and happy winter solstice thank you very much nadal snydenko for the weather forecast i remind you that on 23 23:30 president zelensky president will not have a joint press conference you will see it live on the weather espresso tv channel it is the end unfortunately gennadiy afanasyev, a former political prisoner , died today kremlin, who was arrested in the crimea, then in the 16th year he was released and died on the eastern front, as they wrote under the belagorivka, eternal memory and eternal glory to the hero. thank you for being with us, now for your attention news release from my colleagues from the ukrainian editorial staff of bbc news on bbcinema. my name is hryhoriy shagalov. today in the program, president zelenskyi arrived in the united states. this is his first visit abroad since the start of a

full -scale war on violations. of the petriv air defense system, meanwhile, in moscow, putin met with the russian military command and declared that he would spare no expense in the war against ukraine, the name of the bahmut from the trenches to the white house, the president zelenskyi unexpectedly arrived in the united states for a meeting with joe biden, unexpectedly because this visit was not publicly reported , his preparation was known to such a limited circle of people that, as the american edition of politics wrote today, part of washington and the establishment were literally stunned by such an innocent president zelenskyi's office officially accepted the invitation to

of washington last friday before the visit was finally confirmed on sunday, and right now you're seeing live footage from washington, we're seeing what's going on in the white house are waiting for the arrival of the president of ukraine volodymyr zelensky literally from minute to minute. i want to add that the visit will be short. zelensky will spend a partial day in the united states, after which he will go back to ukraine in the evening. the president is expected in the white house, first zelensky will meet with biden, after that there will be meetings with the us national security team and representatives of the american government, then a press conference and communication with journalists is planned and then the head of the ukrainian state will also

make a speech at a joint session of the two chambers of the us congress, by the way, this is quite an extraordinary event, more about that later. washington will meet there with president biden later there were photos from poland where zelenskyi was spotted at the train station to biden himself who wrote about what awaits zelenskyi is this the first foreign visit of president zelenskyi and here we are now seeing. let me remind you again. this is a live broadcast from washington. we are seeing some first movements at the door at the entrance to the white house. this means that literally from minute to minute, maybe the president will appear every second. zelenskyi of ukraine, and i will

remind you once again that this is zelenskyi's first visit since russia started a full-scale war against ukraine, here we see that the president of the united states appeared on the porch, and the first lady, obviously , every second, should appear to the president zelenskyi's country by the way, it became known that he traveled to the united states from poland, because today photos of him were made public, he was spotted at a train station in a polish city near the border with ukraine. and here we see a motorcade with zelenskyy arriving at the white house, this is the first the foreign visit of the president of ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia, and this visit is taking place in the united states. i

will remind you once again that the footage you are seeing now is a live broadcast from washington joe biden, the first lady of the usa, meets the president of ukraine due to the first foreign visit of the ukrainian president, and the visit that caught many politicians on the other side of the atlantic in kyiv by surprise, and until the last , this visit was not reported, it became known to journalists, well, it became known to journalists late the day before in the evening, only today , the final confirmations of what actually happened on this side of the atlantic in kyiv appeared. bbc correspondent yakub chaga is from kyiv. this is president zelenskyi. yesterday bakhmuti met with the participating military personnel. in the most difficult battles of this war. today he will be in washington. this is his first

trip abroad since the invasion of russia in february. this trip is associated with risks. it was confirmed just a few hours before the start . here is the president at a train station in poland before flying to washington . in this war , america has allocated tens of billions of dollars more in aid and arms than any other country and will provide much more in the future . president biden is expected to announce a new military aid package including patriot missile systems are a complex air defense system that ukrainians need to protect the country from airstrikes. russian tactics of targeting critical infrastructure have left millions of people without electricity, heating and water. ukraine claims that russia is using winter as a weapon in an attempt to break the spirit of ukrainians after 300

days of war . warns against complacency and insists that russia, despite all its defeats on the battlefield, still poses a serious threat to president zelenskyi sits willingly to talk with those he criticizes support by the states of his country and put forward arguments for even more help, and in moscow, putin declares that he will take care of the safety of people throughout russia, including the ukrainian regions , which he said he annexed. it is interesting that the day before, the speaker of the house of representatives of the democratic party of the usa, nancy pylos, sent a letter to which personally called on the members of the congress to be present on wednesday evening, i even quote, please be present for the special honor of democracy. this is what she wrote without adding any details, but it is obvious that there was

one of the few who was aware of zelenskyi's visit. well, we see that influential american politicians were forced to change their plans and urgently return to washington to listen to zelenskyi's unprecedented event. now we will talk in detail. science well, also the head of the regional security direction of the democratic initiative fund in the bbc studio. it came as a surprise, but it is extremely important to me. this is a special moment in modern relations not only between ukraine and the usa, but also in the relations of the civilized democratic world with russia

