and the left bank, and the logistics between the left and right banks are almost nil it is uninhibited by the constant fire influence on the logistics arteries of the antonov bridges and the kakhovsky bridge, therefore, at least on the right bank, they can carry out offensive actions or defense for a long time . they will not be able to russian occupation forces they can gain a foothold precisely on the left bank, and therefore, in my opinion, one way or another, but there will be contour offensive actions on the right bank, and how will

counteroffensive actions develop? only last week we talked about protecting and supplying less weapons to ukraine, for example, today there was a message that the united states is preparing to send new kamikaze drones to ukraine, and that probably part of weapons were supplied to ukraine by partners in secret. to what extent are these reports supported in reality? i fully agree with the fact that a large number of positions and weapons, equipment and technology provided to ukraine by international partners are secret in open sources, we see and hear only 10 and the best in the case, part of the fact that in fact it is still before ukraine, because, well, it is important in the conditions of a full-scale full- scale war, eh. the secret is that ukraine is supplied, they must be very high, so i i am sure that a large number of the weapons that the armed forces of ukraine are currently receiving,

we will learn about them not even in the near future, but not in the medium term, namely after the end of the war . became a serious challenge for the ukrainian army, it was on the shoulders of the armed forces that the mission fell, not much, but to protect the country from capture by a more powerful and brutal neighbor. how does the armed forces cope with this and whether everything goes as planned actions of the ukrainian army during the six months of confrontation with the armed forces of russia in general, we received a high rating among the politicians and military leaders of the western countries and, first of all, they note the disproportionate military and economic potentials of both states and join my colleague bbc correspondent oleg chernysh on the air olezhe, you researched how the ukrainian army changed during six months of the war, so let's

talk about this, and first of all, when changing , numerical changes are qualitative if you compare the ukrainian the army sample of february 22nd and august, so that you mark good evening, indeed, you are right in saying that there are significant changes actually numerical - this is the main replacement. eh, she went to, well, it’s called the figure of a million, but it’s not quite a project, the armed forces actually now have about 1,000 employees in these cities, this is a significant cut, and eh, according to this indicator, for example, the ukrainian army is currently in the top 10 armies of the world, but it carries certain risks, and this number of employees must be organized, they must be trained, and the main thing is how to provide means of protection and weapons, this is why there are

certain problems, precisely because of this, the ukrainian army has grown significantly in terms of quantity, but unfortunately, it cannot be said that it has significantly improved the provision of technical equipment. well, there is also certain e-e problems with training and problems with e-e cases that were already recorded when not too well-educated secured units of new recruits got to the front and this led to problems there actually until the loss of territory before the departure e-e but the main main a sign of the modern ukrainian army, it has become bigger, it has become more powerful, the armed forces of ukraine is switching to western weapons, but it is not enough, and president zelenskyi in particular talks about this, what is the current situation , can we say that there is a shortage of weapons, yes, the word shortage is in principle appropriate, but there is even some paradox here as far as i know, or more precisely

, as people in the ukrainian government told me, a somewhat strange situation arose when we already have enough ammunition of the nato zsk 155 caliber, but an insufficient amount of ecological of installations for these projectiles eh the fact is that their supply was not too large, not as much as we needed, besides, they quickly break down, that is, they need repair, they eh wear out, that's why the vp-bass are actually for nachiv weapons and weapons such a quantity how much is needed is not enough and vice versa soviet weapons when the installation is enough but already almost on the furniture classes because we had cases when they called complex it is now very difficult to buy a sample at world events where they still remained in asia, africa,

and lviv gunsmiths almost do not have access there, that is why it is a somewhat strange situation when, as it were, these conditions for the provision of equipment are in place, but the actual dark nuances will not be, uh, we have the right to say that the olympic troops security equipment is provided, unfortunately, this is not the case, it calls again, er, certain docking for concern in er, among ukrainian politicians, they raise all issues and publicly, not publicly, to their american colleagues, they believe that er the americans can supply more artillery installations than are currently available. thank you. it was the correspondent of the bbc, oleg chernysh, and it coincidentally reminds me of the article on how the war changed the armed forces and turned them into virtuosos in defense on the website bbc.ua. i highly recommend that you will find many other qualitative analyzes there. once again thank you oleg, and we have time

