[000:00:00;00] for cash payments of up to uah 150,000, if the amount is larger, the origin of the funds had to be explained. the brother of the judge and the new member of the supreme council of justice , tetyana bondarenko, citizens of the russian federation, however, the judge rejects the accusation of ties with a relative, a citizen of the terrorist country, regarding the emergency operation in the soviet union with my brother. er, over time, she did not communicate with pivdenny once on the phone and at 32, when the aggression began, she really beat her. it is also known that tetyana bondarenko has a sister who

often visits russia, of course she is new a member of the people's party of ukraine is not responsible for the actions of her relatives, however, the presence of family ties with citizens of russia, which has unleashed a full-scale war against our country and kills our citizens every day, together with other ambiguous facts, the judge's biography should stand in the way of appointing bondarenko as a member of the supreme for the sake of justice, however, the congress of judges did not see a problem in this, we will carefully monitor all the decisions of the new members of the vrp in the next program, we will introduce you to other members and let's tell you what they are hiding in their declarations. and if you know the facts of corruption in the judicial system or you yourself have become a victim

of illegal proceedings, let us know by writing to me on facebook or to the e -mail you see on the screen. in a week to squeeze out the program of the ukrainian official speech of america, time there, i'm nataliya leonova congratulations , minister of defense shalova to osyn and minister of defense of poland mariusz blaszczak discussed by phone the current and future plans of assistance to ukraine in the field of security, pentagon spokesman pat ryder said. minister austin noted the efforts of minister laschak in the support that poland continues to provide

to ukraine, including poland's commitment to transfer additional armored vehicles, in particular leopard tanks, the pentagon reports and adds that both leaders confirmed the need for close coordination with nato members and partners of the alliance in order to effectively and timely support ukraine, the issue of countering russian aggression against ukraine was also discussed today in the foreign affairs committee the us senate, in particular the legislator, was asked by representatives of the administration why it only now decided to provide ukraine with abrams tanks first. i think most of us here are happy to see that the administration finally agreed yesterday to provide abrams tanks and we have been calling for this for some time, but over the months we have been repeatedly they said that sending tanks to ukraine is impossible or undesirable or it will be some kind of escalation and suddenly everything changed yesterday what and how did it happen it is inconvenient well how did it change what

happened as you know are very complicated tanks and they require serious training so even if we approved them yesterday it will take some time to get them to the battlefield so it's not something that will appear before the spring offensive kind of underlines what i said we asked for this six months ago and if you they started 6 months ago, they should have already by spring, so what happened here , who is to blame for this, you know. i think that at every stage of this , we looked at what the ukrainians needed, what they demanded. in the fall, there was a period when they captured a huge number of russian tanks on the battlefield, which they were able to successfully use

in the counteroffensive in kherson and kharkiv region, but now they need more . and that is why we are responding. funds, goods or services, in addition, the united states announced new sanctions against the wagner company and its head yevgeny prigozhina, which also included pvc affiliates and front companies and their managers associated with the introduction of hostilities in ukraine, the appointment of kremlin leaders in the occupied ukrainian territories and the manufacture of weapons in russia, in the statement of the secretary of state antony blinkin, it is said that washington's decision supports the goal of moscow's ability to wage war against ukraine, to facilitate the prosecution of those responsible for russia's aggressive war and related abuse of it, as well as to put further pressure on the russian defense sector earlier this week , cnn journalists received data from the main intelligence agency of ukraine, which indicate that

despite heavy losses, wagner's fighters continue to pose a threat to the armed forces in close-range battles american analysts' opinions on the influence of the wagner group in russia and beyond continue in the story iryna shinkarenko last week , the strategic communications coordinator of the us national security council, john kirby, announced that washington includes the russian group wagner to the list of international criminal organizations at the end of november , the european parliament called on the group to be included in the list of terrorist organizations, meanwhile cnn journalists received data from the main intelligence agency of ukraine, which indicate that, despite heavy losses, wagner's fighters continue to pose a threat to the armed forces of ukraine in close combat, and their leader yevgeny prigozhin says that american experts do not lack ambition either on the battlefield or in political plans. grew up, because wagner's group now takes part in

