to watch live on public tv channels, i will remind you that the semi-finals will be held on the ninth and eleventh of may, and the grand final on may 13. well, now i wish you all peace and good night and take care of yourself yes, yes, by the defender well, listen , the defender of ukraine sees the darkness of our day and brothers for kilometers around you can move quickly in any terrain, the body is reliably protected, which makes it less sensitive and more confident and watches the news. lviv was on the roads from a bird's eye view in childhood, i always i dreamed of meeting characters from books, it seemed to me

that they were all fictional and unattainable, everyone wrote about their strength, courage, courage, calling them warriors, those who are always on the side of truth and justice, on the side of freedom and independence, those who hold weapons in their hands so that their children never took they know how to fly and dream, they forget their own fears for our sake and for the sake of our future, warriors are not characters from books, real warriors are the armed forces of ukraine

, we all already understood that this winter will be a disgrace in we found ourselves in such conditions for the first time. but i know for sure that we will endure it. they hope to send us, but they do not even imagine how strong and resilient we are. we light the rivers. not only candles are useful to us, but also batteries, inverters and lanterns together we believe in the armed forces of ukraine together we are bringing our victory closer we will defeat the darkness together the rules of a warm country household appliances electrical appliances plugged in, they consume energy in sleep

mode. thank you for turning off devices that we do not use. we will overcome the winter together during a long power outage. prepare products that can be stored for a long time without a refrigerator. keep products from the refrigerator on the balcony if possible. now let's defeat the darkness together

mr grand welcome to ukraine welcome to the first public broadcasting channel thank you for your time i want to start our conversation with your words in ukraine this a month or more in afghanistan. that's what you said recently in an interview with the new york times about the active use of artillery shells during hostilities in ukraine, to what extent this war of russia against ukraine has become a challenge for the west precisely in terms of the need for weapons and ammunition, first of all after all, my comment was to emphasize for the european and american audience the brutality of the war waged by russia in ukraine, the unprecedented use of artillery shells and ammunition much more than what we have seen in previous conflicts that the amount of

ammunition used daily by the russian troops in particular and in general on the mini-front significantly exceeds the standard practice of conflicts with which nato countries had experience during the last decade, secondly, it is really very important, but at the same time it is difficult to make sure that we deliver the ammunition necessary to the ukrainian forces on time to cope with these very specific conditions, of course, you can always do better, but i believe that in the last few months it has been achieved significant progress is currently being made by a number of countries that are friends of ukraine. very great efforts are being made to quickly deliver ammunition. of course, there may be tensions regarding certain ammunition. there

may be some problems that need to be resolved, but work on this is ongoing. friends of ukraine in nato and outside nato have undertaken to provide timely continuous deliveries so in the long term i am not worried although i admit there may be some difficulties with the most advanced ammunition or with very specific types of spare parts we think about it let's talk a little more. i want to clarify. recently, we have seen more and more articles in the western media about the fact that nato countries are running out of ammunition and weapons. please explain how critical the situation is. i would not call the situation critical. in fact, many nato countries, probably with the exception of the united states, did not have such the so-called

military stockpile of ammunition, they do not have a huge stockpile of ammunition for chortilleria missiles, but we are still talking about the most powerful military alliance in history, which includes 30 countries. so it is not so much in the fact that ammunition stocks are running out , but in quickly replenishing these stocks in order to enable nato members and other countries to continue supporting ukraine if necessary in the long term this or that country will be carried out for a long time and for this it is necessary to prepare a little those reserves that were not calculated to support such a long war that

as of now, there is no threat that at some stage the west will not be able to support ukraine with weapons for this, neither in the short term, nor in the medium or long term, i will only note that in very specific areas there may be tension in the pace of delivery. but i think that in general the west is able support ukraine and is able to organize itself to work better, and this is exactly what western countries should do, because now we are moving from using our own reserves to purchasing weapons or ammunition for further handing them over in ukraine to industry so that in the coming months we have the industrial capacity to support these efforts so the

industry is expecting appropriate orders and efforts because we are now moving from simply using stocks to replenishing them to be able to continue to support ukraine i also wanted to talk to you in in general about the military aid of the economy that in germany keeps on its website a kind of account of the aid that the countries of the world provide to ukraine last week, researchers reported that for the first time since the beginning of a full-scale invasion quote europe has overtaken the usa in terms of total aid to ukraine do you think this will become a trend is it situational i think there is a difference between civilian and

humanitarian aid when the europeans spend and will spend more and more to support ukraine while the americans continue to provide the largest share of military aid to support for ukraine, i do not think that there is competition between europe and north america in this regard. i believe that it is very important that all friends of ukraine provide support in in all spheres, economically, from the restoration or protection of infrastructure, humanitarian, military. and it is good that we see how different institutions and different countries are making very focused efforts to be able to continue to do this. so, in the long term, i think that the support of the united states will continue, but we will see more and more support from europe. the european union is a bit slower in adopting decisions, but as soon as the decisions are adopted, it can provide, for example, significant

