won't win in any way and how to survive in russia is becoming much more relevant. as they say, no, how can we equip russia? how can we all not die globally? well, how can we win? have a good evening. i'll say goodbye until friday. tomorrow, thursday, i won't be here. take care. watch out for the alarm signal, let's hold on. it was a big atero. now for your attention, a news release from my colleagues from the ukrainian editorial office of bbc news in full . good evening. we are from ukraine. we are from ukraine. live from london. olga palamaryuk is working in the studio and here is what are we saying today, russia attacked kyiv with shahedes, how many drones were shot down, and what is known about the victims and destruction. well, the house is completing preparations for the deployment of an anti-missile defense system to ukraine. patriots, will they be able to close the sky over

ukraine ? russia attacked kyiv with drones, the mass attack of the shaheds began around 6 a.m. according to a report from the general staff of the armed forces, the attack uavs were flying from the direction of the eastern coast of the sea of ​​azov radar devices detected more than 10 barrage munitions according to the military in the capital , damaged one administrative building and four houses , later president volodymyr zelenskyi said that the air defense system shot down all 13 of 13 drones of iranian origin, people were not injured, let us remind you that on december 5, russian troops carried out eight massive

missile strikes on ukraine, then hit, in particular, an energy facility in the kyiv region, shot down, well done, i am proud, dear citizens. we thank you in half and do not forget about the sirens today russian troops fired at the building of the kherson regional military administration. this was reported in the office of the president, in particular, it is said that the center of kherson was hit around 11 o'clock . shells from rocket salvo systems hit the administration building, damaging two floors. according to preliminary information, there were no victims from the shelling in kherson. ship area there is a temporary shutdown of the heat supply, there is a risk of power outages,

residents of the microdistrict, the local authorities are calling to evacuate to safer regions and then we will talk with my colleague and we will be in touch bbc correspondent zhanna bezpyachok zhanna i congratulate you on the russian attacks we saw a certain lull and today the capital was again under the attack of iranian drones, what is known for now and also indeed, this morning i did not wake up from the sounds of an air alarm, but some and in general, from the sounds of so-called mopeds, that is, from these same kamikaze drones, which make such a specific e-e sound similar to a moped or a chainsaw, and then they sounded loud explosions were heard in the shevchenkiv district of the city. they were heard in this area. people heard them at great distances. that is, everything is happening quite loudly, but according to the information of the ukrainian army, it was

confirmed by the local authorities . in the ukrainian capital, it is comparable to the previous major drone attack on kyiv, and according to the ukrainian military, 28 drones were flown and managed to shoot down 23, this time we are talking about 13 unmanned aerial vehicles er, who launched explosives er across the capital, and unfortunately they failed to achieve their goal. officially, it is said that one administrative building was damaged by the fragments of one of the drones and four residential buildings to a small extent. fortunately, people were not injured, at least there is no information. there is no mention of anyone getting hurt. this is how this drone attack passed this time. it is about the fact that

critical infrastructure was once again targeted. and what is also important to understand is that the drones were launched at night in the dark. part of the day, this always increases the risk of such an attack on the city and on any territory of them. it is much more difficult in the dark part of the day to shoot down both for aviation and anti-aircraft missile forces, even to track them. it is much more difficult, this is one important moment, and the second an important point is that when drones are launched en masse in such a quantity precisely in kyiv, in such a densely populated area, there are already many villages around kyiv, many satellite towns , then again, the military is required to simply filigree work, very high skill for in order to neutralize these drones on the one hand, and on the

other hand not to injure people in lanka who live in these towns, these villages, that is, when it was really possible to shoot down this way. how today more than 10 drones are it's a very difficult job for the military. let's say yes, well, now military experts are putting forward several hypotheses. so why did the russians resume these attacks on ukrainian cities with drones, and one of them the kremlin managed to arrange the delivery of drones from iran ? what do they say about it? a-a according to intelligence services ukraine or the west has information that russia has indeed received a new large batch of such kamikaze drones, but what is known at least is

what ukraine insists on. there is data that even before that russia received 2,400 drones and attack drones specifically from iran was also called the number 1,750 drones. previously, the ukrainian services published such a number, and why, at a certain stage of the war, after initially starting to attack ukraine in september with metronomes, russia stopped and there was a certain pause, and then resumed these attacks, here we see. in december, it also attacked odesa and its critical infrastructure with drones. that is why this happened, the question is whether the previous reserves were really used up and new ones were received, or was there some other reason, and besides that, the stocks could simply alternate and the hypothetical ones were replenished, but so far it has not been confirmed either could review the tactics