the highest battles , for example, for soledar. became one of the fiercest critics of shoigu gerasimov and the official military leadership of the russian federation. there is a feeling that there is a split between the adventurer and wagner on the one hand, on their side also kadyrov and the chechen forces and the regular army of the ministry of defense and the general staff on the other. representatives of the elite , most of whom are inclined to more liberal and less hawkish views, he sees a vulnerability in putin's political position and uses this to increase his political popularity he sees this as a way to enrich himself by obtaining contracts and financial resources for his organization prigozhyn does not hide

his illegal actions and grants pardons to prisoners, which legally in russia only the president can do, he publicly mocks the brutal murder of one of the group members with a sledgehammer and sends the weapon to the european parliament in response on the initiative to recognize his organization as a terrorist, prigozhin recently presented the same sledgehammer to a member of the state duma , myronova, who willingly poses with it in a photo , threatening the so-called enemies of russia presents from the legal side, it looks like this: a private person goes around prisons, lowers prisoners so that they fight on the side of his private army , and then issues them a pardon, for which he has no legal authority, and these people then , after returning from ukraine, walk around freely , what's more undermines the rule of law, making the very idea of ​​law enforcement in

russia absurd. if you have ties to the kremlin , you can do anything. of st. petersburg at everyone was associated, among other things, with the research agency responsible for interfering in the 2016 us presidential election and conducting cyber attacks . give prigozhin the opportunity to increase his influence, and the group will grow, he will have the opportunity to seize power by uniting all the hawkish forces, and putin will be replaced by another supporter of a hard course. russian

troops are in ukraine , military support and sanctions from the west will continue, as well as control over the confiscated assets of the russian central bank in the amount of 300 billion dollars . in an interview with the albanian service of the voice of america , the us deputy secretary of state karen donfried said that she added that attention is now focused on heavy equipment , in particular in tanks as well as artillery and ammunition, i am concerned about this, based on what russia said, we expect a new russian offensive, and this is due to the fact that we were so focused on delivering the weapons that we are currently supplying to ukraine to the battlefield as soon as possible, again , we want to make sure that ukraine in the first situation for self-defense and defense of its sovereign territory. we have seen how during the last year ukraine uses

the weapons provided by us very effectively. we train ukrainians we and the military believe that the combination of weapons and training is underestimated add to this the bravery and resilience of ukrainians and i would say to russia be very careful this is not a cold war this is not a competition between the united states and russia president biden clearly said this and also about the fact that this is not a competition or a war between russia and nato, i think we need to clearly understand what happened in ukraine, i already mentioned this, the weapons that were delivered to ukraine really had to meet combat tasks which are relevant so you remember at the beginning of the conflict we sent a lot of javelins and anti-tank weapons and this assistance as i mentioned has evolved over time so the focus now is on these heavy weapons like tanks we are also focusing on artillery and ammunition so you you see now - this is the main focus. if you

analyze the assistance in general that was provided last friday during the meeting of the contact group with the defense of ukraine, you will be able to understand well what weapons ukraine is asking from its partners to provide the best readiness of ukraine for the next stage on the battlefield, protection on western-made tanks gives more chances to survive an enemy hit, their armor is much better , so they can withstand some of the blows that russian tanks are unable to withstand, according to experts, in what respect are the leopards and the challenger, we are over russian tanks and what opportunities they will open up for the armed forces , see further in the plot for western tanks, this is primarily an additional potential that will be very important for ukrainians, western tanks are superior to russian ones, what will it give to ukrainians the opportunity to contain the new russian offensive this spring, which everyone is expecting, and also to independently go into a counteroffensive to win back

