[000:00:00;00] you are watching the program of the ukrainian service voice of america usa time i am natalya leonova congratulations president shajobaden and prime minister of great britain ricci sadly expressed unwavering support for ukraine in the face of ongoing russian aggression the white house reports this following the results of a meeting of leaders in london great britain president baden visited the nato summit in vilnius on the eve of the nato summit, where one of the key issues will be ukraine's path to membership . on the eve of the meeting, the minister of foreign affairs of ukraine, dmytro kuleba, said that the allies have reached a consensus on removing the action plan for nato membership from ukraine's path on preparations for the summit, waiting for ukraine's membership prospects and policies and

security guarantees. from the pdc for ukraine, is this already a resolved issue? and what does this decision mean, and if it is not a political one, then what next step regarding ukraine's membership can realistically be expected at this summit, bohdan yes, actually, if we take into account the statement of the ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, dmytro kuleba, as well as the actual hints that were heard today here in vilnius at the first press conference even before the start of nato itself, what will happen tomorrow from the secretary general of nato and the host of this summit , the president of lithuania, the guitar is right at home then we can conclude that it is really likely that we will hear tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when the so-called ukrainian day, namely july 12 , here in vilnius, we will probably hear that

ukraine does not need to become a member go through the so-called preparation plan for the acquisition of this membership, what could be in return well, actually what is heard from ukraine and the demands we hear from ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyi sound more like a demand for an invitation from the other side jens stoltenberg, secretary general of nato, even earlier, ukraine's own invitation to the alliance will not be discussed now, what could be instead some verbal formulation, which we still frankly cannot imagine because when asked about what kind of there could be wordings, none of the leading representatives has yet answered clearly, on the other hand, jens stoltenberg here in vilnius emphasized that there are priority tasks even

more important than ukraine's membership in nato su vitya - this is gaming and we also repeat again and again that definitely it is the allies and ukraine that should to decide when the time has come to invite ukraine to become a full member now the most urgent task is to ensure that ukraine wins as a sovereign and independent state in europe because if ukraine does not wins, then there will be no question of membership at all, so i think it is extremely important that we continue to guarantee that the allies provide ukraine with weapons, training ammunition, spare parts so that it can free more territory and also deter russia from further aggression, the unconditional continuation of the assistance to ukraine that i talked about with the table the barrier is critically important, less so , returning to the question of membership to accept a new member, all 30 countries of the alliance must give their consent the day before,

we heard president biden in an interview from cnn called for caution for the time being regarding the process of ukraine joining nato, he investigated that the alliance could be involved in a war with russia , president biden also expressed sadness about the unity of nato's position regarding ukraine's membership in the alliance, so is it possible to agree on positions already at this bohdan summit actual coordination of the position i would say is possible because nato has been emphasizing more than once and for a long time that the countries of the alliance, back in 2008, all unanimously announced and agreed that ukraine would become a member of nato. so the question all that remains is when it should happen and under what conditions. kyiv now says that it understands that in the conditions of the active phase of the war, this is certainly impossible, but it requires a clear path . as for disagreements or disagreements

within the alliance, we can certainly say that the president of the united states, joe biden himself, is sounding maybe the most careful maybe similar to german chancellor olaf schultz, but the representatives of the countries of the so-called eastern flank of nato are those countries that consider themselves to be almost front-line representatives of those countries like for example, the president of lithuania, who always speaks much more strongly to us, here is his quote today, suprenka and rte, who here we also understand that ukraine must be fully integrated in the trans-atlantic security structure and become a member of nato, the time for repeating promises has passed, it is time to agree on a clear plan, we do not have choice but to agree and send a powerful signal to ukraine that the prospect of membership is extremely important for a country that has been heroically fighting the russian monster for almost a year and a half

. vilnius should be a place from which ukrainians will there be good news, or could such good news for ukraine be security guarantees similar to those provided to israel , because president biden spoke about the readiness of the united states to offer such guarantees, what kind of model is this and will they discuss this option for ukraine at the summit in vilnius bohdany yes this yes the so-called model of guarantees, which israel has primarily from the united states of america , has been discussed for a long time, and it once again came from the mouth of the american president, which adds new weight to the idea. but until now, when we talk about israel, such guarantees were provided by individual countries, namely the united states, that is, it is not a question of the whole organization being able to offer such guarantees, although it is quite possible that vilnius will offer some new approaches, although it is talking about different things

, for example, about what a group of countries can do together with the united by the neighboring states, these are guarantees rather than security assistance, we will probably learn a little more about it over the next two days, the summit will also discuss the membership of sweden, which has almost become an alliance of 32 ukraine, the last obstacle is turkey which is the only country that did not approve sweden's application for membership today president erdoğan said that the european union should pave the way for ankara to join and only after that he will make a decision about sweden , what are the prospects for solving this issue bohdana it seems that there are prospects right now while we are actually in on the air, i heard an announcement in the hall calling for another press conference so late in the evening. maybe we are waiting for some news from the tripartite talks between turkey

