[000:00:00;00] i ask you to join our espresso community and get access to the backstage from the studio with the presenters, a special live broadcast with the editors of express , the opportunity to ask video questions, the opportunity to ask questions to espresso guests, what is really important . and also the additional announcement of special hosts and guests of espresso happens. will be and this is some interesting guest a special guest and you don't know yet, you think , i'll go to the store on the big screen, but you don't have to go because it will be your favorite guest which one would you like to listen to and also ask him a question now you a family from ukraine we are watching together good evening we are from ukraine on the air of the bbc not from ukraine my name is hryhoriy zhagalov today in the program bakhmut may

come under the control of russia in the coming days nato warns they say do not rush to conclusions what is happening on the frontline ukraine denies any involvement in the explosions on the northern stream last year reports about the alleged ukrainian trail spread in the western press where did this version of the president come from zelenskyi, the un secretary-general and the hoteliers spoke in favor of extending the grain agreement, the term of which expires on march 18. politicians met in kyiv, what are the chances of extending the agreement ? bakhmut today remains the hottest point on the front, the russians intensified their efforts , storming ukrainian positions several times a day, in addition to human wave attacks by small groups of mobilized or mercenaries

, the russians began to use aviation and artillery more. in this way, they are trying to cut off the supply routes of the ukrainian military ammunition and surround the defenders of the city. this was reported in the press service of the 10th mining and assault brigade edelweiss , while nato secretary general genstonberg suggests that the defense of bakhmut may fall in the coming days, saying that russia is moving more and more troops in this direction, and although they lack quality they are trying to compensate for this with numbers, but this will not mean any turning point in the war, it cannot be ruled out that bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days, so it is also important to note that this will not mean any turning point at all moment in the war. this simply emphasizes once again that you should not underestimate russia

. and you should continue to keep ukraine in touch. military expert dmytro snegiriov congratulates you. did you hear the words from totenberg, the secretary general? dad, you can comment. yes, i can. let's talk about the fact that the situation around bakhmut is complicated controlled by no operational encirclement , as the russian side claims, at the moment there are no attempts to advance as bakhmut himself , this is the eastern direction, so accordingly, in the south , the north, the occupiers are really trying to take under control of the supply routes of the ukrainian garrison of bakhmut, fighting continues respectively in the direction of chrome - this is the bakhmut route of the times of the yar and in the ivanivsk region it is the bakhmut kostyantynivka route, but less so in the ivanivsk region there is a successful nature of counterattacks by the armed forces of ukraine and the route is under the control of the armed forces of ukraine, as for the battles in bakhmutka itself, the occupiers managed

to advance beyond the bakhmutka river , i apologize, but the bakhmutka river itself is currently a natural obstacle, so the occupiers will face the fact that the armed forces of ukraine retreated to prepared defensive positions. if we talk about the nature of the battle in the bakhmut region, then the decision to continue hostilities is connected primarily with the high mortality rate among the personnel of the occupying country, according to the reports of the general staff of the armed forces, the daily losses of the occupying army amount to approximately 300 to 500 people i.e., bakhmut performs the main function of disposal of personnel and heavy armored vehicles. it is not by chance that russian sources call bakhmut the second kursk arc, drawing historical parallels with the second of the world war, but it is worth reminding russians and tv viewers that

during the battle of kursk, the red army shelled the troops of the third reich in defensive battles and then went on to a successful counter-offensive. ukrainian brigades testifying to the possibility of a ukrainian counteroffensive. if we talk about the situation in the bakhmut region, it is worth emphasizing that the armed forces of ukraine have already fulfilled the tasks set before them, one of them i have already named this is the disposal of personnel, the second battles last nine months, in 9 months, the armored forces of ukraine managed to carry out mobilization measures, currently the number of the armed forces of ukraine is approximately 1 million personnel, the second, they managed to conduct personnel training, this is not russian smack, which without training is thrown on the line respectively, the training took place only at

the training grounds of ukraine, but most importantly, at the training grounds of nato countries, about 60,000 ukrainian servicemen mastered state-of-the-art high-tech weapons thirdly, we got time to receive these high-tech samples of weapons that will enable a successful counteroffensive in the near future, and fourthly, the main thing is that we managed to build defensive lines, this is the second and third possible capture of bachmut absolutely does not solve the issue of changing the tactics of the strategy of further military confrontation. i would like to explain to the company that similar they tried to spread panicky moods in the ukrainian segment even after the russians captured severodonetsk and lysychansk, talking about the fact that this was