the territory in the south of ukraine, possibly around melitopol and breaking through this line of communication towards the sea of ​​azov and possibly also to the east in the donbass, so these are additional opportunities. i think that also shows that now the west recognizes we cannot afford to see ukraine lose this war, it is too dangerous for europe and too dangerous for all of us western-made battle tanks and it does not matter is it a challenge or abrams or leopards exceed the russian capabilities in terms of their firepower and of course defense they also have better optics and stabilization so they still shoot on the move they are also better at identifying the target and also what is critical during a tank war is better at making the first shot so tanks will really change the situation but here it is also about the element of quality over quantity in ukraine what will need to be decided is how exactly

will they use these tanks or will they send them directly into battle as soon as they become available or make them part of a larger formation will train and work in these larger formations and spend more time to integrate them into the way they fight to then potentially use them in the summer in april the ukrainian army began to receive weapons produced in bulgaria, this became known from investigation by the german publication divelt, according to which , in the first weeks of the war, the volume of bulgarian weapons reached 30% of all military aid to ukraine, in addition to this from this country to ukraine critically important diesel fuel up to 40% of all supplies was also delivered. my colleague tetyana voroshko spoke to the then prime minister

of bulgaria, kyril petkov, about the details of these supplies. we have tetyana joining us in the studio today. what did the former prime minister tell you? well, after providing some only additional details from what is remarkable is that then the supply, of course, through intermediaries, began in april, but it did not stop, it continues until now , despite the fact that in june the parliament voted because there was no confidence in the petkov government after which he remained in power for a little while. nevertheless, this system worked, this supply continued, and by the way, this was also confirmed to us by the embassy of ukraine in bulgaria. to the eu countries, which took place on february 25, and first in brussels, the finance ministers in paris and in during this meeting, he said that everyone was confused, everyone was shocked, and it was not foreseen that no one could

think that an actual attack on kyiv would begin and these first measures that were proposed, these sanctions were very moderate, but the bulgarians proposed to act more decisively, let's listen to what he said. and where is the public of one of the events described in the dvt publication, there are meetings from february 25 and 26 in brussels and paris, at which you announced the so-called bulgarian proposal can you tell what happened during these meetings and for when day we know what it meant in 1944 when they carried out the nazification of bulgaria it meant to come and kill all healthy forces in society then was the initial idea about sanctions entry to putin's lavrov is prohibited, small superficial steps, but we also faced a completely different situation then. we realized that one of the first things we can do together as europeans is to freeze the revenues that go

to the war, we understood that one of the reserves of the central bank of russia is in euro tins then the us bonds and what will we freeze them and do on a suitable for trade, they cannot go to war as much as putin is taken into account. finances are conservative by nature, but asinvastsii gave an impassioned speech and said that we cannot waste time, if president zelenskyi is on the first list of murders, then i am sure that his family will be on the second list, and leading members of society will be the third. after a few days, the implementation of this plan was announced which they called among themselves the bulgarian proposal to brussels. and how did the supply of weapons begin? was there an appeal from the ukrainian side? did you say? here we have

mortar shells, what do you need? we were in delicate situation for the first time in bulgaria. we had a government coalition of four parties, which required unprecedented coordination between parties with different ideologies. people were victims of the events of 1944, on the other hand, the coalition included the former communist party, which has close ties with russia, and they said that not a single bullet should enter ukraine, otherwise they will leave the coalition and the government will cease to exist. i am grateful that the nato and eu countries decided that we have those ammunitions and they bought it in bulgaria and gave it to the ukrainian army for free, it was the best combination on the one hand we could make a big contribution to helping the ukrainian army on the other the ukrainian nation did not pay much or paid alina and thirdly there was no direct export from

