[000:00:00;00] joint conclusions to change the system, first of all, it is necessary to return to the prozoro system , if it concerns the war, the commanders of the units who receive low-quality goods at an inflated price should be given the opportunity to refuse and inform the law enforcement authorities, one should not be afraid to expose the corrupt and thus encourage the change of the system itself or when today we see dismissals and initiation of criminal cases good evening on the air weddings from ukraine live from london i am evgenia shadlovska and today in the program kramatorsk is under shelling, local residents are called to leave donetsk region, we will talk to a military commentator about the situation on the eastern front , a former russian officer told the bbc how the russians tortured ukrainian

prisoners of war and putin threatens from the west , says russia has something to answer for the appearance of german tanks in ukraine , the russian military is hitting in the center of kramatorsk in the afternoon , at least five people were injured and damaged from 16 residential buildings, a children's polyclinic, a school, were hit with two rockets by the local authorities the day before in the evening, russia failed to hit a residential building with a rocket from a gunner, they died. at least three people were injured. on the 18th, one house was destroyed by this strike. those nearby who were damaged in the donetsk regional military administration state that because of such actions of russia, it is extremely dangerous for civilians to stay in the territory of the region and call on them

to evacuate the south at night and in the morning, the russian military shelled the kherson region , at least two people were killed under shelling , in particular, the village of komyshany and the city of kherson minister of defense of ukraine gresnikov warns that russia may launch a new offensive against ukraine approximately on february 24, before the anniversary of the full-scale invasion. he believes that the russian army may try to advance in two directions - this is donbas and maybe the south. will probably try to force the ukrainian army to concentrate part of the army in the northeastern regions in order to reduce their presence in the east of ukraine before the russian offensive, according to the assessment of this of the analytical center, a russian military invasion from belarus is extremely unlikely, we will focus on what is happening in donetsk region, where russian

troops are intensifying attacks in two directions on bakhmut and vugledar, and we are in touch with military expert mykhailo zhirokhov p mykhailo i welcome you on the air ot let's start with bahmut , what is happening there , can the russian military try to surround the city , absolutely sure they will try to surround the city , there are street battles in bahmut itself, and they are also trying to cut off communications to cut the necessary roads that go to yar e v - and if they manage to cut these roads, what situation will the ukrainian military find itself in? well, this group, which is in bakhmut, it will be white- knuckled. but i think that the general staff of ukraine has calculated these actions and is there are certain moments that will not allow the russians to do this. if we talk about vugledar

, this is the situation there, what is happening there, and all attacks on vugledar have now been repulsed. less less effective than soledar and bakhmut, but there are also very powerful battles going on there, if you compare the actions of the russian military in the offensive on bakhmut , it is the same degree as vugledar. are these the same tactics? that on bakhmut, the solidarii are pvk wagner, and vugledar are more personnel soldiers there, there is a completely different psychology , er, they use other points now.

in such a position, where do they still have more advantages? i mean the number of personnel, and we saw that the russian military shelled the center of kramatorsk, this city is further from the front line than bakhmut vugledar, but it is now under greater threat than before yes, because now this city is becoming a rear and the strikes on kramatorsk and konstantinovka will only be more, that is, the russian strikes will increase, do you think so ? -e means in order to to defeat these cities. i wonder what your opinion is about the estimates of the american analytical center, the institute for the study of war, and this analytical center believes that russia is now trying to scatter the ukrainian troops

ahead of us, that is, to stretch them along the front line, as they used to do in the zaporizhzhia region. this is the strategy of russia can be a preparation for a second offensive in your opinion. yes, it is obvious that an offensive is being prepared. but now everything depends only on the weather, it now takes at least 2-3 to 3 days a week for there to be frost and field roads they froze and it was possible to use them for us, and if we don’t have a rose, if there will be a warm winter, then what actions of the russians are possible, and then they will bring the date of the offensive to more well, i think in march or later, the same thing happened that year when dad they postponed the offensive against ukraine three times. we have seen the statements of the minister of defense reznikov that this new russian offensive can be both in the eastern and

in the southern direction. in your opinion , can the russians go on the offensive in the southern direction and try to capture zaporizhzhya the region to try to capture kherson again, can we see that the shelling continues there, and i think that this is the biggest concern now, er, the tubes of the russian side, our command has a tamer of the church and has certain certain certain fortification points, because i also think that there will be an offensive in a completely different direction thank you, mr. mykhailo , we were contacted by a military expert , mykhailo zhirakhov . thank you, a military expert, mykhailo zhirokhov . thank you.

