[000:00:00;00] i can't see it, but i can feel it. there is light here, and that's the end of it. thank you for watching. voice of america in ukrainian. see you next week. good luck. pa-pa events. the most important events that are happening right now and affect our lives. of course, the news feed reports about

however, they are not enough to know what is happening, you need to understand antin borkovskyi and invited experts soberly evaluate events and analyze them by modeling our near future every saturday at 1:00 p.m. with a repeat at 10:00 p.m. studio event with anton borkovskyi at espresso, whatever you think about no matter what ukrainians talk about, the first place is still war, war and our victory, seven days a week from monday to sunday , seven different spheres of human activity, sport, culture , politics, eight presenters, espresso, journalists , experts, opinion leaders in real time about the most relevant events through the prism of war every day author's projects on espresso deoccupation and how can you live without no you can't surpass the history of the liberated cities of ukraine gone

let's see how our brothers helped us freed a normal life freed the normal equipment of the pro-russian inhumans was scary, it was very scary every day. one by one, two houses of the ukrainian people were burned . nazis are here. yes, we are here. we are all national letters of the people who resisted. the residents came here, stopped them and sent them back and became heroes. the novel was always ukraine about unbreakable cities . of ukraine from the ukrainian project in the documentary cycle de-occupation every saturday at 11:10 on espresso i congratulate this freedom call me vlasta lazur today in the issue the ukrainian military is preparing for a counteroffensive it can begin in two

months ago, the president's office said whether the ukrainian army is ready , what role will the defense of the bahmut play in the spring counteroffensive? for the construction of fortifications. what does it mean that they were not allowed to speak soon? well , the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate is under pressure from the kyiv-pechersk lavras until the end of march, in accordance with the decision of the nsdc, the ministry of culture terminated the lease agreement of the kyiv-pechers lavra with the uoc mp monastery. monastery of the holy assumption of the kyiv-pechersk lavra uoc mp must vacate the buildings and structures of the kyiv-pechersk

lavra national reserve by march 29 on the website of the kyiv-pechersk lavra, as of right now, at this very moment, here is the message that we are currently showing , it has disappeared from the lavra website, but some ukrainian media managed to download it and publish it separately on their pages , as stated in the message, the ministry of culture is terminating the lease agreement kyiv-pechersk lavra with the monastery of the uoc mp to implement the decision of the national security council at the end of last year. i would like to remind you that representatives of the uoc mp were deprived of the right to use the temples of the upper lavra. well , today's decision also concerns the lower lavra and thus it turns out that the uoc mp is ordered to leave the territory of the entire lavra, we will return to this topic in a few minutes and discuss what this decision means and what its consequences will be. well, for now, i propose to return to the topic of bakhmut, which we have been studying meticulously every day for the second week in a row literally today the american company

maxer-technologies showed satellite photos of what bakhmut looks like, the hottest point of fighting on the front line, the photos show significant damage to residential buildings, bridges of industrial enterprises, it is clear that the bridges through the bakhmutka river has been destroyed, some of the most serious damage is observed in the areas on the eastern side of the city, most likely the russian military has taken control of the eastern part of bakhmutka, i will remind you about this , it was discussed at the building of the american institute for the study of war literally three days ago. and later, the leader announced the capture of the eastern part of the city group of wagner yevgeny prigozhin together with the eastern part of bakhmut occupied by wagner obviously came a temporary tactical pause in the direction of the city center in the institute for the study of war does not observe well, it is not yet clear whether the operational advantage of the russian forces will be preserved during future attempts to capture the city, it is also unknown, as i already said, the american institute for the study of war reports about this in its already

current report, at the same time, as analysts write , russian forces are preparing to resume offensive operations in the ughledar region of the donetsk region, however, constant problems with personnel and ammunition will probably restrain their progress , analysts believe. well, in the neighboring flank with the russian army continues its attempts to break through and attack the ukrainian troops with a bang, next we will show you a report by maryan kushnir from the vicinity of occupied soledar , you are not afraid well, how scary it is, everyone is afraid, you get used to it, just like you

. at first, you were also afraid to drive. positions, but the ukrainian tankers have just worked on the positions of the russian military, now the tank changes positions after the shots and will continue

to work eh, they worked on the landing, they went to the closed ones because they themselves saw what was happening in the field it's going very hard, recently they left in two dances in the direction of the guidance, well, they started working on us, well, emotions went off the scale when you see flashes opposite and nearby, the arrival is always scary in principle, but it's not so much as to say confusion. that is, you know your actions when the arrival is nearby, when something is some kind of delay, a breakdown i.e., everything is already working on a machine gun, the russian troops have opened fire , now they will fire in the direction of the ukrainian positions, most likely from artillery, we are in a state of no need for solidarity, and here, as they say

