and i am also a volunteer. our soldiers at the front need a lot of things every day, and that is why part of my life today is helping the armed forces of ukraine, and i am very grateful to my colleagues for supporting me in this. the war has become a part of each of us. i am trying to find the strength in myself not to despair and continue to help our soldiers, in the end, the strength to wake up every morning is given by the tireless work of volunteers, my favorite work and the closest people are near, but the most inspiring to live are our defenders, i thank our defenders for the opportunity to feel alive and i support them financially, every one of you can help

even a small contribution to support the army saves the lives of our soldiers and brings our victory closer. congratulations on the broadcast of the voice of america ukrainian service program time and host ostap yarysh, the senate committee on international relations supported the resolution on recognizing russia's actions in ukraine as genocide putin , by his actions are words, made it incredibly clear that his goal is to destroy the existence of the ukrainian people, it is stated in the statement of the co-chairman of the committee, senator jama rish, he called to do and in the future, everything is possible to support ukrainians in their struggle for survival. more about this and other news from the congress, let's talk with maria ulyanovska, who is joining our broadcast now

, maria. i congratulate you. hello ostapa, this is indeed a very important initiative, and in particular because the co-authors of this resolution were yak congressmen, republicans and democrats, and more than 14 senators from different parties supported this resolution, which indicates broad bipartisan support for such an initiative, which is very important if speaking objectively, the resolution condemns russia for committing the crime of genocide in ukraine, it calls on the united states, together with its partners with nato and the european union, to support the ukrainian government in order to prevent the continuation of such crimes on the territory of ukraine, in addition, it supports the tribunal and international criminal investigations in order to punish and bring to justice the russian high-ranking officials of the e-e military who are guilty of committing this crime and besides that what is important and interesting this is a resolution urges the president of the united states to apply sanctions such as sanctions from the magnetic list against people who are guilty of committing the crime of genocide against

ukrainians, let me remind you that we are talking about the ban on entry into the united states and also economic sanctions, and to leave the final approval in the senate maria yakraz i wanted to say that there is no exact date yet , but everything is leading up to the fact that it will be done as soon as possible. another issue is that even earlier, the biden administration appealed to congress to allocate an additional almost 38 billion for ukraine, at which at the current stage of consideration of this issue, a secret briefing on the issue of ukraine was planned for today, and it was probably supposed to discuss this issue of providing additional aid in the amount of 37.7 billion us dollars that president biden called for ukraine to allocate. i will remind you that since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, the usa has already allocated ukraine about 66 billion more dollars for this aid and therefore the issue of allocating such a large amount of aid may be a cornerstone between

republicans and democrats on the issue of support for ukraine. another important point is that this support is sewn into a large package of bills that relate to the budget of the united states government for the next year, and there are many issues of consensus on these bills between the republicans and democrats. issues and at the moment there are several options for the development of events or the congressmen will reach an agreement on the controversial issues and pass these budget laws by december 16, which is what the deadline is now, or they will pass a temporary resolution that will allow them to extend it deadline and gain some time in order to reach a common denominator is also a possible option if, for example, after today's secret briefing, both the deputies and the consumers of the republic and the democrats say that they are ready to unanimously support the provision of this aid to ukraine, this issue can be brought up separately, and maria one more thing, know that this week

several important hearings are scheduled in the congress, many ukrainian delegations, including one, are currently in washington, what else is important, we follow this week's congresses are indeed a very fruitful week for events related to ukraine at the congress, in particular, we are talking about the helsinki commission or the commission for security and cooperation in europe, which is also called the commission for security and cooperation in europe, which is also called taras shmut, the head of the charitable foundation, come back alive serhiy the head of the ukrainian charity fund of the same name, together with latvian and american colleagues, explained how the volunteer movement helps ukraine win this war. they will also talk about what the usa and brussels can do. do to help volunteers do their work better if we talk about tomorrow, there will also be an important briefing on humanitarian demining of ukraine, this is a very important topic and i will remind you that the usa has already allocated 91.5 million dollars for help in demining, they are training ukrainian sappers and

will also talk about what else can be done to help ukraine overcome this humanitarian crisis? in addition, on friday, the same helsinki commission will be visited by the deputy minister of infrastructure of ukraine oleksandra zahina we will talk about the destruction of ukrainian infrastructure that is happening due to constant russian shelling, she will talk about the scale of this destruction and what help is needed from the united states to help ukrainians survive the winter . thank you once again, i will remind you that maria ulyanovska was in touch with us, but more about the fact that the congress will approve additional funding for ukraine before the new year and whether there is a risk of a slowdown american aid was explained by american legislators during the conference organized by the ukraine usa foundation. nataliya churikova and kostyantyn holobchyk attended the event. an aid package to