. now let's talk face-to-face or did the schedules just coincide or just well, it's mature and there's no need to look for some additional reason for the obvious event, i'm sure that there is a reason, it lies in the fact that right now our key strategic allies and partners are deciding for themselves how exactly they will act in relation to supporting ukraine next year, because we have reached the phase when ukraine must liberate its territories as part of counteroffensive operations. therefore, first of all, we must be sure that we will receive sufficient weapons for this and this weapon must be qualitatively different from what was already supplied to ukraine for offensive operations and for the protection of the civilian population, we need other anti-aircraft weapons plus e other equipment for ground operations and the second reason is actually financial support. ukraine must understand that direct infusions into the budget and specific programs will go to ukraine. actually, i want to talk about financial support with 18 billion

dollars of aid that the united states has provided to ukraine since the beginning of the full- scale invasion of russia and former us ambassador to ukraine john gerb is convinced that putin will not stop at ukraine, he wants to destroy the security system in europe, and therefore the financial support of the us is primarily protection and american and western interests, let's listen. i think we will see similar financial assistance and in the future, the administration understands that if putin won the war against ukraine, it would be a great defeat for the west, for the united states itself and for democracy in general, and considering the price of such a russian victory for the united states, then in comparison, the cost of the financial support that america currently provides to ukraine is small , the ukrainian military destroyed a significant part of the russian army, this corresponds to the security interests of the west and the united states.

opinion ukraine is winning this war and once again america's support for nato and the eu is critical for ukraine to have an advantage on the battlefield. at the same time, zelensky's trip to bakhmut is a way to show russia and the russian people that moscow says it is going to take bakhmut by the middle of the summer of this year, it was not able to do this, and once again zelenskyi can end this war faster and return the lost territories faster if we provide artillery with a longer range, jet fighters, tanks, everything that is extremely in ukraine now it is necessary putin wants to take over not only ukraine he is encroaching on all the countries of the former soviet union, including three current nato members putin wants to destroy the security system in europe that has guaranteed peace and prosperity for many decades we have a vital interest in stopping him the money we give this is not a gift to ukraine. this is a vital protection of american and western interests. maria

zolkina, a researcher at the london school of economics and political science, a guest of the program today. er, which was just touched upon by the ambassador. but first, about the weapons that the united states does not give. so today it has finally become known that the united states will not give the patriots, we will talk about the military significance of this a little later in the program. i want to ask you about the political significance of this decision. that ukraine has been receiving weapons for months, when they were needed yesterday, why did they finally dare now? first of all, ukraine is experiencing catastrophic missile attacks, and it is clear that without the means of high-quality air defense a new type of ukrainian pp will not be able to do so on its own, because even if they make extraordinary efforts, they sometimes shoot down up to 80% of missiles and drones that are launched at ukraine, but this is not enough to protect the civilian population

from a humanitarian disaster, the first reason, the second reason is no less important. but only now the ukrainian armed forces were finally able to prove to the bureaucrats in various states in various capitals of the world that the ukrainian army is absolutely absolutely trustworthy as an operator one of the best types of weapons in the world, ah, and no one would certainly supply neither the patriots nor the valery warehouse of ukraine if there was no certainty that this weapon would definitely not fall into the hands of russia and that it would be used as effectively as possible on the battlefield and that the armed words of ukraine will be so effective as not to mention here, do you remember melnyk, it seems , the former ambassador in rome in germany talked about a meeting with one of the german politicians , who told him with such a smile that no, unfortunately, there will not be, there will not be germany, well, at that moment to help so what did we hear from the coat of arms? putin wants to destroy the european

security system as if everything is clear. it's clear that there is unity. well, it's conditional. yes, but unity, and then macron appears, who says that putin needs to be given some guarantees . the security system of hungary is to what extent is it now a european or even a euro-atlantic security system? the unity is ready for the test it is currently facing . well, this unity is not split yet and i see no reason to believe that it will be serious. split in the near future, that is, this calculation of russia, unfortunately for russia, fortunately for ukraine, was wrong, but we have a problem with what will happen at the final stage of this war, and because one of the possible consequences of the military defeat of russia in ukraine is actually internal destabilization of russia itself and up to the disintegration of the russian federation and the concern from the ukrainian side is that er this concern what

will happen next in russia after it is completely defeated on the battlefield in ukraine so that it does not stop our er partners at the final stage with certain such final portions of military and financial assistance to ukraine, as a few months ago i spoke on this topic with your colleague, also a researcher, and she told me that you know what will happen when russia is on the verge of, let's say, disintegration or collapse into russia bush's legs will fly off, now the west is ready, well, it is morally possible to face what russia may face, or maybe it is worth going to the military or military defeat of russia in this war in this war that she unleashed unfortunately the west is not ready for all possible consequences, but a full-fledged crushing defeat of military russia on the territory of ukraine, and this does not mean that this