actually a military defeat of ukraine, but after the successful nature of the de-occupation of part of the kherson region, the liberation of the regional center of kherson itself, and the complete de-occupation of the kharkiv region, i.e. after the battles in the area of ​​lychansk, north donets, the armed forces of ukraine managed to liberate about 40% of the territory of ukraine, therefore, talk about the possible withdrawal of ukrainian troops from bakhmut in a fundamental way to change the very nature of the military confrontation - this is completely untrue, dmytro , i'm sorry, i have to check you because a large number of clarifying questions have already accumulated during the course of your answer, well, first of all, the secretary general of nato says yes that the capture of bakhmut, even if it happens, will not mean any turning point in the war eh regarding the consonant there are generally

many movements and such competition that someone who is closer to the front line will crawl up to him, but somehow it is quite far. are they flying there or crawling? the question is when we talk about the defense of bakhmut exhausting the forces of the russians , but it exhausts the forces of the ukrainians. let's talk about what side i'm hot is in active defense and bears losses compared to the attacking side in a ratio of 1:3, respectively. 3 is the ratio of the attacking side, that is, relatively speaking, the losses of the ukrainian side, if uh, well, conditionally, take 100 people for the gains, respectively, the losses of the russian side from 300 to 500, this is a tactic and strategy is a constant of military operations and let's talk about what is currently the situation in bakhmut, marked

by dense artillery fire of the armed forces of ukraine, it would be that they are striking exclusively for intelligence purposes and this leads to those numerous losses in the personnel, so when they will talk again about the fact that the entire trained army of ukraine was in fact in bakhmut - this is absolutely not true, let's remember the last article for the economist, where it is said that zaluzhny did not give the russians the opportunity to eliminate the most trained ukrainian units in the bakhmut area did not allow themselves to be drawn into a trap, this is the assessment of the specialists of the actual capabilities of the ukrainian armed forces and, accordingly, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, and i want i would also like to clarify about the supply of supplies to bakhmut, ah, according to the information

that can be seen now , it is possible to deliver supplies to the city except by dirt roads, which is difficult in this weather. ammunition to the bakhmut company, i would not like to give movement routes, but i was the routes. i am talking about whether there is an operational encirclement, or there is a threat of an operational encirclement , etc. not the operational encirclement itself, not the possibility of its threat in the coming days, we are successfully counterattacking in the ivanovo district , not giving the occupiers the opportunity to go into the flanks of the ukrainian group, and the main thing i would like to say about the reports of western tabloids, such as the existence of an artificial confrontation along the line of the supreme

commander zelensky, and the main thing the luzhniki team, which appeared almost on the day of the bet, is an element of informational psychological operations on the part of the russian side, there is no confrontation, there is unity of the military and leadership of ukraine, thank you very much, military expert dmytro shnyriov. thank you once again for your time. thank you. on another topic, publications appeared in the western media that , with reference to sources, claim that the northern stream may be behind the explosions at the gas pumps, a certain quote about the ukrainian group, in particular the new york times newspaper writes about this, although it does not specify what the evidence is , but notes that they have no evidence that president zelenskyi or his senior aides are involved in this operation

, wrote about a breakthrough in the investigation of the incidents the german newspaper didsite published the results of a joint investigation by several german media organizations. during the investigation , they reconstructed how and when the attack on the gas stations was being prepared and concluded that the traces lead in the direction of ukraine . site found traces of explosives on the yacht , but it remains unknown what nationality those who carried out the sabotage and who was the customer german experts are inclined to think that it could be a false flag operation so that suspicion fell on ukraine. this is another article on the same topic published in the washington post, this is a publication that is also largely based on anonymous sources in intelligence and diplomacy. on the gas pumps can stand for ukrainian

saboteurs, as the publication notes, such a version can weaken the support of ukraine among western countries, an article about explosions on lawns also appeared in the british edition of the times in without reference to any sources , it is claimed that the sabotage of the gas pumps was organized by private individuals from ukraine, the new turn of the investigation has already been commented on by the official kyiv official-moscow adviser to the head of the office of the president of ukraine mykhailo podolyak wrote on twitter that ukraine has nothing to do with this event and there is no information about the head of the ministry of defense of ukraine, oleksiy reznikov , who came to stockholm for a meeting with the minister of defense of the eu, was forced to comment on the publications of the ukrainian subversive group. in my opinion, this is somewhat strange history because it has nothing to do with us believes that the investigation of official representatives in detail everything compliments our special forces but this

is not our human activity it has been established who is responsible for the attack on the gas pipeline the official investigation is ongoing bbc correspondent - frank gardner notes that if it turned out that this was a matter of rock about ukrainian groups, it was a pr victory for moscow, but he emphasizes that it could have been a false flag operation so that everyone would suspect kyiv this boat was found by a yacht moored in rostik in the north of germany on the baltic coast, there is an assumption that the crew is ukrainian, but there is no certainty in this. and the effectiveness of the operation, there were four explosions that damaged and completely put two pipelines out of service, according to german reports, the yacht found traces

