[000:00:00;00] on the air from washington, the program of the ukrainian service voice of america time, i am yuliya yarmolenko. i welcome the threats from china and russia were at the center of the hearings with the participation of the heads of the main intelligence agencies of the united states, which took place in the senate on wednesday , the director of national intelligence, as well as the heads of the cia and the fbi, bill burns and christopher shared not only their assessments of the potential threat to global security from china, but also analyzed the course of the russian war in ukraine and moscow's ability to continue it at the hearing of the direct sanitation was monitored by a colleague, kateryna lisunova, who joins the broadcast from pahorbukati in kapitaliya. congratulations to yulia. how the main american intelligence agencies assess the situation on the front lines in ukraine and how, in their opinion

, the course of hostilities may develop in the coming months, according to the director of national intelligence of the united states of america, abriel hanst which was actually one of the main speakers of these hearings today, a brutal war of attrition is taking place, according to heinst, putin most likely understood the true capabilities of the russian army and now concentrated on capturing small and strategically not important territories of ukraine, at the same time, according to american intelligence, it is unlikely that the russian army will be able to capture large strategically important territories of ukraine during this year, if russia does not announce a general mobilization and does not involve military assistance from third countries, at the same time, american intelligence states that most likely the strategy of russia and the russian army during this year

will focus on the preservation and defense of captured ukrainian territories and ukrainian positions, at the same time, avril haynes also claims that putin ultimately did not abandon the desire to completely capture ukraine and reshaped his strategy for a protracted and long-term war that could last even years. i suggest listening to a more detailed analysis from the director of intelligence of the united states of america right now. putin already has a better understanding of the limits of his military's capabilities, so for now he has focused on more modest military goals. export controls and sanctions also affect the military effort. russia, in particular, restricts access to foreign components necessary for the production of weapons, and if russia does not begin forced mobilization and does not find a powerful supplier of ammunition among third countries in the coming months, it will be more difficult for it to maintain even the current level of offensive operations , we do not expect that the russian army will be able to regain strength this year enough to get

serious territorial victories but putin most likely expects that time is working for him and the war will continue even with interruptions may be the best way for him to ultimately preserve russian strategic interests in ukraine, even if it takes years , according to representatives of american intelligence, heavy losses are now being borne by representatives of russia , both ukraine and the russian side - both ukrainian and for and even despite the fact that russia is now receives certain e-e victories in the bakhmut direction e-e american intelligence emphasizes that e the city of bakhmut itself carries a strategically important need in this war katya selyansky hearings were devoted to threats to global security in general, what the speakers call the number one threat to shai for the world according to the director of national intelligence of the united states, the american in general is all the speakers the main threat to the united states, they call the communist party of china, which

is currently trying to lead the world in many areas and - and in particular, either economic or military, at the same time, according to us , the threat to china has increased due to the additional complication of the current cooperation with russia because of the issues of russian aggression against e-e ukraine like at home china has repeatedly expressed support for russia at the same time, despite the fact that china is called the main e-e threat russia is called the main threat in the field of cyber security because, according to american intelligence, moscow is improving its e-e capabilities in the field of e-cyber attacks and also uses its potential for influence espionage and other forms of e cyber, so i will note that in addition to china and russia , threats from north korea were also discussed, as well as the threat from iran, in addition to

the threat from such a chinese application tiktok is from the origin of covid and other issues, he says that they spoke at the hearings about the potential cooperation of russia , china touched on this topic a little, but to what extent it can be a big threat, what the speakers and senators say, in turn, everything depends on china, according to the speakers, and actually the senator with whom i then they talked that first of all it depends on whether china will agree to support russia in their aggression against ukraine because russia itself is being depleted both due to sanctions and due to military depletion of potential, but for now according to of american intelligence, china still does not plan to enter into a direct confrontation with both the united states of america and the western world. and i believe that maintaining the status quo, so to speak, is much more useful for the deceased than direct confrontation. at the same time, cooperation between

russia, china, north korea, and iran was named as a generally important danger for of the western world in the united states of america , which is also important to take into account in the current period , my colleague kateryna lisunova was very in touch with you from the senate, she is also safe, meanwhile, it has been the second day in georgia mass protests continue against the draft law on so-called foreign agents, as activists claim, the initiative copies russian anti-democratic laws and is aimed at strengthening control over independent media and civil society on tuesday. a peaceful protest here in tbilisi was dispersed with water cannons and tear gas, the police detained more than 60 participants