bulgaria to ukraine that satisfied the requirements of our coalition partner, i understood that if this program had started immediately so quickly to work, you already had to have a ready-made network of intermediaries, right? we should say that the governments of the usa and great britain were the main part. someone from bulgaria says that there were people who tried to make money from it . there were intermediaries. i said. if you call the pentagon an intermediary, then the pentagon was an intermediary, and yes, bulgaria earned money 2,000 bulgarians worked at 100% at that time the funds went to local budgets and it was a big contribution to the economy, the other part was diesel and here it is even more interesting because it was russian oil which

was processed at a local oil refinery. so the russians knew nothing about the business. it was a private business, it was not the state's business. i'm missing the fact that many oil traders bought oil or diesel from lukoil and delivered it to ukraine. i don't know what and when lukoil knew, but i know that the us government obviously knew what is happening and fully supported it is interesting that we even asked the eu delegation to allow us to continue buying russian oil on the they have oil, the reality is that the refinery in these months worked at one hundred percent capacity, and the local market consumed only 40%, so 60% was set for export, and this is why russian oil was used, which went to support ukraine. i think that it is more important for ukraine to have bulgarian oil a difficult country for ukraine how much did you rely on the ukrainian embassy in bulgaria in the program of receiving weapons to ukraine cation we communicated very well with the embassy i

was very proud to meet with president zelensky kulebuyu during our trip to us it is necessary to show that we are fighting on the same side at a very fundamental level, we really do not believe in zones of influence, that some territory can belong to some other power , half of small countries determine their own fate, ukraine is really fighting for us we cannot just stand on the sidelines and watch in we also showed that time and the bulgarian people understood that it is not so scary to be on the right side of history, in the end nothing bad happened to bulgaria, now we can state in the history textbooks that at a very important moment for a country that is fighting for its own freedom bulgaria was there to a large extent millionaires of a smaller bulgaria is a member because it is protected , have you ever thought when russia attacked , for example, with cyber attacks about the activation of the fifth article of the nato charter in the sky we have never seen a direct threat, we think we got rid of two

fears bulgaria because of the history we had with russia, they came to us with military force, we always had great fear, we believed that bulgaria should not stand on its own and should try to hide from world events now bulgarians know that they can do without russian gas . they know that we can send home 70 diplomats if they do something about the interests of bulgaria. we can be proud of our european and democratic side. nothing bad happened to bulgaria. this gave us confidence that as a nation we can contribute. in world history, of course, now ukraine is largely leading in this process, but we all have a duty to help and support e-e line does not ask for well-being of the parties and one of those partners, the former communist party, now the socialist party, they openly said that we are against the supply of weapons to ukraine, and they were told that if this happens , we will leave the coalition, which actually happened

, that is, in june, at the end of june, the parliament voted no confidence in the government - kyryla petkov and the coalition fell apart, he lost power. by the way, i asked him if the supply of weapons to ukraine was the reason why he lost his job. yes, he said that in principle it is possible a small, small part he called the fight against corruption and the fight against russian interests the biggest of these, as far as public opinion in bulgaria is concerned, russia has had the experience of such a significant presence, especially in the online store, there is such a lack of english presence, and somewhere around a third of people may either support russia or talk about it that we do not want to be lost , that is, such a general dynamic is not that we support the invasion, but that we do not want to be a part of it, but nevertheless two-thirds of the bulgarian population and they have such strong, strong positions about ukrainian positions and a strong euro-atlantic position , the process testifies as a result of a survey, this is what sociology told us about when we were in

bulgaria. so, we are talking about significantly significant numbers , about large numbers, so how did we manage to keep this secret, that's why this story he did not know this, he said that the leader of this party , karnilininova, she signed contracts, but these papers were written on these papers that weapons were supplied to a polish firm, a romanian firm, the pentagon, and in a company which associated, for example, with the ministry of defense of great britain, that is, she says. i am convinced that if she saw the word ukraine, she did not sign the papers, and they are possible just then, and the government would stop working on the other side, and we know that these weapons were delivered by airplanes to poland, that is, no problems, but was the truck also going to romania or hungary, and my question was : what did they know about this and think about it in hungary ? they said that let's leave this question for history, but i will only say that we worked with