bbc who witnessed russian soldiers abusing ukrainian prisoners of war kostiantyn efremov returned from the war and escaped from russia and now said that ukrainians in captivity were brutally interrogated, shot at, threatened with rape, and was interviewed by bbc correspondent stiel rosberg, we warn you that this material may upset some people. the war in ukraine or what it looks like, the official russian version is embellished, advertised and propagated fearless russian soldiers are fighting a fair fight defending konstantin yefremov visited his homeland and he claims that the reality is completely different. konstantin was a senior lieutenant in the russian army. but he left russia. he agreed to tell me about the crimes that he claims were committed by russian soldiers and which he witnessed in ukraine. let's start with this. this is one of his photos taken in ukraine , the melitopol air base was captured by the russian military, a case of looting, when i saw

looting, when soldiers, officers pulled everything in a row, i saw how they boarded all the planes i was struck by how people indiscriminately dragged all the junk, buckets, axes, lawnmowers, bicycles, and stuffed it into kamaz trucks. they say that on the day when russia attacked ukraine, he tried to leave the army, but they told him that he would spend about 10 years in prison for desertion. he was sent to guard occupied ukraine. this artillery unit , and later the object where, according to him, he was a witness to how ukrainian prisoners of war were tortured. blindfolded, the colonel put the pistol to his head and said count to three and then i will cut your head, he counted and then shot next to the head from the left and from the right , the colonel started shouting at him, i told him

, colonel, he can't hear you, but he continued this torture and they continued for a week, every day, every night, and at times and twice a day, the interrogation became more brutal. konstantin claims that during another interrogation he shot him in the arm. during one of the interrogations, he shot him in the arm and then shot him in the right leg below knees and broke his bone, i went to the team and said that he should be sent to the hospital. my boys presented him, dressed him in a russian uniform and sent him to the hospital . who are you? they will kill you. the bbc checked the documents, photos, videos sent by konstantin, which confirm his movements and identity. when he returned to russia to the base, he was accused of serious

leak of information and for refusing to return to ukraine, he was dismissed from the army, the russian human rights organization gulag did not help him leave the country, i ask the forgiveness of the entire ukrainian people that i am armed, i apologize to the entire ukrainian people for the fact that i came uninvited with a weapon in my hands as a guest in their home i am grateful to god that no one was hurt by my hands and also i thank god that i was not hurt myself, i cannot forgive myself, so i do not expect that ukrainians will forgive me, even if i have a moral right there are no ukrainians to ask for this. konstantin says that senior officers called him a traitor for his anti-war stance, but he is convinced that he promised to defend his country and not to attack another when he took the oath. what he said in the meantime, putin

threatens escalation and for the first time commented on the fact that western countries provide ukraine with armored vehicles. then he was in the russian city of volgograd for the 80th anniversary of the battle of stalingrad by the way, the city itself. before his arrival, the city itself was temporarily renamed stalingrad, which happens not the first year on commemorative dates. so, in volgograd from stalingrad , putin repeated his well-known theses about the threat from the west, and regarding the supply of leopards to ukraine, which are already promised by a number of countries, he mentioned the second world war and said verbatim that we are again threatened by german tanks, a leopard with crosses on its sides, then he again issued a vague threat of escalation of the conflict, failing this time to consider nuclear weapons, according to him, russia has how to answer and quoting armored vehicles, the case will not end and if putin's threats are so veiled, then the threats of russian foreign minister sergei lavrov are clearer

. he said that moldova, due to the western course, is becoming the next ukraine, the moldovan authorities dismissed it as direct threats and let's listen to how lavrov declared about moldova as anti -russian moldova is being looked at for this role, primarily because they were able to put a far from free-democratic president at the head of the country, using sufficiently specific methods, which is tearing nato, she has romanian citizenship. she is ready to unite with romania . she is ready for practically all citizenships . she is ready to dine with romania. and she is ready for almost everything. part of the free world , these are the statements of the ministry of foreign affairs of moldova, and the director of the security studies program of the council of foreign policy, ukrainian prizma hanna shelest, welcomes

you on the air before talking about russia and moldova, let's talk about these statements of putin, in your opinion, why did he just now comment on the supply of western tanks to ukraine and the reason for this, as well as such beams of victory, in order to have a good fund in order to somehow threaten our western partners and make allegories with the second world war war , as he always does. well, but in general, according to your observations, how does putin's rhetoric about war change a year after a full-scale invasion ? it changes every month, sometimes depending on his mood, sometimes depending on the events taking place on the field, and both because we remember what started with the change

of regime, then they moved only to the defense of donbass, then they went to berlin again, now they came back again, only for ah, the liberation of the territory of the four so-called republics there, and periodically you shoot nazis in kyiv, then we fight against this measure, that is , in this case, on the one hand, the rhetoric of vladimir putin is unchanged, and on the other on the other hand, she is adapting to a certain situation there , unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately, we lost contact, we can't hear you now, but i will try to ask one more question, if the connection is restored , what we are counting on, we were talking about moldova, here are these statements, laurel moldova is becoming the next anti-russian center of the next ukraine - this is a warning about a possible russian attack, this is intimidation. this is how you

