i will say that argentina haters from the football team of argentina who became the world champion refused to visit his palace of the president alberto fernandez, who is known for his friendship with putin and pro-russian sentiments, because of political differences they did not go to the president's palace and told him no , so messi and his team once again great respect for to spit in the face of the second putin in argentina well, not for nothing. i cheered for them at this world cup. i wish you a good evening. take care and let's keep going together to victory. well, literally in a few seconds in the espresso artery , a news release from my colleagues from the ukrainian editorial office of bbc news good evening we are from ukraine on the air bbc news ukraine my name is hryhoriy zhigalov today in the program kherson under constant fire from the russians, civilians are fleeing the city, the defense force came close to liberating

the flint zachaidna the press predicts the culmination of the battle for bakhmut and the escalation in kosovo serbia has put its troops on full combat readiness kosovo accuses the serbs of destabilization under the influence of russia what is happening and let's start with the fruits of the parliament the president zelensky addressed the verkhovna rada of ukraine with a message about the internal and external situation. glory to ukraine, almost no one except us. the

address was held behind closed doors. it was delayed for an hour and a half due to an air raid. the meeting was attended by the entire government, commander-in -chief zaluzhny, foreign diplomats and families of the fallen soldiers. after the speech the awarding of the military was also held; the president's speech lasted 52 minutes; in the message, zelenskyi emphasized that ukraine has become one of the leaders of the free world and helped to find the west the west stopped being afraid of russia again, he also confirmed once again that the goal of ukraine is to restore territorial integrity and release all those who are currently in captivity , today the russian military shelled kharkiv, one man received a shrapnel wound, and now he is in the hospital in a moderate condition this was reported by the mayor and horterkhov according to the head of the city, the morning shelling did not affect the power supply of kharkiv, residents are provided with water, warm

light, i note that russian troops shell kharkiv regularly, if not the most the border areas and settlements located near the contact line and kherson are also under constant fire from russia. the day before, russian shells hit the maternity ward of the local hospital, as the deputy head of the president's office, kyrylo tymoshenko wrote, that day two children were born in the maternity ward. after this attack, the head of four women said that everyone who gave similar orders and who carried them out will be prosecuted and will be brought to justice logical conclusion and after the withdrawal of the russians from kherson and the entire right bank part of the kherson region, kherson turned out to be a front-line city and is subjected to constant shelling from the left bank of the dnieper. many

local residents cannot stand such pressure and decide to move to safer regions of ukraine. with the residents, what is happening in kherson now and how the mood has changed after the triumphant return of the city under the control of the legitimate authorities with constant shelling, this is only one of more than 40 mortars of the shells that arrived during the day, the city is bombarded relentlessly and mercilessly, another shell hit nearby between residential buildings while the firefighters are working. we hear the sounds of new explosions after a short pause. they return to work, putting out the fire until no one is hurt. a little further down the street, we

see people. they are not even panicking. взрослые деты деты just before their eyes bombed the house of a neighbor and she herself had to be taken out from under the rubble and this is repeated again and again the day before, 56-year-old serhii breshun died here, a shell hit his home while he was sleeping. we met his mother tamara. sergey was the only son the day before yesterday, he was with me that morning. i must have felt that something was going to go wrong because i asked him to wake up and leave the house, but he didn't do it, and our whole life is ruined she came here to find sergei's passport among the wreckage. he is needed to take

his body from the morgue . essentially now it is almost on the front line near the river, which itself actually became the front line in the south here at this place behind me a little more than an hour ago there was an explosion five people died here twenty people were injured every day people die in this place later six more ordinary people died in the central market a month ago, at this very place, they celebrated the liberation from the russian occupation

of kherson, survival in the case of victoria yaryshko , volunteers of the red cross were killed right next to this base, a few steps from the storage in underground shelter, her mother ludmila shows us the order of honor that her daughter was given, her eyes hurt. i am very happy that she helped many people, she was so kind, i have to endure this to raise her two children. i tell them that they should be proud of their mother because she is a hero victoria's son sasha lives here with her sister. it seems that they are fine with other volunteers. the war and losses brought them together. dmytro rakytskyi was a friend of victoria's. i understand that well , first of all, when a loved one or a colleague dies, a person whom you know well, it is always difficult. he believes that if we surrender now and stop, her death will be in vain. the bombings do not

stop while dmytro is waiting for the ambulance. after liberation from the russian occupation in november, the city was quickly replaced by a sense of fear and even terror. when the russians left, they took up positions on the other bank of the dnieper, and from there the city is continuously shelled. people began to leave the city. kherson by the hundreds even before christmas. the roads leading out of the city were free. we asked iryna antonenko why she decided to leave. we stayed all this time and thought everything would pass, but when a bomb hit the house next to ours, it was too scary at the

