published in his telegram a joint photo with volodymyr bandura against the background of the tricolor, this is similar to the swan song of bandura's collaborator , the state bureau of investigation opened criminal proceedings against the mayor of sviatohorsk under the article of treason, this was the list of miklushka for next wednesday. i will tell you about another dozen traitors. and if in your there are collaborators in the city, write to me on facebook or to this e-mail, let's make these scoundrels famous, we'll meet together in exactly a week, this is what we're talking about today what is happening in soledar in the destroyed city as seen on satellite images and prigozhin against gerasimov how the war in ukraine showed conflicts among the russian security forces and what role wagner's mercenaries play

fierce battles continue in soledar this is confirmed by the ukrainian side and western analysts and journalists on the spot, the general staff reports about more than a hundred killed russian soldiers, along with what percentage of the city is controlled by the defense force. and what enemy is not reported in the city, there are heavy threats because there are destroyed houses and infrastructure, it is possible to see on satellite images, this is what soledar was like six months ago. what it is now, compared to previous images, shows that among the destroyed buildings there is a school, farm buildings, and explosions from bompy shells marked the fields and roads around the salt city in donetsk region, according to the ministry of defense of ukraine, and russian

the troops are trying to break through the defenses of the city, the enemy is trying without success to break through our defenses and capture the soldiers. by the bodies of the killed putin troops, even though they are moving directly over the bodies of their fallen fighters, the situation in the areas of hostilities remains difficult in the absence of the necessary amount of technically ready combat equipment, the kremlin is actively using human resources, but in russia they still cannot agree on the fact that now takes place in soledar the evening before, the press service of yevgeny prigozhina, the founder of the private military campaign wagner, released a statement stating that soledar seems to be completely captured by russia, however, this statement contradicts the official reports of the russian ministry of defense published two

hours after prigozhin's statement, the department said that the battles for the city are still ongoing, they say that soledar is being blocked from the north and south by the airborne units of the russian army, this also contradicts prigozhin's statement that soledar captured exclusively by the wagnerites, an analyst at the american center for the study of war believes that russian troops have not yet completely captured soledar, despite recent advances and numerous statements from russian sources, what is happening is analyzed by the bbc correspondent james water house, the situation in soledar depends on who you ask about it, the situation is completely controlled, the situation is controlled, so says the ukrainian commander, and this is his wounded colleague, never break, we are winning, but if you ask these two, they say wagner

russians are clearing the city yes, but they are not from the regular army, they are from the private military group wagner, a network of mercenaries that participate in many hostilities of russia, the leader yevgeny prigozhin's group recently recruited prisoners from russian prisons, the wagnerites led the attack on soledar and assure that they now have complete control over it. we are talking to one of the ukrainian soldiers at the front to find out if this is true. propaganda, don't believe russian propaganda, it's not true, bakhmut soledar is under ukrainian control. a-a ukrainian control kyiv describes the battle for soledar and bakhmut as the bloodiest scenario and this is all that can be said with full confidence fierce battles are being fought for small territories and human

the losses are huge, but the kremlin is less willing to admit it, instead it accuses ukraine of exaggerating the situation in order to get more military support, the support that continues to come during a visit to western ukraine , polish president duda announced the supply of tanks, volodymyr zelenskyy wants this example to be followed more in the meantime in russia a similar split. the kremlin claims that fighting is still going on in the village of dari, which contradicts the wagners' statements. i understand that the situation in the new subjects is difficult in some areas hostilities continue, not everywhere has been restored peaceful life and people's safety so that her desire to occupy eastern donbas everything is going according to plan and you wonder what will be left if they succeed or not, let's try to figure it out