ukraine of almost 40 billion dollars is one of the key issues that washington hopes to vote on by the end of this year with the current composition of the congress. a long-time supporter of ukraine's interests in us capital congresswoman democrat from mars grove state and captor optimistic i have hope and we have a lot of support from both parties congress the united states recognizes how important it is for the victory of ukraine in the future, therefore there are very optimistic calls in the ranks of the republican party, which from january will control the lower house of the us congress to strictly check aid to ukraine will not harm the support process, assures the republican senator rock portman, perhaps convincing. he will even strengthen american determination maybe there are ways we can improve this check give more bits

to congress and make the process more transparent but it shouldn't slow down help actually it should give us confidence in the possibility of continuing the assistance that ukraine now desperately needs, not only in order to repel russian aggression, but also in order to send a message to the whole world that you and authoritarianism will not defeat the united states, but also to increase aid to ukraine, in particular, to provide support to ukraine and as an investment in the security of the united states itself. i think even during the partisan struggle, it would be possible for the administration and the republican congress, at least the leadership, to agree on positions and jointly come out with a very strong

a statement about american interests and the strengthening of american policy, they themselves understand what it is about, because otherwise they would not provide all the help they provide, but they need to clearly say about it the conversations about ukraine with russia, which are more frequent recently in the former deputy secretary general of nato and the ambassador of the united states in russia, alexander vershbow believes that the time for diplomacy will come, then convinces vershbow, when ukraine will receive a decisive victory on the battlefield of shots. i believe that now it is very premature to start negotiations with the russians because for them, it means stopping the ukrainian military offensive and freezing perhaps forever the territorial gains of russia, the time for diplomacy may come, but i think it will work only when russia is pushed to the wall, when they are faced with

defeat by the ukrainian armed forces, and it may not be so and by far my main question now to the administration and the nato alliance is whether they are ready to do everything necessary for the victory of ukraine or are they trying to find something halfway between war and peace that would be essentially a victory for putin, the head of one of the largest volunteer organizations of the come back alive foundation , taras chmut, says that after more than 9 months of war, the resources of ukrainians will run out in march, in april , the funds were all there was no place to count now, and the domestic manufacturer and foreign suppliers have many excellent positions that the ukrainian army needs and most of them rely on funds, this applies to all of this, both for demining mini-security and for ensuring part of the

units that fight directly from communication to mobility from repair workshops to personal protective equipment, including weapons , military goods, to humanitarian e-e needs in front-line areas and those that were liberated in washington. taras calls for strengthening civilian and military aid to ukraine . not only on the way to victory, but to plan help for many years in advance natalka churikova kostyantyn golubchyk voice of america american magazine time named the president volodymyr zelenskyi and the spirit of ukraine as the person of 2022 this is how the people who, in the opinion of the editors, most influenced the passage through the holes are celebrated regardless

of whether the battle for ukraine fills us with hope or fear, volodymyr zelenskyi charged the world in a way we have not seen for decades, his editor-in-chief edward felson explained the choice of the magazine talt edition also noted the courage of the ukrainian nation and people who, by their example, formed the spirit of ukraine that inspired the whole world in 2022, russian forces continue to focus on in the bahamian direction, depleting its troops, at the same time due to numerous defeats, russia changed its strategy and moved from attempts of rapid offensives to bombing critical infrastructure about the peculiarities of the current course of the war and about support for the west of ukraine oleksiy kovalenko spoke with the retired us colonel robert hamilton bakhmut from bakhmut is now one from the most active points on the front line in ukraine how do you assess the situation on this part of the front as a whole i agree with the assessment of the institute for the study of war i think we are now

we are entering a phase when offensive maneuvers and quick territorial captures will be more and more difficult, especially taking into account the changes in the weather , the season begins when the ground is swampy and it will be very difficult to maneuver on the off-road . that any success in the advancement of russian forces will be accompanied by a large number of victims, recently lieutenant general bengudges predicted that ukraine will soon regain control over the territories that were occupied after february 24, in your opinion, is it possible to liberate mariupol and other temporarily occupied cities soon? i think it will be difficult to do in the near future due to the reasons i outlined, the weather is about to be or is already unfavorable for offensive maneuvers, at some point the ground will freeze and even in in this case, the ground freezes in the south of ukraine and then