of explosives according to these data in the warehouse the crew included a captain, two submariners, a medic, two assistant submariners, that is, a very professional team as a result of the explosion, a strategic gas pipeline was destroyed , which will not work for a very, very long time. the german side does not rule out that this is a false operation , that is, when the party that did it tries to show that someone else did it, let's say that they are ukrainians and russians are the victims, for example, what happened with the raid carried out on russian territory near the ukrainian border, a very strange operation with the participation of a group, no one heard, but it was very beneficial for the russian government, which told its population that ukraine is attacking us. president of ukraine zelensky and general secretary onguterish at a meeting in kyiv called for the extension of the grain agreement , which expires on

march 18. black sea ports for the export of ukrainian grain at a briefing in kyiv, the un secretary general emphasized that continuing the agreement is critically necessary for the world and the global food supply security, because it has already ensured the export of 23 million tons of grain, this grain agreement contributed to the reduction of the global cost of food and provided important assistance to people who pay a high price for this war, especially in developing countries, the export of ukrainian, as well as russian, food products and fertilizers is important for global food security and world prices i want to emphasize the critical importance of the continuation of the black sea grain agreement on march 18 and again in touch bbc correspondent zhanna bezpyachuk zhanno congratulations. will any of the requirements and later vision

of ukraine change with the grain agreement with russia through the mediation of the un, because the first option was concluded at a completely different stage of the war . greetings hryhoria . international ports, because due to shelling of the city due to damage to the infrastructure of the ports, they did not participate in the grain agreement in 2022, and in fact now it is about resuming the operation of these ports for export, this is jobs for ukraine, this is payment of taxes to local budgets and to the national budget, and it is worth reminding that before the war mykolaiv ports exported about a third of agricultural products of ukrainian production to other countries of the world. so , it is really important for ukraine now. in addition, it

is important for ukraine that simply inspecting ships that deliver grain from not to other countries , and uh, the vessels go from being loaded to the ukrainian black sea ports and hypothetically also in mykolayivska, if they are included , they were checked much less, so that these inspections of these vessels were reduced in time a-ah and eh the bureaucracy has been reduced in these procedures, they take place in istanbul and well, accordingly. this is another important aspect from an economic point of view, and it is worth negotiating with the political point of view. these are the two main points that are being talked about publicly today, and we just saw mountains, whole mountains of grain blocked in ukraine in the summer, did the current grain agreement really help to unblock the entire

ukrainian black sea port for a month ? now we have heard the following figure: 23 million e-e tons of grain were exported from ukraine precisely thanks to the grain initiative. if this figure is true, then in fact ukraine , with the help of western partners and with the help of this grain agreement, managed to restore the pre-war scale of grain export abroad plus minus, that is, this figure sounds really convincing, and this is despite the fact that the demining of the black sea did not take place as such, and this is despite the fact that there were constant threats of missile attacks by russia, this is despite the fact that

these very additional inspections are taking place in in istanbul, in the public coordination center of russia, turkey and ukraine, and accordingly, despite all this, we have such a figure , at least in public, it is declared. so, the grain initiative really works, this is a fact, zhanna. well, in addition to preventing hunger in poor countries, during the un war and the agencies are responsible for many other issues, from nuclear safety to visits to prisoners , if you make a check list. what did you manage? - this is such an umbrella and many different organizations, agencies and institutions operate under this umbrella, and for ukraine today , of course, the activities of the magathe effort to create

a demilitarized security zone around the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are not there, and behind the scenes it looked like there was great skepticism on the part of the ukrainian side. it will be possible to create it. but the iag is really making efforts for this, but there is no result as such, because russia essentially blocks this initiative, it is from one side from the other parties, ukraine still goes so far, we see these signals, to bring to the vote of the un general assembly a resolution on the creation of an international criminal trial against vladimir putin and other top military and political leaders of russia . but again, russia is a permanent member of the un security council and can block there are a lot of strategically important decisions of this organization