monetary assistance, especially in civil and in the humanitarian sphere, but i noticed that one way or another , the foreign press compares the level of aid provided by the united states and that provided by europe. you could meet criticism that the united states gives more to ukraine than the european union, although the war is much closer to the eu than to the united states. have you come across such arguments? and do you have anything to say to the contrary , the reality is that if we talk about military support, the americans for many decades have spent much more on defense than the europeans and indeed have larger reserves indeed have the opportunity to do more for ukraine than

all the europeans put together, this should not be a surprise. every year the usa spends three times more on defense than the europeans. it is interesting that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more and more countries have joined in supporting ukraine. some of the countries that initially doubted the provision of critical weapons systems began to move in this direction, for example, france or germany, which were initially more focused on the supply of light defensive weapons, and now provide artillery systems and other high-quality military equipment that complement what the united states and other countries have provided from the beginning, e.e., the configurator in is carried out below the forests. so we see more and more support, we see that more advanced weapons systems are coming and we see very large efforts to mobilize funds for support of ukrainian infrastructure to help

the ukrainian people survive the winter as much as possible during this horrific attack on critical infrastructure regarding the debate between americans and europeans on this the reason is that during the mid-term elections in american politics there were comments that the europeans should do more, this is quite a classic debate about the distribution of the burden. these comments were fair . we need to do more, but this does not mean that the usa will do less, and for me this is good news, on the one hand, we hear about the readiness of the west to support ukraine by all possible means, on the other hand, there are types of weapons

the supply of which nato countries have not yet agreed here, i mean tanks, fighters, as well as longer -range missiles, is there a chance that the countries from which ukraine expects such a step will change their minds, this is usually a very sensitive national topic, so each nato country will always have nuances about it how many and what type of systems do they want and are ready to transfer, i note that this list is expanding over time, again countries like germany were somewhat reluctant to act at the beginning and supplied mainly non-lethal systems now, however, the situation has changed that over time the type of weapons

will change in such a way as to meet the needs of ukraine patrol security equipment consists in making sure that the weapons system supplied to ukraine are suitable for use and maximally adapted to the conflict, they have a need on the battlefield, etc. there are some disputes but to be more positive in this matter i recognize that a number of countries have already extended their support in the last few months you have moved to higher quality systems that they may not have wanted transfer a few months ago to directly answer your question i do not rule out that if there is a real demand and political agreement on this in the coming months we can see

the delivery of more powerful or more advanced weapons systems that have not been transferred before again in european countries the discussion is developing extremely fast, although probably not fast enough according to ukraine's estimates, but i emphasize once again. the same germany in the past would never supply and was not going to supply weapons to a country that is in conflict we have also seen how the french claimed that they only supply defensive weapons and this has changed a similar situation in many countries in our society which is debated in every democratic society but i think that the general movement in the right direction speaking of kat could add to my list of military aid to ukraine, we see that after russia

began to attack civilian infrastructure in ukraine, the partner countries began to transfer air defense systems to it in in the short term, can we count on such systems or maybe something else, maybe tanks, this is a question that is currently being discussed in ukraine. i mean tanks from germany, first of all, the means of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense are obviously critical, we see the missile strikes that russia inflicts on ukrainian cities and to the ukrainian infrastructure . we must do everything possible so that this company does not cause such destruction. well, where less, somewhere, air defense plays an important role. today, in my opinion, this will continue when we talk about armored vehicles or tanks or

armored personnel carriers and the other issue is not that someone has a principled position regarding a certain weapon system, but that it is necessary to make sure that what is transferred to ukraine first meets ukrainian requirements. and secondly, so that the armed forces of ukraine can undergo training and have the opportunity to successfully use these systems on the battlefield in germany, there are indeed ongoing discussions about whether to transfer leopard 2 tanks. this conversation has to take place between the ministry of defense of ukraine and potential donors of this equipment throughout europe, there is a certain number of leopard-2 tanks, so in general their delivery to ukraine may be a good idea because there are not one or two of these systems , but again, for this, everything must be discussed properly and provide the armed forces with proper training to make the best use of these systems another topic is the possibility of russia waging war at the

beginning of war we are always hoping that this possibility will decrease do you see signs of this it is true that since july, russia has not achieved any significant result on the battlefield, therefore, from this point of view, it is obvious that the ability of russia to lead this war is reduced by mobilization due to the widespread use of air-launched systems or from a distance, russia is able to continue the war and cause serious destruction. no to your question i think in short russia's ability to carry out an offensive is seriously limited by the successes of the armed forces on the battlefield russia