, the military is always hot, everything is ready i opened it, removed the extra charge, nothing else is needed to shoot each other, what is the result, how many shots were fired, five out of five, 400%.

guess the first shot was this job. that's it. why is the task - it's infantry, infantry, infantry, and once again , infantry can be lightly armored vehicles, or like tanks , but in general , infantry. lng or sometimes there are such mortars, french mortars entered service in 1973 , if i’m not mistaken, they are used in 30 countries mortar in the world today. how can you say compared to the one we used to work with? we used to work with the soviet sani, and that's why there's a hammer and something like that, and it differs in that the muzzle - first of all, the range is greater, the projectiles themselves in the mines, that is, they hit harder, well i mean, if there was a soviet mine there, 2.1 kg of it, how to say, how to say it correctly, of explosive explosive substance, it is equated

to 155 projectiles, do you think no, it needs 200, maybe even more? well, of course. well, we return to on the topic of the kyiv-pechersk lavra, i would like to remind you that today there was a message that the reserve of the kyiv-pechersk lavra is breaking the contract with the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate and representatives of the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate must vacate the entire territory of the kyiv-pechersk lavra, including the lower part of the lavra, by march 29 at the beginning, at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, such an agreement was applied to the upper lavra and the upcmp released the temples of the upper lavra. and now it concerns the lower

lavra, what does this all mean? does this mean the end era of the moscow patriarchate in ukraine and what can be the tools of influence used by the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate in response . this is what we will talk about now . andrii smirnov, a religious scholar , doctor of historical sciences, joins andrii. my congratulations , what is today's decision of the ministry of culture, or did i understand correctly ? that the ministry of culture is terminating the lease agreement with the uoc mp and on march 29, after march 29, representatives of the uoc mp should not be on the territory of the lavra at all, or are there any nuances, so the government group checked the conditions of use of the lower lavra and accordingly, significant violations were found, which allowed the reserve on the basis of clause 8.1 of the contract for permanent use to warn the monastery of caves of the caves lavry of the upcmp about the termination of this contract because such significant violations were

found, which means such significant violations are provided for in the contract if it is inappropriate use or there are any other violations, then this is a reason to unilaterally terminate the contract. indefinite free use of the uoc mp the entire lower laurel, and already in this was laid such a slow-acting millstone , state property cannot be transferred indefinitely . moreover, there were many violations that the authorities did not react to with their hands, and the public and journalists, including radio svoboda , recorded these illegal constructions and reconstructions covered in the mass media, but unfortunately at that time there was no political will to take any measures regarding the monastery. well, now it turns out that what are the tools of influence now

can be applied by representatives of the uoc mp, they can really vacate the territory of the lavra on march 29, do they have the opportunity to go to court or what other tools do you see in them ? yes, i think that on march 29, no one will vacate the lavra, first of all, this is just a warning, so about what the contract will be terminated. therefore, the kiev-pechersk lavra, headed by metropolitan pavel lebed, has time to challenge the reserve's actions in court ; secondly, i want to draw attention to the fact that the situation in the upper and lower lavra is different from that in the case of verkhnaya lavra. the contract there simply ended on january 1, 2023, and metropolitan pavlo, in principle, did not create any obstacles in order to return this property to the use of the reserve , he simply took some things, some church icons, and painlessly

, without conflict. i will remind you that more than 200 monks of the kyiv-pechersk lavra live there , the residence of the vicar metropolitan pavlo himself , so i think that firstly they will appeal , secondly, voluntarily, no one just like that buildings monastyrskyi churches, no one will give them away, you know me, i am now, we will now return to the property and to the buildings. this is the technical detail that i paid attention to today , a harsh message that the uoc mp received a letter from the reserve, it just appeared on the website of the uoc mp then it disappeared so delicately, did you pay attention to it well, this letter began to spread through social networks and mass media, there is a short comment on the resources of the uoc mp and the lavra that of course they do not recognize this

termination of the contract and therefore will defend themselves both in the courts, and physically, they will prevent the inventory of property, because the transfer of this property must be carried out, and in the first case, with the upper lavra, metropolitan pavlo refused to sign the act of acceptance and transfer of property. well, with the lower lavra, i think that it is just will sabotage the activities of these commissions. i understand that according to the terms of the contract , the transfer of property must already take place on march 14. actually, i wanted to ask you about the property. and how should this technically and physically take place? the representatives of the ministry of culture will be there according to some acts to verify everything that la vra had from the very beginning and transfer it back, or how about the fact that there should be a joint commission to understand which property is state property and which property is church property, respectively more than 70 objects