together with a military observer , experts of the ukrainian institute of the future are in touch with us ivan stupak i congratulate you on the air, we see that you do not have electricity, but nevertheless it is a pleasure to talk with you, and here is the first question. i haven't found any information about this from the ministry of defense of russia. the ukrainian command is not verbose. they only say that heavy fighting is taking place in the city. what do you know? hello, the studio is happy to be with you. i will explain to you what is actually happening. look at the internal kind of struggle in the kremlin between the towers of the kremlin. you can do this. to name, but there is a confrontation between the military, this is gerasima, this is shoigu, this is the force managers of the rest of the bodies and private military companies and such. these are entities such as e-e company, a private company, the private army of ramzan kadyrov, and this one is

there will be an internal struggle that leads to the fact that kadyrov is beautiful, but more beautiful, it is necessary to show his effectiveness on the battlefield , and here he is. for 6 months, even almost seven months, he is fighting around bakhmut, now he is fighting around soledar. he urgently needs to show any victories, but real, not fake, and here i am trying to report that we have already taken soledar, but our military does not confirm this, even the russian ministry of defense does not confirm this, and this is the last appointment of gerasimov, with whom prigozhina has a personal relationship the conflict of which he personally barked obscenely , and using various video appeals there, it leads to the fact that the situation with the situation of the kremlin vertical is very, very difficult, and this is how he constantly reports about victories

that are not yet there. and about changes in the military we will talk about the russian command a little later, but i want to return to soledar again. there is an opinion that the city is not strategically important for the russian command and the battles are being fought there to exhaust the armed forces of ukraine, do you agree with this statement, what is the importance of soledar, and i think that you are sure that soledar is important, and only in connection with bakhmut , they cannot take bakhmut for almost seven months, and a decision was made . let's build this wall let's try to go around from the side. where possible, there is a weaker basis in such minskys, because soledar was chosen. they think that if soledar is broken through, they can take bakhmut into an operational encirclement, or, in other words, the best case for them is to capture the complete encirclement and move more and here are such victories, even as small

as bakhmut, can give great morale to the russian army, russian propaganda and russian potential to the people , along with how these battles for soledar will affect the offensive potential of ukraine. what do you think? and i am sure that it will not have a negative effect, so the loss of the city if it even exists, it will not be critical because there are other lines of defense that were there before, for example, built and simply ukrainian troops will withdraw on the next line and will hold the defense there, while the russian the command will continue to pay its equipment, its manpower, its e-e shells to take these fortified areas until the moment when this whole wave will exhaust its resources, potential and stop, and then there will already be a reverse direction. well, president zelensky himself said so about the importance of the supply of weapons and ammunition specifically to donetsk region, where the fiercest battles are now being fought

, i will quote his statement after today's rate meeting of the units that defend these cities will be provided with all necessary ammunition promptly and without interruption, which weapons are now the most important for those battles, well , look first of all. there, er, such weapons are important, warm clothes are chemical elements that can be heated, because the temperature there drops to -15°, and the steppe cold wind - it is very exhausting and it really feels like minus 20 minus 25 , that is, the kubovs are in a position to warm up, this, first of all, affects their morale, their physical ability to fight , and secondly, it is an uninterrupted supply of shells for artillery, it is practice by our drones, which can see as russian the military is trying to approach, go around from the side , encircle somewhere, conduct some fake

maneuvers, confuse our troops, that is, everything is very important to repel the attacks of the russian military and break through their defenses and move forward. well, in your opinion, what can now change the course of events in the direction of bakhmut this is an uninterrupted supply of weapons to our military, this is heavy equipment, as i said, it is long-range projectiles, well, missiles for himals systems that can destroy, well, a lot has already been said about it, warehouses in a radius of 100 km, even more yes, from the contact line and of course this is bad , frankly bad provision of the russian army, i.e. when they are depleted, there will not be enough ammunition, there will not be enough armor in the dialogue, what means of individual protection, food, and all this really in the complex, only in

