[000:00:00;00] occupation, how can it be, now it is not possible , the history of the liberated cities of ukraine is gone. let's see how our brother helped us. they freed us from a normal life. all the nationalists of the people did they resist, the residents came here, stopped and sent them back and became heroes the novel was, is and will always be ukraine about unbreakable cities of ukraine from

the ukraine project in the documentary series deoccupation that on saturdays at 11:10 on espresso do you watch the program of the ukrainian voice of america service or am i nataliya leonova congratulations to continue helping ukraine is in the direct interests of washington such a statement was made by the secretary of state anthony blinken speaking in congress for several days the senate and the house of representatives have been hearing with the participation of the head of the state department , the us secretary of defense lloyd osin and general mark milley, the hearing is held in the committees of international relations and the appropriations committee , officials report on the budget plan of the united states for the year 2024, my colleague kateryna lisunova was also present at the hearing. she is now in touch with us from the capitol hill. i congratulate katyum. so, what are the priorities in the us budget for the next year determined by administration officials and what place does the continuation of aid to ukraine take in this regard of the defense budget, this item of expenditure should be increased

, the pentagon claims that it is not only about helping democracies in the world such as ukraine, but also about increasing the defense capability of the united states of america itself, and according to general mike millie, the american army is ready to go into battle to defend its country if there is such a need, i will quote it here , we are ready to fight now and we will be ready. in the future, this budget will help our troops to protect the nation, in addition, according to mike millie, the main force that unites in america is networks of partners and allies and this is a great help of the united states , yes, according to mike millie, the united states of america conducted 63 exercises with various countries this month alone at the same time, the americans also train more than 5,000 ukrainian soldiers every week on the territory of different states, says general michael. in addition, anthony blinken, the head of the state department, was asked how the states check the aid that comes to ukraine

. according to blinkin , there are already 40 groups and 45 people checking the us embassy in kyiv. aid that comes to kyiv from the state department, and this only from the state department, in turn, the ministry of defense has its own representatives who carry out similar checks, i suggest listening to the statements officials right now, if we allow russia to violate international law in ukraine with impunity, we will open a pandora's box around the world in which aggressors from different countries will look at these events and say that if they got away with it, i will get away with it, it will be a world of conflicts, a world of war, a world in which we have been before and we had to step in and stop it but this is not the world we aspire to so the stakes in ukraine go far beyond the borders of ukraine itself our national defense strategy identifies

putin's aggressive russia as an acute threat under the leadership of president biden, the united states rallied the world to help ukraine fight russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion, our allies and partners stepped up to provide critical security assistance coordinated by the ukraine defense contact group, which i lead, and we will receive ukraine's defense as long as needed, one of the important issues which was asked by anthony blinken in the congress related to the recognition of russia as a state sponsor of terrorism senators and congressmen are satisfied with the work of the state department in opposing russian aggression in general and in particular in the issue of recognizing the russian federation as a sponsor of terrorism. in general , the opinions of the senators i spoke with were divided . some believe that the united states is already doing everything possible to help ukraine. concerns, in particular , the recognition of russia as a state that sponsors

terrorism, as well as the provision of additional aid to ukraine and the provision of prompt operational delivery of this aid to ukraine they offer to listen to the comments of the senators, i spoke with someone just now, our country is doing what is required of it, it is helping ukraine, and this is of course my personal priority, the outrageous invasion of russia is simply terrible, and we will continue to support ukraine in its efforts to obtain the necessary security to live freely and sovereignly, we are only just getting started review of the new budget is a member of the foreign relations committee and the armed services committee i think you will see a continuation of very solid budget support usa for ukraine this was a hearing on the budget of the state department, but the main support will be provided through the armed forces committee and the committee on appropriations. this is a difficult situation that

, in my opinion, was caused by the actions of the biden administration. this war against american oil and gas is actually financing vladimir putin's war against ukraine i think we can always do more than we are already doing to stop russian aggression in ukraine we we see broad support in the senate for continuing the search for weapons necessary for the defense of ukraine what we can do now is to deliver weapons to ukraine faster we have made commitments that we are slowly fulfilling we need to speed up this process we need to get them planes faster we need to get all of them faster types of ammunition in order for ukrainians to be able to defend themselves kateryna, in fact, the first year of active work of the new convocations of the congress has only just begun, which important meetings in ukraine should we wait for in the coming weeks this

we are so natalya, important meetings for ukraine took place already tomorrow, friday, which is coming to ukraine, these meetings will take place in the committees on international relations of both the house of representatives on friday and the senate on wednesday. report to legislators on aid allocated to ukraine from 2021 to 2023 , and in particular, these meetings will be monitored by me and the voice of america service in ukrainian . thank you katya for this information, i will remind our in the studio, kateryna lisunova often joined the allies of russia's first full-scale war in ukraine, the assets of russian oligarchs worth 58 billion dollars were frozen. i was comforted by the efforts led by the kleptokiche task force