at one time, the kiev-pechersk lavra of the uoc mp was transferred to the monastery for use, now it is necessary to check whether it is property or not . if these are personal belongings of the monks, yes, or purchased with their own money, then they have the right to take them, of course, for this purpose now by march 14, it is necessary to create such a commission and, together with representatives of the monastery, find out where and what property is in what condition, but as early as march 29, theoretically, the monks should leave these buildings. but nevertheless, they will not disappear. they, as a religious organization, will continue to exist, so such a legal entity continues to exist, it is not terminated. bishop pavlo has many different estates and outside the boundaries of property and estates outside the boundaries of the monastery about this was also written by journalists, but the monks have nowhere to go. therefore, i think that

they will simply continue to live there and will not be evicted, and who can come and settle in their place, this is also very interesting, and on the other hand, even i would say that this is an irritating question there may be clergy of the orthodox church of ukraine or hardly no, well, at the moment, the orthodox church of ukraine does not have such personnel potential in order to fully use the lower lavra there. there is not even a sufficient number of monks, but there is probably not such a a great desire, and at the moment the priest uses the upper lavra, next sunday metropolitan epiphanius will serve in the assumption cathedral and so far this situation satisfies the priest , instead the best way out would be if the monks themselves moved to the orthodox church of ukraine and continued to pray there. discussed what

tools of influence the clergy itself has. and you said that pavlo lebid can go to court, and do you expect any protest actions of the movements of statements from the flock of this church in them there are a lot of supporters, yes, people who go to this church, can they organize rallies, protests, etc. well, until some forceful measures are taken against the monastery, i think that there will be no protest rallies, but the information campaign in the next two weeks will be large and all informational resources the uoc mp and those related to the uocmp will incite this situation, but once again i want to emphasize that evicting monks can only be done by a court decision and only the executive service, together with law enforcement agencies, has the right to use some physical force, and you said that they can use some different informational resources there. and what

informational resources they have left in ukraine, but we can now draw parallels and compare what the reaction was after they terminated the lease agreement for the use of the premises of the upper lavra to be honest, many people expected that there would be some clashes , maybe protests, well, apparently everything went peacefully, do you have any suspicions that things will be different here? yes, after all, the monks never lived on the territory of the upper lavra, they only they served there from time to time according to the appropriate schedule, so it was actually much easier there to return the property to the reserve, which already belongs to the state, but you, in the case of the lower lavra, once again, everything is much more difficult, and just like that, no one leaves the cells voluntarily, or will tim moreover, it is precisely on the lower one, on the territory of the lower lavra, that there are near and far caves

, where the relics of the kiev-pechers saints rest, where there is the church of the resurrection of the cross, and the zachativ church, in which the monks pray daily, and of course they will not give them away just like that. and in general if we talk. what do you think is dictated by such a decision, and formally we have already spoken, there were violations in the lease agreement, and here is the decision of the national security council and so on and so on, but you yourself said at the beginning that until all these moments there were always questions and journalists were investigating the society said well, but nobody touched them to the extent that what has happened now, the social and political situation has changed, russian armed aggression also affected the fact that the leadership of the ukrainian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate, headed by metropolitan onufri, occupies such a destructive position the position of collaborationism has not been condemned until now. because the kiev-pechersk lavra itself recently heard russian business chants about

holy russia, about russia, and well, there were such soft requests from the authorities, for example , somehow, somehow, to dismiss the odious metropolitan pavel lebedy from the post of governor of the kiev-pechersk lavra lavry, unfortunately, did not listen to these notes and left him there to continue to lead, then the authorities applied sanctions against metropolitan pavlo, but so far these sanctions do not give the desired result, so the authorities continue to put pressure on them. the results were expected by the authorities when they applied sanctions to metropolitan pavel, well, this is the first question and the second question. maybe you have a version. why is pavel so valuable? metropolitan pavel is so valuable for the ukrainian orthodox church because, firstly , he knows a lot, and secondly, he has huge connections in the authorities and in the law enforcement agencies, that is why there is a certain very strong pro-russian lobby both in the synod and in the uoc itself, which belongs to this conditional group of bishop pavlo, and it has

a great influence both on the synod and on metropolitan onufriy. that is why he has not been released yet, but i don't see any other way out, the best way out of this situation is for the monks to choose the abbot themselves, and what sanctions did the authorities hope for when they introduced sanctions against the clergy, in particular against paul, the authorities hoped that the church would be more flexible and would somehow respond better to the requests of the authorities, but so far the sanctions do not give the desired result because criminal proceedings against supporters of the russian world, against collaborators , against those who do not support ukraine but support russia, these are the best sanctions against these hierarchs, thank you very much, we will definitely follow the events in the kyiv-pechersk lavra. as far as i understand, the transfer of property should take place on march 14, or the process of transferring the property should start, and by march 29