of the action, and in on wednesday , even more people took to the streets of the capital of georgia in protest. the united states emphasized its support for peaceful demonstrators and expressed concern about controversial draft law to abandon this initiative, the authorities of georgia were also called on in the european parliament, in turn, and the ruling georgian parties reject the accusations, they say the draft law is aimed at ensuring greater transparency, but the current protests are not only about this parliamentary initiative voice of america spoke with representatives of civil society in georgia, they told that people are taking to the streets to protect their european future, first of all, the draft law requires public organizations that receive more than 20% of its funding from the european union or the united states to register as agents of foreign influence, this will negatively affect the work of public organizations and , of course

, it is about strengthening control over civil society as a whole . then russia began to impose more and more stringent conditions, so now russia has no civil society , no free media, and it is not only a matter of the content of the law, which repeats the russian legislation, but also in the context. and indeed, this is not only an attack on civil society and mass media, it is also an attack on the democratic development of georgia as a whole . of course, this harms the european aspirations of our country. the largest rallies that we saw in georgia were mostly about foreign policy, and this is what it was all about. people are now expressing dissatisfaction if you follow the development of events in georgia. last year , in the summer, there were huge rallies on the streets of the capital in support of the european integration of georgia, this is what they are demanding now, please to lose our european future and the chance to return to the european family and this is the main irritant for us, there is no way back , we have been fighting for this for decades, so we either return to the backyard of russia or return to our european family

, the residents of georgia also express their support for ukraine, you know that we are constantly speaking out in support of ukraine and declare that our government does not demonstrate how much georgia and its people support ukraine, this is not only ukraine's war, we support our ukrainian friends and we would like our government also spoke about it more, we have a common enemy - this is russia and we are waging one war in georgia, everyone understands this and everyone understands that ukrainians are fighting not only for themselves, they are fighting for georgia, for neighboring countries , for all of europe, you see what we are doing , we continue to issue women and girls are vital to success and progress in every aspect of our society us president joe biden made this statement on the occasion of international women's day, he emphasized that empowering women and girls strengthens security, stability and prosperity for all

speaking about ukrainian women, president biden emphasized that in the context of russia's brutal and unjust invasion of ukraine, during which the russians use rape as a weapon of war, the world sees countless stories of women who bravely fight for the human rights and basic freedoms of all ukrainians, and how russia uses violence against women as tool of war ukrainian activist and volunteer iryna dovgan was one of the first to learn that on august 24 , 2014, she was kidnapped from her home by russian soldiers and accused of spying for in favor of ukraine, they tied her to a lamppost and tortured her. at that moment, the camera of a foreign journalist recorded the photo, which went viral all over the world already after her release . iryna repeatedly said that the photo saved her life in order to help herself. russian and founded the organization, now it collects data on sexual violence in the de-occupied

territories and helps new victims to overcome trauma and live on. she told about her struggle in an interview with irina solomko. congratulations ms. iryna, you can essentially say that you are the first victim of russian aggression that began in 14 years. my answer is that let's not call women like me victims, because look, we survived, we went through something terrible , but we didn't break down, and i'm here with you now to tell you what's happening in my country

and how do women like me live now , our life has really changed completely from the beginning of the large-scale aggression to february 22nd, my organization, which had already existed for four years before that, was mostly directed, its activities were directed inside the organization, the idea was that after experiencing the violence of women will unite and help each other, all these women were patriotic, they all suffered for their love for the country, 90% of these women were arrested on the territory of donbas and some of them served 3-4 years in

in the cities of illegal detention in donetsk and luhansk, precisely because of love for their country, one of the methods of breaking a woman was rape . almost all women who passed through this concentration camp were subjected to sexual violence in one form or another. women continue to be the objects of this sexual or other violence in the occupied territories and i know that you, within the framework of your organization , you travel to the previously occupied territory, you try to communicate with women who have become potential victims of sexual violence and it is very difficult to talk to them yes. because women they don't talk about it, well, it's complicated, but not everyone needs to be that strong how can you talk about it like that, and someone just wants to forget it, too. for the first years, i didn't say anything . i did for many years. let 's face it. like in these de-occupied territories where i went since may i just