thaws, everything is covered with mud and it will be much more difficult to move forward, so over the next few months we will probably see a gradual and slow return the territories you mentioned in difficult weather conditions, will they be yours for the russian forces than for the ukrainian army of ukraine, i think the weather conditions will be more difficult for the russian army, the russians are at the end of the supply chain, which ukraine has quite successfully blocked in many ways during the war, they have shown us that russian logistics are their the weak point is that they need to provide their forces with winter equipment not only for soldiers, but also with equipment for combat vehicles, we will see how difficult it is for russia to provide all this, the country received

numerous commitments from partners for the supply of defense weapons and energy equipment, however, it is not yet a question of patriot surface-to-air missiles. do you expect the west to change its approach to these missiles, and potentially to the detriment of atokom and the f-16? i think that most likely the usa will continue to provide those things that they already provide, including to us, some of which are already in ukraine, i think we will see more such supplies , since the united states has their stockpiles, patriot missiles are, in my opinion, a more political solution at the beginning, many analysts said that such systems as nasambs and hymars would take a long time to train the military to use them in the first days of the war, there was a reluctance to provide them, we did not know how long the war would last, because ukraine demonstrated the ability to effectively defend itself and in many cases

to return territories captured by russia in the usa there was a greater appetite to supply more effective systems that needed more time for training, so i will say that although we do not hear about f16 or patriot missiles now i do not think that it depends on the question depending on how successful ukraine will be and how long the war will last. russia has carried out a series of rocket attacks on vital infrastructure and peaceful cities of ukraine. what can ukraine and its allies do to protect against such attacks more effectively? systems of anti -drone systems, which the event already provides to ukraine, this is vitally important. russia has changed the tactics and strategy of waging

war, trying to bring ukraine to its knees targeting the infrastructure trying to deprive ukrainians of light and water so that people freeze and starve in the winter in an armed confrontation with the armed forces of ukraine they did not succeed they will lose so i think this is an attempt for russia to change the focus of the war from a military confrontation to long-range strikes on the energy infrastructure in order to cause more pain that ukraine might be ready to seek a solution through negotiations, but i don't see any evidence that it works. as you mentioned, russia's strategy has changed significantly since attempts a lightning rush to bombard the infrastructure and desperate measures to seize bakhmut. what do you see as russia's long-range strategy, the russian armed forces failed, then they switched to a war of attrition in the east, where they

hoped that with three thousands of mobilized soldiers, they would be able to exhaust the ukrainian forces, this also failed because i think that the third stage of the struggle is an attempt to turn the war from the battlefield into the homes of ukrainians by disabling electricity and water supply and increasing the level of pain. now this is really a campaign aimed at to cause pain to the peaceful population, i think that in the minds of the kremlin and the ministry of defense of russia, this is a way to compensate for the failed military company pupillation. you recently analyzed the national strategy of joe biden. why do you think the war of russia against ukraine became such a shocking moment for the american national strategy? the united states tried to make a certain turning to asia the idea was that the 21st century would become

the asian century, and china is the only challenge , russia is not and cannot be a potential competitor for the usa to be an equal competitor, the interim national security strategy released in march 2021 envisaged exactly this kind of rebalancing of efforts to the asia-pacific region russia was mentioned in this document only five times after russia's repeated intervention in ukraine, when the full version of biden's national security strategy was released, russia was mentioned in document as many as 71 times or even more probably more than any other country in the document ukraine also occupies an important place in the temporary document on national security, it was not mentioned at all, however, in the new strategy, it was mentioned 32 times spikenov your nation 3 for long run, talking about the long-term

national security strategy of the usa, where do you see ukraine as a strategic ally or partner in nato, i think theoretically, much more nato allies agreed without thinking about ukraine's membership today, rather than february 24 this year, nato reassessed what russia is as an adversary and what russia is ready to do to disrupt european security, as well as the way in which ukraine defended itself. stability, bravery and unity demonstrated by the ukrainians, i think changed the opinion in many capitals, nato should wait for a stable political, military and diplomatic settlement of the war and then decide how and when to accept ukraine into the alliance, meanwhile, nato should continue to do everything they were doing and previously provide all possible power to ukraine not only so that ukraine could defend itself, but also to return

the territory occupied by russia, this was an interview of oleksiy kovalenko with a colonel of the us armed forces in retired by robert hamilton as an expert on conflicts and security in the eurasian region, and we are finishing the release of a story from the kherson region when russia occupied the region and tried to seize mykolayiv , the village of posad pokrovske on the border of the regions found themselves in the epicenter of hostilities. nearby and practically destroyed the settlement with rockets and bombs, but despite the destruction, people are now returning to their homes and trying to save what elizaveta kratik visited what was left of their apartments in posad-pokrovsky, we