the complex will reduce them offensive potential, the fact that there is a threat from belarus on the northern border, the commander of the combined forces from his own serhii nayav stated that there is no direct threat of a land offensive from belarus now, but already next week in belarus will conduct regular military exercises together with russia, what can follow these exercises? is this another rattling of weapons? look at the key indicators in this aspect. whether belarus is preparing for an attack or not, well, regardless. key indicators this is your frame, which if there is an accumulation of heavy equipment , then this will be such a serious signal that something is being prepared, and the second classic, where the masking prince is probably a sign, demosquing it when shells for artillery are unloaded on

ground, i.e. when the projectile is placed on the ground, it means that it will be used for its intended purpose and loaded back there , i don’t know, the car and the truck or the railway car will no longer be there, that is, when we see a large number of projectiles on the ground, all this will mean that there will be art training when we see that there is a large amount of equipment, at least 200 units, well, that's right, well, it will mean that an offensive from belarus will be prepared, and for now it's just a rattling of weapons, this is a combat coordination between belarus and the russians and nothing more thank you, mr. ivan, for the meaningful conversation , unfortunately, we lost the picture at times, but the main thing is that we heard that ivan stupak, a military expert of the ukrainian institute of the future, was in touch with us, and a commission from the ministry of defense of russia headed by the commander-in-chief

of the ground forces, oleg selyukov, arrived in belarus with an inspection. they inspected military units and units of the russian group of troops stationed at training grounds in belarus, western experts say that belarus has long become a bridgehead for conducting hostilities, but can minsk officially enter the war on the side of russia, in general, how can the outcome of the war change in the coming months, analyzes security columnist frangarner from the commission of the ministry of defense of russia , headed by the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, should visit belarus to check the combined forces, what conclusion can be drawn from this, it is necessary to remember remember that the russian side will change quantitatively because they have partially mobilized and trained hundreds of thousands of volunteers, mobilized prisoners, wagner prigozhina's group has already recruited up to 40,000 prisoners if they serve six months and if they if they serve if they

serve six months they get their freedom of course they don't get killed on the battlefield and a lot of them die so the number of troops matters a lot so the number of troops matters a lot but these recruits will not be well trained or equipped with some some of them were given very very old weapons some of them were given very old rusty weapons their boots don't fit the size they don't have proper winter clothes they don't have proper winter clothes but as a russian general once said but how a russian general once said quantity is a kind of quality if a large number of troops are thrown into ukraine it will be difficult both sides are talking about a spring offensive what do you think could happen within a few weeks months it is necessary that the russian side will change quantitatively because they have partially mobilized and trained hundreds of thousands

of volunteers, mobilized prisoners, wagner prigozhina's group has already recruited up to 40,000 prisoners, if they serve six months, they will be released on the condition that, of course, they are not will be killed on the battlefield and many of them will die so the number of troops will matter a lot but these recruits will not be well trained or equipped some of them are given very old rusty weapons their boots are not the right size they don't have proper winter clothes but as once said one russian general, the number is a kind of quality, if a large number of troops are thrown, it will be difficult for ukraine to resist, if you look at the hostilities that are going on around bakhmut and soledar, it is like during the first world war, when the waves of russian the infantry trying to advance are pushed back by devastating fire and a barrage of artillery shells, this is an absolute meat grinder, these are the words of prigozhyn himself, and this is a

tragic loss of life. so something in this will change for the russian side, this is the deployment of large-scale troops for the ukrainian side - this is the hope that additional tanks and weapons will change the situation is on their side makeuption to take bakhmut soledar at any cost the main goal of the head of the private military campaign wagner yevgena prigozhina military analysts think so and he himself does not hides experts of the american institute for the study of war are convinced that prigozhin seeks to promote his company as the only russian group that can achieve success only during a full-scale war between russia and ukraine about guzhen admitted that he is behind wagner who is he and what are his interests, we asked the editor about this of the russian bbc service andrii goryanov is a businessman from the 1990s, a businessman from the 1990s from st. petersburg and,