station. a mother with three daughters in bags and boxes, everything they managed to take with them is very difficult to leave. i love ukraine and my city, but now i have to find a way out, says olena, she doesn't know when to see my friends again, everyone in this place has to make their own painful choice, experts of the american institute for the study of war writes this in a new report that the battle for bakhmut is approaching its climax, because russia has long begun to lose its military power in the donbass. they conclude that serious losses in the bakhmut direction forced russian troops to reduce large-scale operations to the level of individual units, a representative of the eastern command of the armed forces of the forces of ukraine, colonel serhiy cherevatyy said that russian troops in the bakhmut area no longer attack companies or

battalions with tactical groups, acting instead in small detachments of 10 to 15 people, the institute for the study of war reminds us that this also happened in august in the kherson direction, when the russian forces degraded just as significantly and moved to action in small detachments instead of these battalions of tactical groups, this indicated that the russian army in this direction is not capable to act in units a-a large enough for a meaningful advance according to american analysts of the topics of the advance of russian troops in the rhone bahmuta has recently slowed down against the background of the problem with personnel and ammunition and with us in touch, military expert oleksandr kovalenko is happy to welcome you on the air. let 's start with a bang. uh, the armed forces of ukraine really seized the initiative, because even in the russian media there are already reports from time to time that the russians are starting to be knocked out of

their positions. we can state a decrease in artillery performance in this direction. the fact is that the russian army has the opportunity to conduct offensive actions precisely when it has artillery support, and the artillery completely provides offensive actions yes even the defense of russian units, and precisely in order to capture bakhmut by the end of 2022, the russian russian command concentrated on this front a narrow front is enough if compared with the general front of hostilities, and they concentrated the largest amount of artillery, this is the largest number of all combat zones but now they cannot provide this amount of artillery with the necessary amount of combat kit, that is, there is a large barrel, well,

let's say it is simple, especially after the armed forces of ukraine were destroyed a number of very important warehouses with ammunition , for example, the irmin ammunition warehouse, which was one of the largest, and now the problem with ammunition and ammunition, moreover, it is also reinforced by the problem of equipping the battalion of tactical groups, they do not have the opportunity to equip the battalion-tactical groups with the required amount of equipment according to the state, so they are forced exclusively to use the infantry resource, and the infantry cannot implement such plans as the capture of a city like bakhmut, let's move on to the situation eh near the crime scene the new york times you must have seen this article, it says that the ukrainian military is approaching the liberation of luhansk oblast. journalists called this city the gateway to which

ukrainians can advance to the large industrial cities of luhansk oblast. well, first of all, do you agree with this assessment? how does the situation look like? there and before you start answering i want to clarify that the armed forces of ukraine ask to wait for the official announcement well, yes, indeed, the armed forces of ukraine are currently implementing some active and intensive actions near the crime scene but let me remind you that a month ago , a very interesting phenomenon happened near the stone a-a, namely, the increase in the gray zone, these zones - this is when the russian occupiers leave their positions, but so far the armed forces of ukraine do not occupy these positions , that is, even then it was possible to talk about that the russian units do not have enough resources to hold these positions. and that is, after some time in this position, one way or another, they should have become ukrainian, and now we can observe

this phenomenon when all together are already near the flint does not increase, but rather decreases because it is already occupied by the azsa, and this is the truth, the crime is the gate to the very important southwestern agglomeration of luhansk region, namely the exit to ruby and also to the agglomeration, but lysychanska to severodonetsk, and by the way, there is also a very important springboard there, and everyone says about of crime, namely a-a in the direction of severodonetsk and luzhdachansk, there is belogorivka under the control of the armed forces of ukraine, and it is with it that a very interesting movement of our units to liberate these locations can take place, another very interesting one the event took place, the spokesman of the eastern group of the armed forces of ukraine, serhii cherevaty , said on the air of the telethon that the private military company patriot, which belongs

to the minister of defense of russia, sergei shoigu, and competes with vagnem prigozhin, was spotted under the radar. who is the minister of defense eh? there is a private military campaign of a beauty there is the russian army what if it happens well the patriot has been competing with wagner for quite a long time actually since the days of syria and it is eh this private military company a-a was the first to be officially recognized , that is, they even tried to officially register it in the ministry of defense as an official and a private military company, but then it was much more profitable for the russian authorities to use pvk as a hybrid power element and here is this idea with the official recognition of a patriot, well, it came from her were abstracted and now