sit like this on mushrooms and hear these whistles, how it flies, how it falls, well, yes, it was terribly difficult. from february 24, russian troops began to move equipment towards mykolaiv through the village of posad - pokrovskoye, kherson region. we saw them driving along the highway. we saw all this equipment . we saw how it all happened. we saw how it happened from kherson. over there in the direction of nikolaev, well, it didn’t touch the village, but as soon as it started to fly into the village, that was already. yes , it was already very scary because we were sitting here in the cellar with our familiar tales and hiding. well , it was scary, the ukrainian armed forces broke the columns of russian tanks under nikolaev and drove them away 5

km from the village, when in mid-march ukrainian troops entered pokrovsky's positions, the army of the russian federation began shelling the village, we have people who died in those first days, well, if there were people left in the village, there would probably be no people you can see how our houses are worse on the streets, what kind of school we have, because we hid in the school, people hid in the school and in the club together with our military men who entered the village to protect the tanks. and it was the tanks on mykolayiv that drove the tanks, it didn’t happen when lohvytsi started coming to us. we hail to everyone in the world. i was marta until the 24th because it was a pity to drive out the herd of cattle for the last 2 days. they were generally hell, and then the bus went and

took us to mykolayiv the first massive shelling the russians carried out aviation and artillery attacks on march 16. on march 16, on this day, we already left it. on this day, it flew around on a two-story plane. it was two flights, and the planes came in on the 16th, when our soldiers were at school. such an avialder for almost 9 months , russian troops shelled the pokrovskoe position, there were no target houses left in the village, only after the liberation of kherson oblast, people began to return here. we live here all the time. we lived here all the time. it started, and as soon as the heavy airstrikes began, then we already had to

leave the village, because if you drove through the dry area, you saw that we had left in the village before the full-scale war, how many people lived there, more, more, yes, probably two and a half thousand now, almost all the houses are done now, houses, yes, houses have been destroyed in our village, well, probably 90% of the houses have been destroyed, a lot of houses have been destroyed, and just destroyed, such that the window or the roof has been slightly damaged. you can count it on your fingers natalya's house burned down due to the arrival of russian shells and the relatives' house was also damaged. this is the house of my husband's mother. well, there is no house at all. the house burned down. if you go outside, you can see it. yes, only the kitchen is left. we are

patching the windows with a little film. we want a roof . we will spend the winter here. completely destroyed. we live there further down the street. it was destroyed. everything that was there was burnt . lived in mykolaiv now plans to return when it flew to us we just left two hours before it flew from this house and then two hours later they called us and said that there is nothing in the car here in the houses only six months before they are fighting to get it out of here sell it can sell the engine for repair. well, nothing. what can be

done with the car, which is already all that i repair, then it is easier to buy a new one. and for a new one, i don’t have enough money , because i am saving here. we are now renting a house in mykolaiv, we will use it here while we travel. there will be we will rebuild so that little by little there will be one room for the second one, but there is no way out of the second one in mykolaiv. now they live hard because at the beginning of the war everything was free, now at least 4,000 somewhere on the outskirts of the house to rent. i came home and said at night, i wish i hadn't

seen ukraine, one country, and what burned, what flooded with water, and they wrote out this culture club in us, and there is a school, it is for this task, there is a kindergarten school, there is nothing further, girls, such beauty was more here there were four landings around oleksandr's house, the blast waves demolished the walls, windows and the roof of the house , we don't know what to do with it. well, there were no direct landings, and next to the window there was already a hall, a dining room, a children 's room, our room of salvation, then

there were no direct landings. it's all just about the boys and not i know mchsniks, even if they were at home , they already understood, in general, i don’t know anything good, there is nothing , i don’t know how to get here. now, once again, in the middle of the streets behind pokrovsky, russian shells are still sticking out . the locals are waiting for the territory to be demined. start rebuilding from kherson oblast yelyzaveta krotyk for the voice of america download the voice of america mobile app the app allows you to automatically bypass blocking thanks to the built-in vpn service read the news watch informative programs and videos as well as listen to the podcasts of the ukrainian voice of america service and on

this we will say goodbye also join our daily briefings 18 - after kyiv on youtube and facebook, where you can ask us your questions live, and we will try to answer them, but this is also on our social media networks and the website, our web and social media team is working very actively to keep you informed of all the latest events. thank you for being with us . i wish you a peaceful night and a peaceful morning. see you soon and see you soon