of using these drones, in particular in winter conditions, how far they can fly at long distances, their charging devices can withstand these e -flights for hundreds of kilometers, because it is known that drones these can really fly long distances. and for this, it took time. another hypothesis is that russia is launching that first the drones are checking. in this way, the actual work of the ukrainian air defense and in order to determine where you can fly and the missile or drone will not be shot down. neither a drone nor a corresponding missile will fly effectively, because a drone is cheap and missiles can cost millions of dollars olya yes and i also want to ask about kherson , so we talked about the attack on the kherson administration, the armed forces liberated the city for a month therefore, on november 11, however, the situation there remains difficult because the city actually borders the front line,

people are even asked to evacuate from certain areas , as kherson lives like this now. - so conditionally prepare for the fact that kherson, unfortunately, is probably going through what mykolaiv went through in march-april, may, partly in the summer of this year, that is, the city was in the range of artillery and reactive systems of scent fire of the russian army, and we see that they fired at the regional state administration. in the very center of the city, it was from rocket launchers that the same thing happened in

mykolaiv . died from lanka and a woman nearby died there, and unfortunately we regularly receive such news for those who understood how the front moves and at the same time understood the tactics of intimidation and often did not motivated by military needs, the strategy of the russian army is simply to destroy the cities, simply to keep them in tension, simply to make certain areas unfit for habitation, they expected this and , unfortunately, this is probably happening in the short term for the ukrainian army, there will be no easy, simple, quick solutions like this is to stop and warn thank you zhanna zhanna bezpiachok bbc correspondent we talked about today's russian attacks on ukrainian cities and the capital in particular thank you colleague and another exchange prisoners of war held today,

it was possible to free 65 people from russian captivity, the vast majority of them were captured by russia in difficult areas of the front near bakhmut soledar zaytsevo and in other places of donetsk region and luhansk region . 59 released prisoners are representatives of the armed forces of ukraine. five more soldiers of the territorial defense also managed to exchange civilian identity of a citizen of the united states it is known that many fighters have injuries and some of them are in serious condition and the european parliament awarded the ukrainian people sakharov prize for freedom of thought president volodymyr zelenskyi spoke at the award ceremony. he asked the members of the european parliament to observe a moment of silence for all ukrainians whose lives were taken by the war and declared that the most effective protection of freedom, human rights and the rule of law is the prosecution of all those who unleashed the war. the sakharov prize was was initiated by the european parliament in 1988

and is awarded to people who have made an exceptional contribution to the struggle for human rights throughout the world. it is named after the soviet human rights defender and dissident andriy sakharov, in 2018 the prize was awarded to the then prisoner of the kremlin, the ukrainian director oleg sentsov. last year, the russian opposition politician oleksiy navalny received the award, and in continuation of the topic, we will talk about the significance of this event with my colleague, the deputy editor-in-chief of the ukrainian week magazine, but lazareva i congratulate you on the air, the ukrainian people were awarded the prize of the european parliament, that's about it we just said it was just a symbolic gesture or an impetus to greater support for ukraine well, of course we would like to believe that this is an impetus for greater support, and it is probably true, but it is also a symbolic step, because it is no longer

minced meat. is gradually beginning to recognize that with russia it is not necessary to persuade her too diplomatically, somehow to worry about how she perceives this or that step, but to show a firm and clear position regarding who is the organizer of the war, who is behind it, and who is a victim of aggression. that is, it is probably also a step of such a growing up of european society. well, the day before, an international conference was held in paris in support of ukraine. representatives of more than 40 countries and international organizations gathered in the capital of france to help ukraine provide basic needs for electricity, warm food and drivers, well, in all of that, ukraine is right, the reaction of the euro community to this, at least judging by the french press, france is proud of its

contribution, and it is a country that claims a specific diplomatic role in the european union, so the fact that this conference was a success, that so much money was collected for the french is a matter of pride . billions that were collected since the beginning of the full-scale war and so until today and they mostly all went through very large international organizations or through the un and practically did not get directly to ukrainian public organizations and ukrainian of volunteer structures, therefore, now the emphasis was on making sure that this money went to specific aid projects in ukraine, in particular , a lot of people write about three directions, about the revival of railway tracks, about the reconstruction of bridges, about

aid to agriculture. what is the mood among the french in support of ukraine, aren't they tired? well, you know, the french are different, there are a lot of them, so some may say that they are tired, others, on the contrary , help in general. the solidarity is great, and the french are not. this is not characteristic of them so much to help someone how much it is good to receive at home, for example, so many people and for so long because the war has been going on for nine months and despite this, the people who took ukrainians to live with them well, they tell them that you know now the parade to return home we are tired, that is, i am such i know stories. well , very, very, very few are exceptions rather than the rule . well, it’s nice to hear that. yes, and france, in the person of macron, positions itself as one of the main partners of ukraine, but at the same time it is in contact with putin. let’s mention only his recent ideas as an example to provide guarantees to russia, as explained in france,