to discuss another important topic, the russians are increasing the number of soldiers and equipment at the zaporizhzhia npp in the process, energoatom reports today, in particular, to the pre-repair zone, the day before, two additional apcs and 6 special trucks are now stationed on the territory of the station, more than 40 units of military equipment near the first power unit, 16 standard vehicles near the second, another seven and 12 more units of equipment, the occupiers drove them under the overpass is simply on the territory of the dangerous objects of the zaporizhzhia npp, meanwhile, the russian military continues to kidnap, intimidate and torture workers of the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant of the power plant forcing individual employees to collaborate and participate in pro-propaganda videos about this in an interview with the ukrainian service of the bbc , petro kotin of the nac energoatom said, according to

him, a few days ago a whole group of propagandists arrived at the gas station about the situation at the gas station and the conditions in which they work ukrainian specialists, the head of energoatom told my colleague tetyana kharchenko that russia is initiating an urgent meeting of the un security council today regarding the situation around the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, what do you expect to hear from them and what will be the position of ukraine, they will lie. i always talk about if the zaporizhia nuclear plant was fired upon by the ukrainian side, in fact, they hear a lot of provocation. in the last two weeks , they added heavy equipment and bmp to their propagandists and the zaporizhia nuclear plant and it was after this arrival of the propagandist there in the evening that they were brought there three days ago and had a great meeting.

one hour after that, their brigade of two or three people began to travel around the territory around the station and also around the energodar site in the villages that are nearby and shelling the territory of the site, the territory of the station, the territory of the station, there is also an energodar from mortars, and in fact after that they accuse the ukrainian side of its shelling and after that the others respond with the provocation of the gunner already with missile complexes from hails of the territory of nikopol manganese on the other side of the dnipro, do you agree with the opinion of the un secretary general, antonio otelisha, that the situation around your opinion. are there any opportunities for negotiations at this moment, and i really don’t even see an opportunity to solve it, and it is

necessary in some other way to actually put pressure on russia from the side of international organizations, it is necessary to put pressure on russia and we need them through negotiations. but of course, negotiations with with the participation and under the leadership of these authoritative international organizations, actually achieve the creation of a demetralized zone around the zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, the amount of equipment that the russian military has already brought zaporizhzhia power plant and do you know where exactly they get it bmp there are trucks there are cars for the transportation of command staff there is also a radar radar station and a total of 40 to 50 e-e machines of such heavy equipment are now located parts of it from this equipment

are located in the manuals of power units number 1,2, it is written that part of it is under the so-called overpasses and it is on the territory of the station, as well as some equipment that is located near the soviet pulses of the nuclear power plant, what is the case with this equipment by chance, the detonation of what they have in these trucks and this is explosive material, we are sure of it, it will lead to a siege on that, maybe one zaporizhzhia station is probably getting ready number two, we won't even be able to send our fire trucks there and our firemen's calculations that can be eliminated because they, with this very equipment, actually blocked access to the repair of nuclear power units. what do you know about the

conditions in which the ukrainian personnel are at the station? they are also already very, very tired. there are a lot of people there on the territory of the station, they continue to kidnap more than before and keep them in their premises, including not bypassing them and uh, animals, tractors above them, uh, if we remember again about those about the pokalists, we see that some people do not they just say that they are for the russian peace, in fact, because they were forced to do so, that's when they steal jobs, a lot of people steal jobs, more than 100 people, uh, this information was two weeks ago, now i think at least more than workers places of people were kidnapped and also that people you know

one person was killed directly beaten to death by them er another person was seriously wounded yesterday only because of shelling and targeted areas accidentally got into a car in which two people were moving, one of them our the worker, the driver died and our worker was seriously injured and passed away already in the hospital and that's all for today, look for more on our bbc.ua website and on our social media pages. see you tomorrow at 9:00 p.m.