with those people who were ready to work with us. thank you tatyana for your analysis . for this interview on the eve of the anniversary of the start of the full-scale war of russia against ukraine , the world's attention is still focused on ukraine , the public opinion of the majority in the west and the usa on the side of ukraine and the provision of long-term aid as an economic and the military process are evidenced by the results of a global survey by the sociological company ibsos . the survey, which was conducted in november and december, is shown a year after the start of a full-scale war with russia. ukraine is still in the center of world attention learned more about the results of public opinion polls about ukraine my colleague oleksiy kovalenko about two-thirds of the adult population in 28 countries of the world continues to closely follow the news about the war in ukraine, most of them

, although they do not support the scenario of military intervention of their countries, are nevertheless determined to continue support for ukraine, including in the issue of military aid, the president of vsos video analytics emphasizes his undisputed constant interest and constant support it can be seen that the attention of ukraine is even higher in countries that are geographically closer to the conflict, as well as those that are directly affected by the conflict economically. attention to the war in ukraine remains at the level of 70-80% of countries such as india, poland, great britain, spain and the netherlands. at the same time, 57% of the surveyed people support the provision of aid to the ukrainian population until russia leaves ukraine, in addition , support for providing financial aid to ukraine, aid to refugees and economic pressure on russia through sanctions remains high, but

only 22% of the surveyed population of all countries support that their troops take part in the conflict directly, there are interesting changes in the willingness to provide weapons to ukraine in some countries, this willingness has increased significantly, one of the examples is turkey, where the willingness to provide weapons to ukraine has increased by 14%, however, despite constant support of ukraine in some cases , the survey demonstrated the risks of fatigue among the population of all 28 countries of the surveyed casts compared to march and april, a slightly smaller number of respondents agree with the fact that their country should accept forced refugees from ukraine and also with the fact that inaction in ukraine will encourage russia to further military actions in other countries of europe and asia, i think that the risks of fatigue are normal if you look at the numbers during this period of time, support was the greatest when it became known about the crimes of buchi irpeni world leaders came there and news about

all this spread everywhere, over time people could think that the situation had become better, there were no new threats, there were similar accusations, people lose interest because they are ordinary household problems and they are also real, the absolute majority of the respondents, 70%, do not doubt that their countries must support other independent countries if they are attacked. and more than half emphasize that they are ready to pay a higher price for fuel and gasoline to support sanctions against russia. winter is quite warm in europe and they did not have to pay so much or use strategic resources so much, or maybe because there is a decrease in dependence on russia, most ukrainians believe that the support of ukraine from other

countries are high in helping ukrainian refugees and on the diplomatic front, however, support for weapons is called insufficient, 60% of ukrainians now believe that diplomatic support for ukraine is at a high level, and the majority of 95% believe that it is personal courage on the part of international leaders to come to ukraine during the war, people understand what it is risk half of ukrainians believe that economic support for ukraine is sufficient but of course people do not think that support with weapons is sufficient only 18% of surveyed ukrainians believe that it is sufficient therefore, weapons remain in the center of attention among respondents in nato countries. the vast majority in the usa, canada, great britain, france, the netherlands and poland support the provision of their weapons by ukraine only in hungary and italy, which are members of nato. more respondents expressed their opposition to providing ukraine with weapons or air defense systems than support for ukraine ukraine and interest in it are stably high ukraine in the western world

the majority of its population is ready to provide assistance until the russians leave all ukrainian territories oleksiy kovalenko konstantin golubchyk voice of america washington download the mobile application of the voice of america, the application allows you to automatically bypass blocking thanks to the built-in vpn service, read news, watch informative programs and videos, as well as listen to podcasts of the ukrainian service of the voice of america. of our daily briefings at 18:00 kyiv time on youtube and facebook, where you can