which before the war had such palpable pro-russian sympathies. well, indeed, macron started this conference with yesterday's proposal to honor the ukrainian army, that is, the army that is fighting against russian aggression, he also said more than once that ukraine has the right to fully restore its territories in that it was recognized by international law, that is, on the one hand, it clearly demonstrates support for the right of ukraine to its territorial integrity, and on the other hand, it really constantly wants to call call putin for some reason he likes this case despite the fact that there has been no benefit from this yet, well, obviously he needs to make sure that it will not work again or he would like to position himself as a person who can be a negotiator when, after all, the peace talks will begin, not now, of course, but someday they will begin, each

ends the same, and that at this moment both the ukrainians, whom he helps a lot, and russia, whom he did not interrupt , will be ready to accept him communication is possible, it is also such a calculation of the first lady of ukraine. it is in paris, as the french media portrays it. you know, i like her here. she was very well received, she was on very influential tv channels, she gave many interviews and gave reviews about elena zelenskyi, she really likes it. and she is young, dynamic, she answers quickly, she doesn’t look for words, well, she articulates her thoughts clearly , that is, the work with the presentation of ukraine. i think she does it quite decently. and what about so, do the french media pay a lot of attention to ukraine, and in particular to the visit of the first lady? is all this

not too exaggerated, no, you know, quite a lot, really, there was a lot from television interviews, a lot of other materials, ah, that is, i would say that compared to that, i after all, i have been working here for 25 years, and compared to the fact that i had to monitor the visits of the first e-e people before, and even more so in our case, it is only the first lady. conference in support of ukraine, we spoke with the deputy editor-in-chief of the ukrainian week magazine hello and lazareva and from paris . thank you, the united states of america will provide ukraine with even more help due to the drone attack on kyiv , the us ambassador to ukraine wrote about this on twitter, according to her, help is already on the way this statement took place against the background of yesterday's mass media reports about the preparation for

sending the patriot anti-missile defense systems to ukraine first . the pentagon's official announcement may take place as early as this week, a voice of america correspondent wrote on twitter, the bintagon plan must be approved by defense minister lloyd austin, then it will be handed over to president joe biden for signature, what will this ukrainian pentagon plan include, we ask voice of america correspondent yuriy yarmolenko yulia congratulations. thank you for joining from the white house. do you know how many anti- missile defense systems ukraine has ?

delivery terms, despite the fact that russian attacks on ukrainian cities have resumed after a break, now actually, colleagues, it is worth waiting a little for official announcements, because at this moment , of course, we have a message from labor, in particular, our correspondent in the pentagon was able to get information that such a transmission is indeed being prepared with reference to the sources are not named. however, the administration has not yet received an official notification. at the moment, there is no corresponding official notification. after that, we will have to wait for the details. how many installations are there? the terms of the figure and the like, as reported again by journalists with reference to sources in the pentagon, we should expect such a possible message by the end of this week. if we talk about the terms of delivery, of course, this is a very

difficult issue because the patriot missile system patriot is an extremely advanced installation and extremely difficult to use and, accordingly, in order to teach soldiers to use it, according to the preliminary estimates of military experts with whom we spoke, it may take months, namely from six up to 12 months, but we know that during this russian war against ukraine, ukrainians have shown that they can train very quickly on a number of installations . let's wait. earlier, the air force command stated that the transfer of the american petriv complexes significantly facilitated the work of the entire air defense system of ukraine. is this true? can you explain how this the system works like this in general olyu in fact it is a very

perfect system as i already said and as they say in particular in the american army that it is the most advanced anti-aircraft defense system that is in their arsenal, but at the same time it is also worth thinking about the fact that this system is very difficult to use me too very expensive, how does it actually work, it is an installation that is quite mobile , it relies most on a very sophisticated radar that can detect and detect enemy missiles at very long distances from the immediate targets they want to hit usually this installation is mounted on a car, so it can move quite quickly and it usually contains up to eight launch systems, which contain from four to 16 missiles, respectively, from the installation itself, and i have already said that