we see exactly how prigozhin's structure, uh, his wagner, well, let's say it is fully provided by the ministry of defense. where did the wagnerites have tanks, where did the artillery come from, airplanes, helicopters, ammunition, everything else, if they were, well, first of all, a lightly armed hybrid formation, and in this case, from the ministry of defense, right now serhiy shoigu is trying to intercept this initiative from prigozhin. but this is a sign of the internal confrontation that is increasing in to the russian power bloc more and more. we will watch this confrontation more and more. thank you very much military expert oleksandr kovalenko. the lavras of the huge monastery in the center of kyiv,

which is of sacred importance for ukrainian and russian orthodoxy, the churches connected with russia refused to renew the lease agreement and from the new year, in particular, it is about the dormition cathedral and the steps of the zno. they have temples that were leased, but the interlocutor of the bbc from ukraine in power close to the religious sphere confirmed this version of the development of events when after the end of the lease of the temples they will not let representatives of the uoc mp in power hinted that they could be transferred to the orthodox church of ukraine for use. this is a local church not connected to moscow, but there were no official reports about it. and i am glad to welcome my colleague, the bbc correspondent from kyiv , on the air. what we know is that the issue has already been resolved, the uoc is

not renewing the lease agreement, and i am also here, well, it will not be superfluous to remind you of the legal side of the matter, yes, the lavra museum, the museum leases temples to the uoc mp, that is correct. hello, let's go in order, first of all, the territory of the lavra really is state property, a historical and cultural reserve, the structural lavra is divided into two parts, the lower lavra is the famous lavra cave temples, and, for example , the official residence of the head of the uoc mp, metropolitan onufriy, we seem to have lost contact with sviatoslav khomenko, but no , sviatoslav is still in contact with sviatoslav we have restored contact uh please continue i want to warn svyatoslav uh from ukraine from lviv live yes or from kyiv uh and there can be unpleasant technical

details please continue i am talking about that the territory of the lavra is really state property and it is divided into two parts . the lower lavra is, in general, churches, lama temples , famous caves, for example, the official residence of metropolitan onufriy, the head of the uoc, all this property is used by the uoc of the moscow patriarchate, based on documents from 2013, even during the presidency of yanukovych, free of charge and indefinitely transferred a huge list of property that is located on the territory of the lavra and there is the upper lavra, the upper lavra is a historical and cultural reserve - it is a museum - it is, for example historical library and here on the territory of this upper lavra there are two churches - this is the largest on the territory of the dormition cathedral and the historical refectory church eh, which from time to time eh on holidays and on weekends is used by the uoc of the moscow patriarchate and here the other day the head of this national museum reserve told his eminence metropolitan pavel vicar of kulavr

that the term of validity of these contracts on the basis of which the uoc mp uses these two churches expires on december 31 and as we understand from the words of the minister of culture oleksandr tkachenko, the state it is based on the fact that these contracts with the uoc mp will not be continued. about the main complex of buildings used by the uoc mp , about this lower laurel, which i spoke about, a separate issue based on the presidential decree . on the basis of this inspection, a decision will be made whether to accept the current situation or whether it is even possible to cancel the order of the cabinet of azarov and completely block the system that has developed over the years around the lavra, or whether this decision means that from next year in the temples of the upper lavra can start a service, for example, a local church, the orthodox church of ukraine, and which received a tomos from the ecumenical patriarch bartholomew,

not everything is so simple, on the one hand, 500 really want to enter the lavra and get the right to use at least one or several of their churches in this the church is told that the laurel is an orthodox shrine on a global scale, it belongs to the entire ukrainian people, and the monopoly use of it by one church, especially one that is considered to be connected with moscow, is at least dishonest in may of this year, it submitted a request to the state authorities to allocate one or more temples of the upper lavra for their use, but at first this application was considered for a long time, they said that there are no free rooms in the upper lavra , but now the situation has obviously changed, at least because from january 1 in we are vacating these slots in the assumption cathedral, a striking center that has been used by the uoc mp until now, but today i spoke with the minister of culture tkachenko and he warned the public against any hasty conclusions after what years does he say regarding the end of this inspection, the use of these two churches by any churches is impossible, and it will be seen later. although, of course, the uoc mp and ptu

expect that the issue of using these lavra churches will be resolved precisely in their favor. well, i can't either i still have to ask you to explain this story about the uoc belonging to the moscow patriarchate . because before everything was just like the uoc mp in parentheses, now even journalists wrote the uoc of the moscow patriarchate. parentheses indicate the uoc and what type, not mp, what are the nuances, the moscow patriarchate is not the moscow patriarchate, and not until 2014. uoc representatives were almost not proud of preserving the spiritual unity of the mother church, as they called the russian orthodox church, everything changed in 2022, when moscow patriarch kirill unequivocally supported russia's unleashed war, and the head of the ukrainian orthodox church , metropolitan onufriy, mentioned what was happening, and we again lost contact with my colleague