. a mechanism was recently launched in the united states, according to which the confiscated assets of russian oligarchs can be used for the reconstruction of ukraine. how will this reconstruction take place? process, how much money has already been confiscated, what are the most high-profile cases being investigated in the ministry of justice, my colleague oleksiy kovalenko learned in an interview with the director of the angel adamson task force a year ago in march, us attorney general marik garden launched a klepto-capture and appointed the director of this initiative, what was achieved during this year, our task force began work immediately after a full-scale invasion at the end of february , at the beginning of march, we have already assembled a group of lawyers, prosecutors, agents, analysts and specialists from across the u.s. government to focus on two tasks: first , we rushed to seize assets and

begin forfeiture procedures of large expensive and movable assets, such as yachts and airplanes, at the same time we knew that in the long term , cases against intermediaries in money laundering of individuals and networks of those who professionally circumvent sanctions and export control may be more important voice of america you mentioned the approximate amount of assets of the russian elites that are under sanctions and that have been seized, it was about 40 billion dollars in the united states and abroad, what is this figure now and what part of it is in the united states if

talk about exactly what the ministry of justice is doing and the rest of the confiscation in accordance with court orders, court decisions on confiscation, this figure at the level of 1 billion dollars refers to warrants regarding airplanes , yachts, on which an apartment and luxury real estate in the united states were seized, as well as bank accounts, securities, etc. but this is what we can do when the link between criminal activity and property is established when it comes to the ministry of finance, the state department , the ministry of commerce and our international partners what they can do with their authority significantly exceeds what the ministry of justice can seize and confiscate. in february, a new york court judge ruled in favor of the confiscation of five million four hundred thousand dollars belonging to the russian oligarch kostiantyn malafeev. these funds can be used to rebuild ukraine. recently, the russian a lawyer located in the usa filed a lawsuit regarding these funds do you expect that this money will still

reach ukraine despite the obstacles with little challenges, these are fancer funds which we are now authorized to transfer amount to 5.4 million dollars, the time for filing legal claims has already passed without intention, now this money can be freely transferred to the state department after the deadline for considering the appeal has expired, we expect that this will happen and then the state department, together with our friends from ukraine , will determine the best allocate these funds , this example is a real success story for the past year, of course, $5.4 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the damage that this war caused to ukraine and the people of ukraine, but this

a symbol of what can be done through a judicial process that corresponds to our constitution and international law . how many rights are now close to the issuance of a court verdict? civil suit for confiscation of real estate in the amount of about 75 million dollars associated with viktor vekselberg , so far there have been no lawsuits against these cases and in each of these cases a international cooperation of course we have friends all over the world, there are partners in allied countries who are ready to help and invest significant efforts and resources to make these cases a reality, but these are difficult cases , we have to deal with professional criminal networks, what exactly does this international cooperation look like, you can also tell in more detail about cooperation with other

us authorities, such as the fbi, which was involved in the seizure of a yacht in fiji international, of course , almost every case requires significant international support in very rare situations international networks do not have any information or resources that are outside the us to investigate, seize or seize assets, we need the participation and cooperation of our international partners, this is a significant success story, during the past year we conducted arrests in estonia, latvia, germany, italy , spain and other countries, we imposed arrests on assets we work closely with the fbi in many countries around the world, including jurisdictions that are not typically seen as america's closest allies in law enforcement

they are part of our klepto-capture task force we work closely with the department of homeland security the us tax administration the department of commerce in fact it's a collaboration of the entire united states government the appropriations bill for 2023 gives the department of justice the ability to walk the confiscated money to the state department which in turn will send it to assistance to ukraine how can you assess the importance of this decision, this is a very important law, the cooperation of our office of legislative affairs in the ministry of justice together with the congress was incredible in the last year, these are very important decisions from a material and symbolic point of view, from a legal point of view, it opens the way for us to carry out these transfers, which we would not be able to do easily without these new powers in life. it is important that the driving motivation for all these cases in the end is the provision of assistance ukraine, and this is what this legislation directly allows to do from