saw an influx of these cases of suffering of these women and they told me they told me some of them and how could i be silent when i could expect openness from them when i myself am silent about it so no it must be said that i am so strong and so courageous and i spoke about it. i was silent for almost 9 years. so i did not hide it. i did not testify to the prosecutor's office, but in general. i never spoke about it, but you see what is happening in our country and if we will all be silent, listen to what will happen to ukraine and ukrainians in general, and everything will be fine. if we talk about this problem a little more comprehensively in the context of the family, then what you see in the roman

statute about the general wording of rape , you will read about the terrible consequences and there in all the consequences of rapes and where is the whole list of what then happens in general to the community that surrounds, especially in the villages, surrounds the raped woman and her family , what are the consequences of this in general, these cases of rape are widespread, they have consequences for the entire ukrainian society, we still do not feel or see this but these consequences will definitely be most women just look like people who have no skin and every touch to them is so painful and sensitive that they have to spend a lot of strength

in order to hide it from others like it hurts them to feel every touch, a careless touch, and that’s just how they have to live, and the society with such people is also not easy, is ukraine as a state doing enough to help such women, well, let’s be honest, why the mass invasion , the state did nothing at all to these women who recognized rapes since the 14th year, there was very little to bring to justice those who remained in the occupied dpr, so -called territories of the lpr. it was impossible, so we

, the structures responsible for it, tried to put the brakes on this topic in general, now the situation has changed a lot. and uh, starting about six months later, the state recovered, so we have a woman in our circle who was injured in the kyiv region, which week we asked for help after the russian rape, it was at the beginning of april. and here she is talking about that disorganization, lack of understanding all around, when she was told, she was interrogated and you really want to admit that you were raped and she said yes, i admit that i need medical help, i can't stop the bleeding and these people she asked for help they went somewhere again for two days, now there is no such thing anymore, now

it works. there are a lot of uh different structures that you see as the final one . well, the point of your work is in the fight for the rights of these women and for them to run away and they were punished, i know exactly what the final one is there will not be a full stop in my lifetime, i have studied the world's experience, and now the attitude towards this has changed in the world, and the world is moving in its opposition to violence against women in military conflict zones much faster than even 10 years ago. but i understand that in my lifetime, full stops it will not happen and that this struggle against it will be very difficult and very long but i believe the world once overcame slavery and it was probably

even more massive than rape in wars so i believe that the world will overcome it and i believe otherwise why all these efforts of mine thank you very much for the interview of iryna solomko with iryna dovgan, a ukrainian activist and volunteer, see the full version on the voice of america page on youtube launched a full-scale war against ukraine in 2022 , thousands of ukrainian women applied to military commissars to join the armed forces forces, according to the ministry of defense, as of november last year, almost 60,000 women served in the armed forces of ukraine, 101 women died on the battlefield, 50 went missing and more than 100 were injured, my colleague myroslava gongadze met with two women , former journalists, who voluntarily enlisted in the armed forces forces of ukraine and

have been working for victory for a year, their story continues 25 we met for the first time under a raisin but she accompanied and helped the voice of america film crew to document war crimes russia is fragile, but brave, she was carefully leading us through the road to hell, which was to be shown to the world after a year of war, and she was called to the capital on vacation, and we met again in the office of the ukrainian truth publication, where margarita came to visit her former colleagues when the russians marched on kyiv in february 22- in the year margarita's father went to defend the country, and later she also decided to enroll in the territorial defense, and i didn't want to leave ukraine. i wanted to do something more for my country. to receive news about the death of your comrades, the hardest thing is to hear that your friends are dying, it is very difficult for me, i am not afraid to go to the donetsk region and go to the positions

. i am very comfortable with my comrades and with other people who are there and when the artillery fires and you you understand that the russians died, it was worth it, but it is very difficult to think about my loved ones, about my friends, about my father, who is now in bakhmut, about my boyfriend, who is also serving, it is not difficult to serve, but waiting for someone from the front is really difficult, anastasia blyshchik is also a former reporter who replaced the television studio with the lviv of the armed forces of ukraine, originally from kherson, anastasia says that for three years she was eager to go to war, but she always hesitated . when the full-scale russian offensive began, walking through mykhailivska square in kyiv next to the broken russian armored vehicles on display, anastasia remembers that decisive moment, on february 24, i