formulation of some kind of treason as such has become enough for ukrainian society. no, it means that now it is ukraine, poland , the baltic countries, er, some of our partners. maybe even the united kingdom should work on creating such an agenda when these negative destabilizing scenarios will be taken into account and accordingly prepared means armed consists of several points, firstly, they do not understand how exactly russia will be destabilized , that this will mean the disintegration of russia into several states, and how to interact with them then . - this is actually the political elite, because the russian opposition is too weak to simply be an alternative in the event of the fall of the putin regime, and moreover, even the russian opposition does not look like the complete

antithesis of the russian government at all times, for example, the issue besides, it puts many in a dead end, therefore not having an understanding with whom exactly our partners and ukraine itself will interact personally and functionally, if we are talking about the national republics on the territory of russia, these are the questions that stop our partners from taking a tougher radical position in relation to russia. well to add to the picture let's see what is happening in the bunker or bunkers today, putin spoke to the extended colleagues of the ministry of defense of the ref , not for the first time, as we can see , the russian president has to cosplay and zelensky to show his involvement in the events at the front, although in this case it is more virtual. therefore, the main topic of the meeting is the war in ukraine and the forces of his own, that is, the russian army . putin supported shoigu's proposal to increase the number of armed forces by 350,000 people

, to form three new groups in the occupied territories, according to shoigu, russia intends to continue hostilities in ukraine next year, at the same time, putin says the west is trying to prolong hostilities in ukraine in order to weaken russia well, my question is this, we talked about the political let's put it this way, and at the household level, and in western europe, in the united states, they are ready to continue paying this price for supporting ukraine in this war, because we see that europe is facing a crisis in the cost of living . the prices for gas, electricity, and everything are just crazy. it seriously tires people, of course it tires, but the situation in different countries is different, for example in germany, to the surprise of many in ukraine, public opinion is earlier on

the side of more serious support for ukraine than the official government of this country and actually german society pushes the current government to more radical steps, in particular to the supply of weapons, because about 60% of german society supports this. in italy, we have a slightly different situation. in the united kingdom, i would say that there is a greater balance between the position of the official government and the attitude of the average citizen before it is necessary to support ukraine as a democracy and russia to master russia as an aggressor in the near future, i do not see any serious threats that ukraine will lose the support of broad sections of the population but what will happen, for example, in the second half of 2023 , this is a really serious challenge for us. and i am also interested in hearing or finding out how all this happens in the expert environment, especially if the experts are not at a press conference in front of the cameras, but there in

expert discussions. because i am i suspect that approximately as at the household level, i have to spend time listening to the question of why russia and ukraine simply cannot come to an agreement. so , in the same way, at the expert level, these discussions often happen. and here is what you are explaining there the most heated debate between ukrainian and western experts right now diplomatically, in general , experts are taking place on several topics , the first is actually and what will happen to russia, uh, should we bring the situation to the point that russia actually stands on the threshold of some serious internal destabilization, serhiy, the second point is how security architecture should look like its own, because we, on the ukrainian side , are already thinking about it, and even if ukraine does not immediately become a member of nato in the near future, after the end of this conflict, we must to count on some security defense alliances with those who understand these security threats for us is the same with us and the moment is

uh-uh own attitude to that uh-uh should we consider this war a war caused and one that depends exclusively on putin or still after all, the role of russian society and public support for such an aggressive foreign policy also takes place, because the eastern flank of nato is in solidarity with ukraine, and such expansionist aggressive intentions are too serious in russian society, and the problem will not disappear only with the removal of putin from power thank you very much for the conversation, maria z volkin, a researcher at the london school of economics and political science, a guest of the program today. i was very glad to see you. thank you for taking the time, and let's continue. so , the white house has already officially announced that the united states will allocate military aid to ukraine for 1 billion, 850 million dollars, including e kyiv receives the patriot air defense system, it can be up to

eight pu productions, which, depending on the modification, will contain four or 16 missiles each at the beginning of a full-scale war that started in february from the united states to ukraine, they have already sent a lot of western air defense equipment from portable stinger systems to advanced radar guidance systems, the new patriot battery and here i will quote will become a critical asset for the protection of the ukrainian people from russia's barbaric attacks on infrastructure, so the white house said at the briefing, moscow called any plans to deploy patriots in ukraine a provocation and a further expansion of us military involvement in ukraine, what does this mean for the future war columnist jonathan bill said in an interview with the bbc right now that at first it was portable complexes such as the stinger, then when attacks on civilian objects began, they