accordingly, from the same time he was connected with vladimir putin. he is considered the so-called cook of putin, who actually, there is a lot of evidence for this. he was responsible for vladimir putin's table and his reception room. after that, his business grew into a large catering company that even served schools, and they say very badly about the investigations, in particular the navalny fund. at the same time, in 2014-2016, prigozhyn became known as a person which solves strange issues in favor of the kremlin, in particular, he had a company called the troll factory, this is a group of companies in st. petersburg that interfered in those places where there is an interest of russia, in particular in the american elections, but until 2023, the beauty never confirmed that he is related to the troll factory to wagner's group and that he is engaged in this business in general with the full-scale invasion of russia into ukraine and the declared war prigozhyn was forced to hit the wall and admit that he is the actual head of the

wagner pvk, why did it need to be done in the first place on the one hand, russia withdrew from all essentially international organizations, there was no longer a need to look like a normal country that abides by international law, and therefore all masks were ripped off by the adventure at the same time with this he received a full set of cards in order to carry out operations in the east of ukraine such that on the one hand it is in his interests and on the other hand in the interests of the kremlin what is happening now attacks on bakhmut soledar especially brutal battles in the interests of wagner's pvk it looks like that on the one hand prigozhin is trying to prove that he essentially has a full-fledged army independent of russia, that he is an independent entity, but the latest changes in the russian army tell the very essence of the changes, namely gerasim, who was appointed as the head of the russian army group in the east of ukraine and his subordinate syroikin is appointed as his deputy, this does not look like radical

changes, but looks like a signal to prigozhin and other quasi-independent actors to remain in the shadows, at the same time, prigozhin has his own interests, it is known from history that wherever he was, he was always interested in seizing some business assets in africa he captured potentially gold-bearing archives in the left unsuccessful attempt for oil in crude also on some assets and here objectively there is an interest in one of the largest salt deposits in europe soledars this is his definition of business interests at the same time we have to understand from who are we dealing with, prigozhin, a former prisoner , he has served his term, he recruits prisoners and does not care about people's lives, he does not care about it. therefore, this is an absolutely brutal evil force that decides his personal interests and putin's interests, interests, putin's interests, to other topics, to armed aid, then as poland announced that it will provide a company of leopard tanks, according to media reports, britain is ready to provide challenge tanks

germany currently does not make such promises in ukraine germany already provides armored vehicles marder the government promises to send 40 such bmps by the end of the first quarter, i.e. by the end of march, this was announced by the country's minister of defense christine lambrecht, she emphasized that germany keeps its word regarding support for ukraine and adapts to the changing situation, but there is no decision on the provision of tanks yet, the german government has not made a final decision on the transfer of combat troops tanks, this decision has not been made, so at the moment, how to survive it, so it was with anti- aircraft artillery, and now with infantry fighting vehicles, but the decision regarding combat tanks, the federal government has not yet approved the continuation of the topic, more and more international experts recognize that the ukrainian army has proven that it is able to skillfully work with any equipment and master even the most modern

weapons and call on world leaders to speed up the process of military supplies to ukraine, honorary professor of military studies at the king's college of london lawrence friedman is sure that without western weapons, the war in ukraine can last for years, this is a very vocal administration. the americans and germans announced that they would provide ukraine with infantry armored personnel carriers, the french also agreed to provide similar systems, but ukraine wants to start next spring and they need heavy weapons to do this, the difficulty lies in the fact that you need to unblock the supply of leopard tanks by the germans, because they are really important for ukraine, the germans are very reserved to be the first to supply leopards to ukraine, but if they do not do it themselves, they can allow many other countries

that have leopards to do it, and this can have a big impact meaning so in the german coalition regarding this type of support there is a hell of a debate i don't want to go into technical details but not for military experts what are the leopard tanks capable of what are their advantages and features leopard is a whole series of armored vehicles in the question of how heavy in they have armor depending on their mission is it fire attack or infantry support or transport of troops with a high degree of protection so they have many different roles it is a tracked vehicle with heavy armor capable of striking the main fighting part of this tank, the upper part of the charging system is quite outdated and this makes them demanding in terms of logistics, but on the battlefield they move very well and can