went to the military commissariat of my fiance , a journalist, a soldier of the 95th airborne assault brigade, oleksandr makhov, and on february 25, he called me and said how are you. i said i was going to go to military commissariat and he supported such a step of mine. in may, anastasia's beloved died in the battles for raisin. i don't know how this can be accepted , because it seemed to me that people like him were immortal, and i thought that this could happen to anyone, but definitely not to him. when they called me, i just don't want anyone to hear what i heard. it was very difficult, it was extremely

difficult , that's why i somehow motivate it now . that he died exactly there, and then i managed to get to the settlement where everything happened, that is, as a civilian journalist, i drove by them. and as a military serviceman, all doors were open to me, so i was there, uh, i saw with my own eyes the liberation of the raisin, the liberation of the village of dovgenke, sasha died that is, this is the area from which he fought, but well, raisin is ours, damn it is ours

, but i’m sure it’s not easier for me today. anastasia , as well as margarita, after a short stay in the rear, are rushing back to the front to, as they say, finish the work they started with respect and they call caring for veterans after the war a priority and a preface to the real victory of ukraine, we will return our territory, and when we cleanse our country of all traitors, when all ukrainians will understand that our language is the most powerful weapon and when there will be respect for all those who are currently at the front so that there was no more of that, as it was before, the contused atoshnik was finished , there should be absolute respect and everyone should make maximum efforts to make

ukraine cool and flourishing, so it will be, but we still need to unite, we are not enough uniting unfortunately uniting myroslava gongadze voice of america kyiv women of incredible strength, in particular ukrainian ones, are being honored on wednesday at the white house , there is an international award ceremony for brave women, the award is presented by first lady jill biden and us secretary of state anthony blinken among the laureates this year is a ukrainian volunteer and paramedic yuliya taievska taira in the state department says that taira demonstrated extraordinary moral and physical courage defending ukraine from merciless russian aggression in addition to ukrainian polish journalist and volunteer bianka zalevska, who selflessly documented russian aggression in ukraine since 2014 and for more than 10

years defended the people of ukraine, will also receive a paramedic award, among other awardees are activists from afghanistan , argentina, the central african republic of costa rica, ethiopia, jordan, kazakhstan , malaysia and mongolia separately the joint award goes to women and girls participating in the protest movement for women's rights, at the same time in los angeles, the woman of the year award according to the version of time magazine is presented this year to one of the 12 lauratok who, according to the publication, have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and are working towards a more equal world . olena shevchenko became a ukrainian human rights defender, the head of the public organization insight and the founder of the women's march. at first, in the full-scale russian invasion, shevchenko changed and shifted the focus of her work to humanitarian support for women and the lgbtq+ community in ukraine. she dedicates the award to all the invisible women of ukraine who, with their work, bring the victory of ukraine closer to whom exactly

olena told me in an interview, these are exactly those women who are now approaching the victory of ukraine, being in more unusual places than you and i once imagined. well, of course, we must also talk about women at the front, about whom we are talking about women who save people, being in different cities , working at a hospital, women, for example, who work in to the emergency service of women who work at ukrposhta, continuing to deliver pension letters even in the front-line regions of women who work for ukrzaliznytsia and repair wagons, not men, namely, two women who work on this for a pittance

harmful production and for some reason no one ever talks about them , for me the biggest and most pleasant thing is that this award is important for ukraine for the visibility of ukraine in the international community . informational programs and videos , as well as listen to podcasts of the voice of america ukrainian service. thank you for watching voice of america in ukrainian. monday through friday we talk about the most important statements and decisions that directly affect ukraine . join our broadcasts , ask questions. we will definitely answer them

. take care, dad, dad . we are looking for 12-year-old vladyslav ovcharenko . nothing has been known about the fate of this boy for almost two months. i only know that vladyslav lived in poltava oblast in the city of horishni plavni and on december 24 of last year he and his mother left the city in an unknown direction. since then there has been

no news from the woman and her son. now there is an assumption that the child may be in the city of chernivtsi, so i am asking everyone who sees me now to look carefully at the photo of vladyslav ovcharenko , remember this face, the boy looks like he is 12 years old, he has a strong build and is approximately 140 cm tall, he has dark hair and brown eyes, if anyone suddenly if you saw the boy or his mother, do not delay and call us on the hotline of the child tracing service at the short number 11630, calls from any mobile operator are free and i would like to ask for a few minutes of your attention, look at this photo five-year-old yaroslav mayhor, who disappeared in september of last year in the territory of the then still occupied kharkiv region, the story of this boy is very scary, because he and his parents came under fire