, representatives of the uoc. well, as stated in this letter, they should vacate the territory of the lavra, but we will see, thank you very much andriy smirnov , a religious scholar, was with us in touch thank you, goodbye well, the ukrainian military is preparing for a counteroffensive, it can begin in two months, in an interview with lastampa, this is an italian newspaper, the advisor to the head of the president's office, mykhailo podolyak, said that we will exhaust the russians and then we will focus elsewhere, this is literally a quote, podolyak said and added that ukraine needs a long-range missile . podolyak noted that bakhmut in donetsk region remains strategically important and that the defense of the city makes it possible to complete preparations for offensive operations. well, and also two days ago on march 8, the publication for economists with reference to sources, it was reported that in april , the armed forces of ukraine may launch a counteroffensive, and although all eyes are now focused on the battle for the eastern city of bakhmut

, attention will soon be drawn to the expected counteroffensive which can start already in april, the publication says how the events surrounding bakhmut may develop in the near future, what role the city's defense can play in the spring counteroffensive, if it does happen, this is what we will talk about now oleksandr kovalenko , military-political columnist of the information resistance group joined our broadcast. good evening. greetings. i will start with a message from the american institute for the study of war . wagner and it is obvious now a temporary pause has come and it is not yet clear whether the operational advantage of the russian forces will be preserved but do you have this understanding of what will happen to bakhmut in the coming days or weeks, what are the tactics of the russian forces there now ? in the next minute, in fact, because the operational situation is changing very

quickly, first of all, secondly, it is precisely the fact that the russian occupiers have now so occupied the eastern part of bakhmut. this is true, and they are located in the private sector. a serious nuance and now they are leaning on the bakhmutivka river, they are trying to control almost its entire left bank, but the left bank is completely shot from the right bank , the bakhmutivka river is not just a natural obstacle for the russian occupiers in the city itself, but it is the most important line of defense for the armed forces of ukraine and therefore the russians are huddled more along the line of shchedra street. and this is approximately 300-400 m from the bakhmutivka river . thus, they are located in such and such a space, namely in the eastern location

vacuum and from the south and from the north. they are trying to exert pressure , but so far they are not succeeding because there are defense lines. they are trying to start urban battles , but again, if we are talking about the south, they do not go beyond the cemetery. and besides they cannot cut the main logistical arteries 0.5-04-0506 therefore, based on this , the city center, the western part of the city , the northern and southern parts are under the control of the armed forces of ukraine, which provides full logistical support on 0.5-04-05-06 so, in the near future, we should say that it is somehow expedient to withdraw our contingent from the city. no, i cannot say that . besides, the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine made a decision regarding the defense of the city for as long as possible.

it will be more expedient, it will be more effective to do it precisely with the contingent that is there, the leader of the wagner group, whose mercenaries are present precisely in bahmut in the bahmudian direction , prigozhyn complained just the day before that he was allegedly disconnected from special communication with the authorities of the russian authorities, allegedly because he constantly asks for shells and now they say that he can only ask for additional weapons through the media. and what kind of public insults and roll calls between them is this ? now the fate of the bahmut, if we are talking about the position of the russian occupiers, is no longer decided by pvk wagner, in fact, the main force there is the regular troops of pvk wagner - this is the first line

, that is, living meat, let's call them what they are they are disposed of there and nothing more than that they are used by the airborne, the airborne units are used exactly as a human shield . and on the first line, the self -regulating troops are already advancing, and from this they have regulars now , and prigozhin used it earlier. yes, his units now he does not have any profit from this. and he himself prigozhyn, he lost the loyalty and trust of the military and political leadership of the russian federation even after the soledar, in fact, there he already began to lose the monopoly on recruitment for which correctional colonies after the soledar in general, in the monopoly on the conduct of hostilities on the bakhmut bridgehead, it was the military that brought all this upon themselves . and what he complains about is that there are not enough shells. it is true that they really have a serious shortage of shells now, and it is the leadership of the russian occupying forces, the command, they are already engaged in the search for third parties

suppliers of projectiles, not counting on their military-industrial complex, which cannot cope with precisely those volumes that must be provided daily for the proportional supply of ammunition to all units i understood you then, let's talk about the counteroffensive, that was podolyak's statement, i understand podolyak, he is not a military man and not a representative of the general staff, nevertheless, he is an adviser to the head of the president's office, and he stated in an interview in the italian media that we will exhaust the russians, this is literally a quote and then we will focus elsewhere. well i understand that he was talking about bakhmut, but how should we understand it, and then we will focus elsewhere well , because the city of bakhmut is really drawing upon itself a huge resource of the russian occupiers . that is why they have not been able to for several months to somehow increase their offensive capabilities in other directions, moreover, they not only cannot increase these offensive