perceive the intimidation of moldova, because in the last year moldova has very clearly understood that sitting a-a on two chairs at the same time in them a it won't work, and the leadership's position is becoming more and more clear every month, and they are taking advantage of the moment both for changes within the country and for foreign policy changes for their own country, and of course the statements of the laurel are absolutely absurd, because only 5% of the population is in favor of unification with romania, and nato is also a topic no , although it has risen again now, but in principle it is not popular enough in moldova, everyone believes that only neutrality can protect them, i saw the latest sociology on moldova, but the russian federation understands what it is losing moldova accordingly, we see pro-russian demonstrations, we see the support of politicians, we see efforts to reopen media channels that would promote their idea, and gradually we will see the rise of paratist sentiments

both in the industry and in transnistria, and such intimidation is one of such elements and you mentioned transnistria, will russia use this transnistrian map, so to speak , the next ukraine can start from transnistria theoretically, well, theoretically, we all expected this, and a year ago the situation on the ground it was worse for transnistria due to two big reasons . it should be understood that the majority of the contingent in transnistria are locals with russian passports . equipment, the military does not want to renew its contracts with the russian army, and the second situation is that nothing actually happened to the supplies to this territory and moldova blocked

certain, let's say, updates, respectively, not in they are in such a state that it would be, well, a full-fledged attack, only as possible a small auxiliary team if russia managed to purchase the entire south and odesa, but at the same time, speaking of moldova, moldova is a candidate for joining the european union, and how soon can this happen, how soon can this european integration of moldova to take place well, it is going approximately at our pace, and they have a larger list of things that needed to be done in ukraine, there were seven such main points in moldova , and more, of course, the economic situation is more difficult, but on the other hand, it is a small country and , accordingly, it is easier there to achieve certain indicators that are set before it now it is very early to talk about when exactly the members now the main goal is to open negotiations there is such a thing about this stupid uh element until they are open to us it will be very difficult to say when they will be closed, but russia is already

threatening moldova, regardless of whether the negotiations have started or not, thank you hanna shelest was with us on the air, the director of the security studies program of the council of foreign policy, ukrainian prisma thank you, and about the european integration of ukraine, ukraine seeks to join the european union, do the work, what is needed for this, president zelenskyi said about this when the joint meeting of the ukrainian government and colleagues of the european commission was held in kyiv, it was on the eve of ukraine and the eu , the european commissioners came to kyiv, the president of the european commission, ursola von dererlyan, who assured that ukraine is on the way to the eu and, according to her , will help ukraine to get closer to the day when the blue-yellow flag will be in front of the building of the european commission in brussels where raised flags of all countries yesbin europe is next to ukraine from the first day because we know that the future of our continent is being written here, we know that you are fighting not only for yourself , freedom is at stake, this is the struggle of democracy

against an authoritarian regime that tries to deny the existence of ukraine, but instead it risks the future of russia our presence today in kyiv is a very clear signal that the entire european union is together with ukraine and we will defend ukraine as we defend fundamental rights and respect for international law and with us in connection with bbc kyiv correspondent zhanna bezpyachuk zhanna you followed what was happening today and in fact today the european commission evaluated how ukraine is doing its homework to start negotiations on joining the eu and here are the evaluations. actually , the homework is very clear. it has seven points with of intermediate e-e continuation and completion

of judicial reform, reform of the constitutional court, anti-corruption policy and you, the fight against corruption as such and other points, that is , the homework of ukraine - this is the fulfillment of all these requirements, the ukrainian authorities really is trying to speed up the process and insist that by the end of 2023 it will be possible to move to the next stage of interaction between the european union and ukraine, namely direct negotiations regarding ukraine's acquisition of membership in the european union, but it is still worth paying attention to the fact that first in some countries of the european union are wary of giving ukraine a hand in these matters and are convinced that it is necessary to more carefully monitor how ukraine implements the same anti-corruption policy

literally before this summit, which is to take place tomorrow and today's meetings. we met vanderlein with the leadership of ukraine. there were high-profile searches, in particular, in igor kinskyi . there were searches in the house of vadim stoler, the developer. schemes and abuse of power, there were also high-profile dismissals in the ministry of defense , kyrylo tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president's office, was dismissed because there were questions about his actions and their transparency. so, this is good with

on the one hand, but such a turbo regime may not fully convince european partners of the systematic and seriousness of the intention to fight corruption. and this is one of the key tasks from this list of seven criteria requirements in order to move forward. well, besides that, on the territory of ukraine and the eu already tomorrow they expect that they will talk about aid to ukraine and not only about military aid. now, are they going to announce something fundamentally new, what kind of aid can they announce tomorrow, yes, it is expected that they will announce it again, since it has already been said in the public space about the creation of a center for collecting evidence of the crime of aggression by russia against ukraine in gas. this is an important event . since it can be considered as a certain stage, another step towards the implementation of the project of creating an international criminal