it takes a lot of people to and it is usually operated in the united states under one patriot installation, 9 soldiers are stationed directly on the battlefield, in order to operate this installation, only three people are needed, but you need a very significant backup, you need a team that will deal with communications, as well as the system and the team that will deal with the actual maintenance of this installation and it is because of this that many experts draw attention to the fact that for the effective use of the patriot system in ukraine, it will be necessary to have a very thorough, very thorough training, which, again, according to journalists, may take place in germany has it already started, this is also an important question to which we do not yet have an answer, but as for its effectiveness, it is clear that the patriot installation will be only one of a number of other systems that western countries are currently providing in order to improve the

air defense system of ukraine, we know that air defense, as reported in the pentagon in the white house, is now the number one priority not only of american but also of western aid in general , as general mili previously said, and western countries are trying to help ukraine build a multi-layered air defense system so that it can be defended against such drones and such cruise missiles and ballistic missiles and even airplanes what does the patriot system actually help to do, well, and one more aspect, russia has stated in the past that it will consider the possible provision of these systems to ukraine as an escalation, what are they saying in washington in this regard ? do they actually take into account these threats of the russians, olga ? the aggressor in this war is russia, and it is clear to everyone, and this is exactly how it looks, as the

journalists report again with reference to their sources. it looks like the administration's position on whether to send such an improved system has changed only in the past few weeks, when russian attacks on critical ukrainian infrastructure first became more frequent, but also when russia's cooperation with russia strengthened, and in particular, russia began to purchase not only veran drones, but now, as they say in the pentagon, it will also purchase missiles in particular in order to replenish its reserves so in fact it can be seen and the provision of more assistance in terms of air defense can be seen conversely as a response by the united states and allies to greater aggression and the greatest the escalation on the part of russia is thanked from washington by the correspondent of the voice of america, yulia yarmolenko , the former president of georgia, mikhail saakashvili, who is serving a prison term in his homeland, announced a hunger strike today. in this way, according to him, he is protesting against the decision of the judge in

tbilisi to postpone for another week the consideration of the petition for release to be treated abroad near the premises of the tbilisi city court in the morning nato gathered in saakashvili's supporters who accused the georgian authorities of trying to bring him to an untimely death on december 14 after saakashvili was unable to take part in the court session, the judge announced that the next thing will happen on december 22. previously, independent doctors who examined saakashvili and warned that his life was in danger because he was being denied proper treatment, one of the doctors said that he would lose 40 kg from the moment of his arrest. saakashvili , who was the president georgia from 2004 to 2013 was sentenced in absentia to 6 years in prison in 2018 on charges of abuse of power. he was imprisoned in october last year a few days after secretly returning from exile in ukraine amnesty international calls his imprisonment a settlement

of political scores, and this is what the bbc correspondent rikhondimitria mykhailo saakashvili told zbilisi. where is he now being treated here, many of his supporters many journalists - this is quite an important question because today the judges had to decide whether to allow saakashvili to undergo treatment abroad what do the lawyers, family and supporters demand? all this is happening because of the medical report that was published at the beginning of this month. the medical examination was conducted by a group of georgian and foreign doctors. in the conclusions of the report, it is said that saakashvili has numerous diseases and he should immediately undergo treatment abroad. the doctors even claimed that it is possible . poisoned because doctors found traces of heavy metals in a sample of his hair, but the georgian government claims that there is no threat to

saakashvili's life, even if he is sick, it is his personal responsibility, they do not rule out that he could have intentionally harmed himself by refusing food and medical care, his return from exile was a surprise for the authorities, he was the president of georgia from 2004 to 2013, and then he left the country and mainly worked in ukraine last year he secretly returned to georgia on the eve of local elections, hoping to recruit people to protest because he believed that he had enough support among the population, but he was immediately detained and thrown into in prison on charges of abuse of power , he is now serving a six-year sentence immediately after he was taken into custody, he began a hunger strike, in fact, he went on hunger strike twice , his condition has deteriorated significantly, but as i said before, no one has seen him since april the doctors say he is in a terrible condition. he is very sick, that 's why everyone here was hoping to see him via video

link and see what condition he is in now, and pope francis called on people to spend less on christmas celebrations and gifts. and the saved to send help to the suffering people of ukraine. he said this during the general audience, and here i suggest you listen to what he said, brothers and sisters. i tell you there is so much suffering in ukraine, so much. so much is very beautiful. the tradition of celebrating christmas is beautiful, but let's spend less on christmas, let's spend it more modestly . christmas with more modest gifts and we will send what we save to the ukrainian people who need it, they suffer a lot, starve, freeze and many people die because there are not enough doctors and we do not forget the nurses, we must celebrate christmas in peace with the lord, but with the ukrainians in our hearts, let's make this specific gesture for them, that's all for today,

more cat stories on our website bbc.ua and on our pages in social networks. see you tomorrow, good luck