a symbolic point of view, believes that the reason for the possibility of this decision is to demonstrate with our partners in europe and other countries that there are means and mechanisms for providing exactly this kind of aid to ukraine through confiscation , it is fully in line with international law, it can be done and it must be done, the work of your task force and broader international sanctions have caused a certain level of discomfort in the kremlin and among russian oligarchs , however, there are no signs that this is forcing putin withdraw troops from ukraine do you believe that pressure on oligarchs close to the kremlin can change putin's aggressive policy in addition to

the indignation of people who were previously close to the kremlin has consequences that go far beyond the limits of specific oligarchs, it has an impact on financial institutions on insurance aviation or marine companies on the russian war machine and the kremlin's ability to finance this war or russia's attempts to support the war and at the same time have a normal stable economy i think in this sanction successful you watched interview with the director of the task force at the us department of justice, clep and capt. andrew adamson , ukraine reports that at the beginning of february 2023, more than two and a half thousand educational institutions were damaged by bombings and shelling, almost four and a half hundred of them were completely destroyed, polls of sociologists also point to such needs and problems as professional burnout of educators. and due to overload , almost half of schoolchildren talk about stress and

psychological trauma. today in washington , a discussion was held on education during the war, the year of russian aggression against ukrainian schools, moderated by the founder of the save-ped charity fund, former minister of education anna novosad, she passed welcome to the studio today. welcome anna. thank you for finding the time and opportunity for us to go to the studio. so what kind of discussion was it, what were the main theses and what message were we trying to convey ? and it is obvious to everyone that this was the year of russia's war not only against the ukrainian military , but against ukrainian civilians, including against ukrainian children and ukrainian schools , and the scale of the destruction that was inflicted on the ukrainian educational system. unprecedented in the world, this has probably never happened, and the consequences

that we are already experiencing are not exclusively educational , they are social, they are economic and will only deepen over the years even after our victory. and actually talk about the consequences of a full-scale war in the field of education what this year meant for education, for access to education, and most importantly, what to do with it , today we actually talked with key stakeholders in washington, such as the world bank and the international monetary fund global partner to ducation with representatives of the state department and other interested international organizations that in one way or another support the restoration of education in ukraine, your save at fund deals directly with chernihiv there, targeting the russians, just on the m in chernihiv, two schools were almost destroyed and 27 were damaged. do you

have an understanding of how large the total amount of losses in the education sector is and how much money will go to reconstruction and what the priorities of reconstruction should be? this is a real example. chernihiv is an example of one of hundreds of examples of russia's very targeted attacks on the educational infrastructure, because in chernihiv the people who were severely beaten or targeted by aerial bombs were not of any military significance , there were no military personnel there, and our civilians were hiding there but all the same, the russians dropped heavy bombs on them and they were rockets, the same thing happened in other cities and towns, even those that were under occupation, they were still rockets, and this fact does not leave anyone room for ah, for different opinions, russia is very forceful. like all centuries before, it is destroying our education. it is very difficult to calculate so far in financial terms how much it will cost, because the war continues and, in fact,

schools continue to be destroyed every day . statistics in general schools in general secondary schools, we now have more than 1,440 schools that have been seriously damaged or completely destroyed, and this is 10% of the number of schools that we had before the full-scale invasion of regions such as kharkiv donetsk region of luhansk suffered the most in the kharkiv region, as of more than 50%, and schools were destroyed or severely damaged, and of course, this is the scale that will still require an assessment of the actual damages. if we talk about priorities and what we in the fund saver, we set ourselves the task, first of all, to restore as much as possible access to e -offline education in its various formats, because why do i say different, because each region of ukraine is now very different, the one affected by

the war, it is impossible to compare problems and options decisions here and now, for example, in kyiv region and kharkiv region, because in kyiv region, except for rocket attacks, i can say that there are currently no military operations there, and actually in kyiv region, reconstruction has already begun, and there is an opportunity to restore educational institutions directly, to rebuild them in kharkiv region, so what the city that is constantly being shelled is very difficult to talk about direct reconstruction for now, but uh, here and there. you can try to restore at least some elements of offline learning, like this for example, in the border areas, we arrange shelters so that, at least underground , the children have the opportunity to study and socialize everything and see each other.