provide such dynamics that other vehicles are not capable of. that is, this is part of ukraine's attempt to create an offensive potential that will allow to break through the russian defense that is, little by little, but ukraine is getting what it asks for, although it is happening quite slowly and in stages, mostly due to concerns about how russia will perceive it, and what possible contingencies the consequences on her part, what could be the steps on the part of those who are in charge of the operation, what is your vision regarding how this aid was deployed, could it have been done at the beginning of the war, and it would have been of considerable importance, there are many things that we did not expect. i think it partly played a role role is that the ukrainians have shown that they are professionals, that they can effectively use what they get, so i

think this is a reflection of changes and a kind of assessment of what is happening until the beginning of september. ukraine had significant successes and this greatly encouraged people, but it is also led to increased efforts on the part of russia to mass mobilize attacks on ukrainian society, critical infrastructure objects, and also to putin's statement that he is capable of annexing ukrainian regions. i think all this contributed to the west's perception of the situation, but there is actually no agreed solution that could be to quickly adopt, the russians count on a long-term perspective, the only way to get out of the impasse is to support ukraine in its great military effort, which will be difficult, but if this does not happen, war may last years ago, i believe that there have been changes in the strategic assessment, ukraine's confidence and ability to use what it receives is growing, and changes in

what ukraine needs, which was first in total defense during the summer and then went on the offensive, so we know a lot has happened thanks to heimers and long-range artillery ukraine acted deliberately to slowly wear down the russian forces the other day we saw how they bombed the whiskey accumulation of ammunition this is a long way and it was easier to provide ukraine with some of this earlier but there are many nuances and in the end it is expensive, so it is not surprising that it is happening quite gradually, i will immediately add to the air the military expert of the reserve colonel of the armed forces of ukraine vladyslav seleznyov . i congratulate you, how will western tanks strengthen the capabilities of the ukrainian forces, now we are talking about a dozen tanks from poland, a potential one from britain in your opinion, this is a sufficient amount , which is still a small congratulations, and it is

obvious to you that the tank gates will not change the situation on the battlefield in any way only to jump off enemy attacks and to advance an effective contour up to the moment of liberation of the entire territory of ukraine in the border of 1991, that is what general valery is emphasizing . units of armored combat vehicles and at least 500 units of artillery and, in accordance with this artillery, so that the ukrainian army has the opportunity to effectively implement the tasks that stand before it, and the tasks are absolutely the current situation of the ukrainian army and the ukrainian people is adequate, we are now fighting for our survival, for our dependence, for the restoration of territorial values, we have no other way than to destroy

the enemy and liberate our land, and for that we need the support of our western partners, the british, the americans the germans and the french, because harrow technology acts as a determining factor, which in the future will influence the course of events on the battlefield over actually how do you assess the prospects of this armored techniques, in particular the german one, which we just talked about to what extent it can significantly change the situation on the marder front, yes. of course, if we are talking about the combat armored vehicles, the marder or their analogues of the american ber-eddle model, then there is a powerful defense technique about the american bradley, they say that they are not tanks, but they are tank destroyers. by the way, it is worth mentioning here that , for example, during the time of the american company, it was easy to desert in cancer, it was bradley that accounted for the largest number of destroyed pirate ships tanks, once again, a huge amount of weapons, equipment is needed here and now for the ukrainian army, not in a month, not in two, to honor in

six months, right now, we need that equipment for you to win. thank you for the conversation . that's all for today, look for more stories on our website bbc.ua and on our pages in social networks. there we always update information promptly and on time, and we are on the air tomorrow again as usual at 9:00 p.m. all the best and take care,

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