. therefore , serious contradictions are embedded in the very structure of e-e itself, and they affect the work of the organization itself and those structures that operate under this umbrella. thank you very much. bbc correspondent zhanna bezpidchuk. protests continue in georgia for the second day . thousands of people with placards no to the russian law gathered in tbilisi for a new rally . they marched to the georgian parliament. their rights and freedoms because it obliges non-governmental organizations and independent mass media from partially financed abroad to declare themselves foreign agents , just as russia did for several years therefore, the protesters announced their demands to withdraw the draft law, release all those detained for the protest action, ukraine has already expressed its support and solidarity with the georgian people , followed by bbc correspondents with details from tbilisi on

the streets of tbilisi, chaos is being dispersed by the special forces dispersing the protesters who came out against the new draft law approved in the first reading of the parliament according to with this law, any organizations that receive more than 20% of funding abroad must register as foreign agents, criticism is called a step to the authoritarian past of the former soviet state, the president of georgia supported the protesters and said that she would veto the law if it came to her desk, the wall, i am addressing you, who is standing on rustaveli avenue this evening, as i myself have become many times, i am now here in new york and behind me the statue of liberty is the symbol that georgia has always fought for and for which we came out today i am with you because today you represent a free georgia the united states

has also expressed its concern that it will lead to stigmatization and force silence the independent voices, the voices of georgians who only want to work together for the sake of a bright future, together with a democratic and free europe, in which georgia will be an independent and sovereign state , the protesters say that the draft law reminds them of a law passed in russia in 2012 , created to suppress dissent, people fear that it may harm the country's hopes for membership in the european union, one of the leading eu diplomats, josé borel, called the law a very bad development incompatible with eu values ​​and standards and warned that this may have serious consequences for relations between the european union and georgia already in may great britain will host the eurovision song contest on behalf of ukraine ukraine

will be represented by a group of creative how has the life of musicians changed since the beginning of the war and will they talk about the war in ukraine at eurovision my colleague roman lebed met with the musicians and asked about everything that andriy from ternopil and geoffrey from nigeria have in common, each of them is half of the creative band that will represent ukraine at the song contest this year eurovision and the song hard of steel, where did this group start? how did it go to success and what are its members living now? in an interview with bbc new from ukraine, please sit down . let's talk about this song. everyone can listen to it, find the lyrics and try to understand it in their own way.

but i wonder what is actually behind this song, how it was born uh and not uh match i thing in spintime in the spring it seems in march there were many videos from the defenders of mariupol we watched these videos of theirs and i was not only shocked but not even could imagine how difficult it was for them there when bombs fall on you on that piece of earth when all the weapons are aimed at you every weben is agains to you know what into the isoft but in the eyes of those people i saw no fear i saw only strength i saw fire in their eyes the confidence of strong and indomitable people and i got goosebumps all over my body and that's why jefli and i transferred our emotions from these videos into the song ugu, that is, what we felt, we described in our song, and yevhen guzbaum snow when you mention i even now get goosebumps when you mention azovstal and mariupol

of course, there is an obvious connection here, because we call those people people of steel, you have a heart of steel, and it seems to me that you are trying to tell the whole world that ukraine is still strong. we like to be straightforward, we didn't want to directly proclaim that we are made of steel, this lyric is not quite natural , it is symbolic, right, so strong emotions are not so easy to convey, it's not easy to take it and say oh , what i feel, it must be expressed so carefully that a person listening to a song was able visualize it for yourself in the same way, this song is emotional, that is, i understand that people perceive it exactly as a number for eurovision , which in reality it is not, because it was conceived how emotional with deep feelings, but still we started working on it and you all saw how

it became a song for of the competition for speec that ukrainians are used to one thing as ethnic motifs in the numbers of the majority of participants from our country, you don't have that, some people even ask what is ukrainian in this song at all. the fact is that ukrainian music not only folk ukrainian - it's about the people who live in ukraine who lives here who works here they are all different and very cool because you understand that in past years ukraine was well known as a country with very good folk music , for example go a kalush this bug will be a song what no one expected, ukraine will show that it has electronic music that can be listened to all over the world, and i think it's cool if people see

that ukraine is different. eni eh vechleet feels like it and ukraine can present itself as it likes and as it can. that is, to show other parts of the country actually people ask why there is no folk music in such elements ukraine should not be limited to only this there is electronic music there is rap there is underground we have everything and why should we only bring folk music to eurovision when we have other wonderful things it is not about presenting ukrainian elements in the song and about who will represent you from ukraine okay fine we want to represent the country from the best side but with our music this is what we will do we want to show us differently ukraine has many more genres more ways to express yourself to the audience we just want to show another side of the show today the world celebrates international women's day attention

is focused on afghanistan in august 2021 the power in the country was seized by the taliban and the un called it the most repressive country in the world in terms of women's rights but it is not prevented about 20 women from holding a protest in kabul mowing people protested for safety for women in public and private spaces and called for criminal penalties for violence against women for women's rights many people took to the streets of the capital of japan, tokyo, and in the capital of the philippines, manila, protesters clashed with the local police, who initially blocked a peaceful protest for the improvement of the labor situation for women, that's all for today, we will be on the air again tomorrow at 21:00