svyatoslav khomenko, but i want to remind you that his material is now on the website bbc.ua, that's why if anyone is interested in this topic , who wants to find out in detail, please , i invite you to the vs.ua site, there is a very detailed and very interesting material. oleksandra vučić said that he was taking all measures to protect the people and preserve serbia . relations between belgrade and the representative intensified again after reports in the media that they had come to prepare an attack allegedly on the regions where ethnic serbs live in the north. kosovo the european union is again trying to act as a mediator and calls for maximum restraint and immediate action and offers the leaders of serbia and kosovo to personally contribute to the decision

. or as they call it the administrative line between serbia and kosovo, they will come into contact with the peacekeepers of the key-fort forces of nato and this is what they do not want. besides, for many years years, belgrade relies on kayfor forces because they guarantee the safety of the ethnic serbian minority in kosovo, so it is inappropriate for serbia to do anything that would lead to any conflict or even disagreement, and serbia does not recognize the kayfor forces proclaimed in 2008 independence of kosovo for serbs, kosovo is serbia and this is repeated by both serbian leaders and football fans, for them it is a statement of fact that ethnic serbs in kosovo do not just consider themselves serbs who live in kosovo, they consider themselves citizens of serbia and recently there were discussions about license

plates, many did not understand why this is important , but the symbolism of kosovo is important here, kosovo wants to defend its sovereignty with the guarantee that ethnic serbs should use the license plates of the state of kosovo, and for ethnic serbs it has become a matter of identity, but they often forget that that the local people do not care whether they are ethnic albanians or serbs, they are ordinary people who want to live and do their own business, that is why the conflicts, the talks about the tensions in kosovo greatly affect the lives of tens of thousands of ethnic serbs, serbia is still friend of russia, she did not join the european sanctions against russia, despite the fact that the eu repeatedly asked belgrade about it. and serbia is a candidate country for an attack on the eu, and people, of course, wonder whether russia has anything to do with the escalation of tensions between serbia and kosovo, pristina. i think that serbia accepts moscow's instructions to create problems in the western

balkans and divert the world's attention from the events in ukraine, and i am joined by the balkan columnist, the fighter varga from the city of novi sad. greetings boris, what is the situation on the border of serbia and kosovo good evening, it is now the third week of the situation on the border with serbia and kosovo, and it is tense and one can say on the verge of conflict in the north of kosovo, and it is pleasing. came and granted autonomy to the ethnic serbs, which is part of the kosovo serb agreement and dialogue, mediated by the eu, at the same time, on the other side of the border, the serbian army announced the highest level of combat readiness and in the leading the serbian mass media conveys a picture of a conflict

that almost exploded, independent analysts warn that pro-russian organizations and even russian security services can provoke incidents on the border with kosovo, just as it happened in montenegro before its accession to nato in 2016, and i must say about the latest news that evening information has been received that the kosovo police have released a former serbian policeman under house arrest, with which conditions may already be created for a gradual reconciliation of the situation, but the clashes between the serbian community in the north of kosovo and the majority of kosovars, this is a regular phenomenon, how does this situation differ from others, why does it cause more concern, let's put it this

way, especially in the context of the war in ukraine due to russia 's influence on the region of the western balkans. of relations between serbia and kosovo in november, berlin and paris proposed a plan that provides for the full normalization of relations between serbia and kosovo, which means that belgrade will not prevent pristina from becoming a member let's say the council of europe and other international organizations, that is, to develop as a de facto independent state. germany and france, with the support of the eu and the usa, demand that the parties sign an agreement, and that already next spring, and all without the direct demand for serbia to recognize the independence of kosovo, but with a plan in particular, she is not satisfied with serbia, and president oleksandr usych said that he is not ready to support the development of kosovo as a

de facto independent state, that's the essence of this problem. is there a pro-russian trail in this crisis? is there any reason to think so, because russia supports serbia and not only in the current confrontation, but from the very beginning of the declaration of kosovo 's independence in 2008. prices , that is, the eu and russia, and serbia now firmly refuses to impose sanctions on russia. you can often hear the thesis that in the conditions of the war in ukraine, the western balkans and kosovo are a second front for russia, that is, a front in europe.

put a full stop thank you very much balkan columnist varga fighter with the city novi garden thank you boris and that's all for today, look for more stories on our website bbc.ua on our pages and social networks we are back in the fire tomorrow at 21:00 take care cinema television sports music education for the free has a choice choose what you want on megogo time when the usual things