of your work to the ministry of education and their who are the biggest donors now and what kind of money we are talking about, i guess i will start with the fact that the amount of money that goes to education, in my objective opinion, is absolutely insufficient, and in my opinion, our partners are not up to the end yet what those who support it do not understand that recovery or even survival in ukraine in these conditions, they do not fully understand that education has ceased to be just education, now it is extremely important the factor of returning people because they look at colleges, there is no school and decide whether to return from abroad and this is very an important factor of support for women whose husbands, for example, went to the front and or they serve in general in the armed forces and how to study how to study for their children, how to support this educational e-e process, this is a very important element

support of local communities and this is extremely related to decentralization, that is, support for education is now support for a huge contribution to other parts of the life of ukrainians and ukraine. the scale of these funds could be larger, and how much money is in ukraine? as far as i know, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of march of last year, they had a budget of approximately 150 million million dollars, which is large funds, but, of course, if you look at, first of all, the administrative expenses of such organizations, and secondly, at the volume of needs that we have, these funds are incredibly meager, and now, in fact, year after year of war has passed, and now they are already starting such big players as the world bank talk about the fact that education should become a priority and large aid packages should be laid for ukraine . thank you anna for your work and great success for you and i hope that your work will be

productive 10 days in ukraine, distributing food to abandoned animals in bilford, a city freed from the occupation of iowa, visited ukraine for the first time to see with my own eyes what injured and abandoned dogs need , kind volunteers with friends, supports more than 20 vet clinics in different regions, helps with food and equipment, in particular and to the first military hospital of veterinary medicine, where dogs serving in the army and animals of forced migrants are treated, the details in iryna shinkarenko's plot are the shots near the bridge destroyed by the russians in irpen, we know more valuable and trip of a white american music teacher and restaurant owner from the state of iowa. last summer, he visited ukraine for the first time. he saw with his own eyes the broken cities and fed hungry

animals hmm ah with local volunteers on a car loaded with a ton of fodder . abandoned animals, we took groceries to a woman who lives next door to a completely destroyed house, rockets literally fell on her neighbor's house and now she takes care of many animals and her own and the local homeless since the beginning of the war , he financially helped volunteers and shelters from different regions of ukraine , and then he wanted to personally meet the people with the animals he supports. morally and physically, but he was happy

that he was participating in this not only online but also live. in addition to the western regions, bil visited the released bucha borodyanka. irpin also went to the mykolaiv region and saw many frightened animals we put food and they didn't come until we left and you have many animals suffering from post-traumatic stress after shelling, they are worried with less rational thinking if you can think rationally about the senseless bombing but they are not able to understand it you have a lot very frightened animals , bill told his friends in the usa about his impressions of the trip together they donated more than 200 thousand dollars for food and medical equipment for

more than 20 veterinary clinics in ukraine we we support clinics from the polish border to the russian border in the east, we went to pervomaisk and there we established relations with two excellent veterinary clinics and some other organizations, so we are currently creating another shelter, there will probably be more than 100 dogs and cats, one of the clinics that visited and helps bill, the first military hospital of veterinary medicine in khmelnytskyi region, here they treat service dogs of various types of troops, evacuated animals and zoos, as well as pets of forced migrants from the first days of the war to a cat was admitted to us in critical condition, a limb was injured, luna was admitted to us from a war zone, thanks to the equipment donated by bill, veterinarians were able to save this cat and also provide assistance to hundreds of other animals in hot spots, the cat is now

healthy, everything is normal, we want to thank bela from america who gave us a portable ultrasound with its help, we helped many animals, we performed an ultrasound of the heart, the advantages of a portable ultrasound are that we take it into combat operations and also provide help there, the number of wounded animals is constantly increasing, so outdated equipment cannot withstand the load of the hospital, modern ultrasound tomography and x-ray devices are needed, mainly animals with injuries are animals with fractures, and in this regard, it would be very appropriate if a device for x-ray examination appeared in the hospital, there are many injuries and, unfortunately, our clinic it is not possible to conduct inpatient research, veterinarians are asking for animal feed, so after

a ten-day trip to ukraine, biel is trying to help even more for the winter, in particular, he also purchased six generators for ukrainian vet clinics so that doctors can work. and during a power outage, he says he constantly remembers the animals and people he saw. i don't know how to talk about the suffering of people and animals, even the destruction . it's hard to describe in words. it was very emotional and i became very attached to people. ukrainians are very warm people. says it was difficult to leave ukraine , but he is already planning his next trip iryna shynkarenko pavlo terekhov voice of america this is how we say goodbye, did you watch the program of the ukrainian service of the voice of america usa time also join our daily briefings at 18:00 kyiv

time on youtube and facebook, where you can ask our presenters your questions live. thank you for trusting the ukrainian voice of america service. i am nataliya lounova. good night and good morning. we are looking for 11-year-old hleb cherepanov , a boy for over a year. is considered missing forever and now we have received information from a witness , a woman reported that she saw our program about the search for hleb and allegedly recognized him, he still wants last year somewhere in may, i'm calling because it's a pity that my mother is crying, she's looking for it, god forbid were alive well, to which country do you know where they could have left, well, for some reason, my intuition

shows that it is definitely him, the woman