became more complex. patriot air defense batteries are currently on this shopping list, but their delivery will take some time, and i think there are several reasons for this, firstly, a lot of time will be spent on training people, because this is a there are not so many of these systems because america has deployed them all over the world and there are other international customers such as saudi arabia who want to buy them, secondly, they are very expensive, one patriot battery costs about a billion dollars, 4 million dollars for each missile launched and is cheaper ways to provide air defense, but this does not change the rules of the game, and i am convinced that ukraine will definitely get them in the future, only one battery of petrov is delivered with the help of many vehicles, including radars, generators, pun complex

control, because it is a complex and complex system . but i think it is more about sending a signal, especially to iran, because both countries, the united states and britain, are very concerned about what iran is providing russia now and is going to provide with ballistic missiles . rocketry and communications military expert petro chernyk i congratulate you so the bbc commentators have just heard jonathan bill, ask you also what these patriots will change in the war, well, they will cover up with perhaps the best machine in its class it says that it can also shoot down aerodynamic targets at a distance of up to 120 km. but most importantly, ballistic targets at a distance of up to 60 km . one battery can include from

four to eight machines. for the top three, let me remind you that the last time the russians did it was within the range of 60 missiles, so one battery can theoretically raise half of such a volleyed potential, and this is incredibly good, and in fact, we remember that even the best installations that exist in the world cannot 100% to close the sky, that is, these installations will help us raise the knockdown ratio and i think it will reach beyond 90%, but still certain breakthroughs are possible and all ukrainians should remember that when the air defense system is working, one must take care of safety and in general, a colossal step forward two months ago, the arrival of such systems was considered a fantasy, this has happened, this indicates that ukraine's existential war with the eternal enemy is on the globe's radar, in fact,

ukraine has enormous support and i am sure that despite the fact that this complex system the ukrainian showed the highest mastery of new technology and high-quality work from it. i have a clarification. you said that from four to eight launchers are actually one battery. that is, they are launchers. this is how i understand radar - this is how i understand the control machine. another is called but do all these launchers have to be together in one area or can they be dispersed, because if we are talking about one area, then i understand that it is possible to protect some one object , that is, how can it theoretically work completely correct and it is absolutely not logical to disperse the battery, everything will depend on how many of these so-called control machines there will be at these post regulations, because without it

the rocket launch is impossible - it is only the main striking instrument . where does the calculation of the flight trajectory itself take place, because what is anti-aircraft missile defense, the enemy launched the missile, he put a lot of variables there to deceive our system. and we must deal with each other with countermeasures, that is, the missile will fly exactly like that, and when it correctly calculates all the courses, i think that the most logical and correct thing is not to disperse this potential, but to cover some most responsible area of ​​the front or in general of ukraine, the whole of ukraine is threatened and there is no doubt that our professionals will apply it in the most correct and most expedient direction whether it will be a purely military aspect of covering our troops or whether it will be covering the energy infrastructure, by and

large it does not matter, only that matters that such a weapon has appeared and it will significantly help to protect our future, you also just explained how difficult the situation of this system is and how it can deceive those missiles that fly towards ukraine, but uh, well, operating such a system is you also need to undergo special training and not just like that, you took it and you manage petriv there, and i understand correctly and how long this training can last, how difficult it is to organize it well, of course, these are very serious systems, because these are mathematics, cybernetics , physics, radio physics, these are computer technologies and so on, but let's say the reduction is not even a copy, but will facilitate the logic like himers m142, also a system that is saturated with huge computer technology ass, that is, 12 systems of

barrel artillery with which the ukrainian artillerymen have never attacked the case and show simply neimovir or fgm 148 l so-called this plan , captain, which seemed incredibly difficult in terms of the number of effective launches. we surpassed even the us army, and no matter how complex this system is, what will we remind iristi, and what will we remind mim 23 hawk, and let's also remind crotal aspid and an incredibly large line of modern weapons, i am 100% sure that the ukrainians will be able to master it in the end. let us understand. why did they start this war against us? the empire cannot live without ukrainians, after ukrainians, they will build a series of alphabets for them. a highly intellectual nation will not be able to cope with all the challenges that will stand before us and changes 104 including thank you very much for the

conversation, let's put an end to this military expert petro chernyk well, in general, that's all today we have to wrap up more history search our website bvc.ua our pages in social networks we will be on the air again tomorrow at 21:00 then we will sum up this unprecedented visit of the president of ukraine to the united states and see you tomorrow the 21st take care everyone listen to the people who suffer from rheumatism but arthritis is impossible to get used to it, it does not allow to move i tried everything and at the pharmacy i bought a yellow dolgit cream, it saves me from pain with rheumatism, reduces swelling and

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