tribunal against the highest political and military leadership of russia specifically in relation to the crime aggression against ukraine is the first moment the second moment we already know that the training programs of the ukrainian military will be significantly expanded in various countries of the european union this is another element help, even if e-e does not announce it tomorrow, journalists will probably ask about it at the briefing of the leaders of the eu and ukraine , the european union could potentially become one of the mediators in the peace negotiations between ukraine and russia, and this issue is already as far as we know from our own bbc sources are violated. thank you, zhanna. commission correspondent zhanna basketchuk is in touch with us from kyiv and she

is monitoring what will happen today and tomorrow at the summit of the leaders of ukraine and the eu. and i advise you to read the article on our website e bvc.ua it is here that the eu countries what he can bring and what is better not to wait mikheil saakashvili's health was brought to an extraordinary hearing in the european parliament world leaders called on the georgian authorities to release the former president from prison the day before during the testimony of the judge via video link the prisoner showed his body exhausted by imprisonment in georgia. saakashvili was accused of abuse of office, he has been in prison since october 2021. at the same time, president zelensky reminded that mikheil saakashvili has ukrainian citizenship and accuse the government of georgia of intending to bring saakashvili to an untimely

death , but he rejects two accusations, calls saakashvili's supporters speculation, and the bbc correspondent in georgia will tell more about it. you don't need to have a medical education , just yesterday there was a trial and it was his second video inclusion during the entire process, let me remind you that the trial concerns saakashvili's petition to be released from criminal charges did the lawyers postpone the punishment? they refer to saakashvili's difficult diagnoses. specialists say that his condition has worsened since last november. at that time, they already said that he was practically healthy before his detention. and now he has more than 20 diagnoses, and with that , complex diagnoses are among the difficult diagnoses, which are called rapidly progressive dementia in court. saakashvili's lawyers and relatives say that he has enough diagnoses for the judge to make a decision to release him from his side . the georgian authorities deny some diagnoses and all this time the government says that he is receiving the necessary treatment and accuses him of simulating and saakashvili's supporters of speculating about his health and yesterday

they said that saakashvili is harming himself , he eats selectively and does not listen to the recommendations of doctors, but this also causes supporters are alarmed, because in this way the government agrees that his condition is deteriorating . by the way, during his second appearance, he was wearing a t-shirt. and that if he does not live to win , his heart should be buried in kyiv after which there were many statements, but the most painful for the georgian authorities were the statements from ukraine and president zelenskyi. the minister of justice of georgia called the statements that saakashvili is being tortured unfair, representatives of the ruling party said about some coordination of all these actions in order to release saakashvili, but at the same time, the government says who always restrains himself when he hears some statements from ukraine because there is a war in the country, but we see that after the full-scale invasion of russia into ukraine, the relationship between kyiv and tbilisi is only getting worse they call the georgian government loyal to russia and say that it pursues a policy aimed at not annoying russia, and on the other hand

, the government says that it is sticking to its path to europe, and from the very beginning it was clear that the population of georgia strongly supports ukraine , there were rallies in support of the country and the government itself says that it will support ukraine humanitarianly and politically, but sanctions against russia were not introduced and there was a visa regime for russians , although a large part of the population asked for this nin akhmetei about the situation around saakashvili president zelensky said that the georgian government is killing and torturing the former president of georgia, who is a citizen of ukraine, and this is the end of the issue . you can read more news on our website bbc.ua. subscribe to our social media pages. we are on facebook, twitter, and youtube, where you can see our graduates. news if you suddenly missed them on the air, i'll say goodbye to you until

tomorrow, then see you movies, television, port, music, education, free people have a choice, choose what you want on megogo, congratulations, this is freedom, scold me, my name is vlasta lazur on the background of news about drunken parties in kyiv, the story of summonses to military commissariats has surfaced again. it is likely that the practice of men receiving summonses as a punishment continues to exist in ukraine. the military themselves call this practice shameful, but what is behind it and how does this approach affect the army in general? the bureau of investigation

announced the exposure and detention of entrepreneurs who allegedly sold eggs to the ministry of defense for uah 17 each. it seems that this story has no end . we will discuss new details. well, the ministry of foreign affairs ukraine demands from the authorities of georgia to return mykhailo saakashvili, who is a ukrainian citizen, to kyiv . what can tbilisi answer and why is saakashvili telling the georgian authorities about this today in svoboda life? in the committee of the house of representatives on the affairs of the armed forces , the publication politikus reports this with reference to anonymous interlocutors.