is now much more defensive and forced to use weapon systems at a distance regardless of whether it is artillery or missiles launched from the air or from ships another question is whether the russian military-industrial complex is capable of supporting these efforts and here we have a somewhat ambiguous picture on the one hand russian stockpiles russian industry is certainly capable of continuing to support these operations at least for some time but we also see that the sanctions were quite effective , they deprived russia of access to microprocessors and advanced electronics, in a certain sense it is quite pathetic to see that russia has to turn to north korea and iran to be able to support their operations regardless of whether we are talking about drones or ammunition. so the picture is ambiguous. i do not expect russia

to run out of ammunition or equipment in the short term, but i do see that russian forces are severely limited and not quite capable of carrying out a large-scale offensive as expected in the early days of the conflict earlier this month the new york times reported that russia is still able to produce cruise missiles despite the sanctions already imposed by the west as possible what is the problem, the imposed sanctions cannot stop russia from producing new missiles, even before the full-scale invasion, russia has largely moved to a military economy, this is a country that has invested a lot of money in military equipment on the basis of a relatively bad economy

; to limit the dependence on sensitive imports, so it was less affected by sanctions than other areas such as energy or something that was more dependent on the import of technologies from by the way, the russians continue to produce weapons. but i think that for complex systems that depend on imported technologies, the situation is becoming more and more difficult. of course, it is extremely difficult to assess how much this affects russia's ability to wage war now and when it will have a more large-scale impact. i believe that some of this we already see we no longer see the use of some modern weapons systems there is probably already a shortage of some of the most modern ammunition but again, it is difficult to get

a comprehensive assessment of at what stage the russian reserves and to what extent the russian industry is able to replenish them, but i guarantee that there are problems and they will become more and more. my last question: you mentioned the cooperation between russia and iran, and in fact it is difficult not to mention it, since this cooperation gave a new impetus to this war. i mean iranian-made drones that russia launches on civilian infrastructure in ukraine looks as if this cooperation is now beyond the influence of the west is it really true is there no influence on them is under very strict

sanctions, to some extent, under more severe sanctions than russia, they independently developed many rather crude and, unfortunately, sometimes quite effective weapons systems without any foreign help, especially from western countries, to some extent it is interesting to see how two isolated and cornered countries try to support each other, you see russia, which relies on the most subversive countries in the world, north korea and iran, the russians have no choice but to go for it regarding the early drones, the iranians actually do not have a military air force, they do not have such capabilities, but they have invested a lot in these technologies, these are relatively rudimentary technologies, which, however, can be extremely effective in the form of kamikaze drones, as you know, it would be interesting to record the moment when the stocks of these terrible

weapons systems are exhausted. a signal to the west that a country that has been under such sanctions for a long time and that is included in the us list of countries sponsoring terrorism is capable of producing lethal weapons, a problem with autocracies and authoritarian regimes such as we see in early or north korea is that because they overinvest in the military and power structures they are usually able to continue to develop these systems because end that part of the system there is more room for them to he says there are missiles and verano drones and missiles in the long run it is bad

for their economy for their population but the regimes in tehran and pyongyang have made a very great effort to invest in weapons the same yes sanctions the west have limited influence, this is a fact, in addition, there are ties between these countries, they help each other, the iranians took advantage of some north korean technologies and the development of their missile program, and now the iranians are selling drones to the russians, in turn, and it was profitable for the russians to keep a large amount of russian war equipment was the main supplier of weapons to iran, so we see in the network autocracies that help each other, in the end , this state of affairs really indicates the limitations of any sanctions policy, sanctions cannot solve everything but it also points to the fact that these

countries are extremely isolated and need to rely on each other because now they are effectively cut off from global markets when it comes to technology when it comes to weapons when it comes to even access to relatively basic equipment for this conversation thank you very much for inviting me to the heroes, glory is mine, my friends , parents, children, neighbors, students, doctors, teachers, warriors , we are all regardless of age, faith, preferences, beliefs, we are all united now, we will win glory

in ukraine, the war does not look at all like in the movies, it is a dirty, cold and terrible war, it smells of sweat and blood , the war leaves its mark on everyone who has been there, remember this when you see a person in a military uniform, her eyes are like that, remember the price our heroes pay every day, we respect

them . the history of my earth where the new destiny of an unbreakable country is being forged metal in my hands and in the bodies of my enemies in the voice that promises us victory together we make this world stronger ukrainians a nation of steel people the rules of a warm country healthy care thank you for regulating the heater and monitoring the sufficient temperature without wasting money for the wind let's beat the winter together during a long power outage choose the network of an available operator

manually try to use the 2g network if there is no call send an sms or in advance find out where there are landline phones with a fixed connection, in no case download large files via the mobile internet and reduce conversations to a minimum or overload the network and make it inaccessible to others, let's defeat the darkness together good evening 8 p.m. in ukraine is a marathon only news social sums up the results of saturday my name is vyacheslava futin translated by sign language lada sokolyuk and tetyana zhurkova in the issue see russians are nervously strengthening their defense what is currently happening on the left bank of the kherson oblast