, the nato secretary general and also the head of sweden, maybe an interesting announcement will appear literally every minute. but so far, the turkish president has heard what looks like negotiations , in particular, the call of the president of turkey and his predecessor, erdogan, for the european union to pave the way for turkey's promotion to membership, in brussels they say that these issues cannot be related among themselves, but the turkish president insisted on this quite firmly today , first the way is open for turkey to join the european union, and then we will open the way for sweden, just as we did for finland, i expressed this to president biden last night and i must emphasize once again in vilnius we expect the visit of president putin next month if this visit to turkey takes place we will also discuss the black sea grain agreement in our personal meetings thank you bohdan for your stories, we

will keep an eye on the one with us in direct communication from vilnius was our european correspondent bohdan tsyupin, this summit will be a great success for everyone except vladimir putin, congressman democrat bilkiffing expressed this opinion in an interview with voice of america, a republican in turn michael lawler expects from the summit a clear plan regarding ukraine's membership in the alliance in general both democrats and republicans as main topics stand out against russian aggression, support for ukraine and the long-term plan for its accession to nato , american legislators told ekaterina leeson about their expectations and forecasts. united support of ukraine by nato members in all aspects of efforts to liberate ukrainian sovereign territory from russian military presence, and frankly

, if you need to defeat russia on the battlefield, it unwavering commitment that we must undertake collectively as an alliance i believe that this will be done in vilnius i think that certain weapons systems that need to be transferred to ukraine in order to win this battle will also be discussed i also think that there will be a discussion about a more formal form of invitation and clearer deadlines for ukrainian membership in nato i think that nato should continue to support ukraine and i also think that nato should increase its commitments and investments in the alliance and i think that the obvious goal of the meeting is a long-term plan for ukraine's accession to nato that i personally support the summit and there is a real possibility that sweden will finally get membership, you will see even more unity of all members and i also believe that as a result of this summit new forces will appear, renewed

commitment and determination and i think it will be a great success for everyone in addition to vladimir putin, nato members will gather in vilnius and , among other things, discuss the necessary efforts so that ukraine can protect its sovereignty and independence and make sure that russia does not have the opportunity for a strategic victory also the topic of discussion will be a look into the future to make sure that in the future ukraine will be able to be strong and protected , and i think you will see that these topics will be discussed . zelenskyi will take part in the meeting of the ukraine nato council, although he did not clarify the format of these discussions earlier , president zelenskyi called on ukraine to give

clear signals in support of its membership in the alliance, which are ukraine's expectations from the same in vilnius and who most supports her aspirations in the plot of myroslava gongadze in the last attempt to force the alliance to give ukraine a clear pass to join nato at the summit in vilnius president zelensky last week visited several nato member states where he signed bilateral agreements supporting ukraine's aspirations to become a full member of this defense union during his visit to the czech republic and zelenskyi said that he needs a clear signal that ukraine will be in the alliance, looking back at moscow, someone is afraid of russia although i believe that this is such a moment such a great chance to show the courage of this alliance and the strength of the alliance. but nevertheless, we are talking about a clear signal, some concrete things in the direction of the invitation, we need this motivation, we need honesty in our

relations, the countries of the east, the bar of nato, are the biggest supporters of nato offering kyiv a path to membership declared the former ministry of defense of lithuania, and now the member of the european parliament , the race will open, the public and poland, the czech republic. i would say the whole eastern part, those who joined nato understand, appreciate what membership in this alliance they understand it very well ukrainian partners in eastern europe are convinced that inviting ukraine is vital for the alliance and will send a clear signal to the kremlin oh have to everything the best to upgrade we must update the wording we had at the abokharid summit i have no doubt that ukraine will become a member of nato, but today it is very important to send a very clear signal that we invite ukraine , especially for the kremlin, forget about your

imperialist approach, given the growing pressure from many member countries nato, the united states, and germany believe that ukraine is not ready either politically or militarily and are concerned that the acceptance of ukraine will ultimately involve the alliance in a direct conflict with russia . before leaving for europe, jake salvan, the us president's national security adviser , noted that ukraine still needs to do its homework on path to nato membership and the united states strongly supports the open door policy, which means that ukraine and nato can jointly make decisions about its path to membership, and vilnius will be an important moment on this path to membership because the united states or nato allies and ukraine will have the opportunity to discuss the reforms that ukraine still needs to get closer to nato standards

. to defense, former prime minister of ukraine arseniy yatsenyuk claims that ukraine is more ready than ever for nato membership. he believes that having ukraine in nato is beneficial for nato itself ukraine connection ukraine practically demilitarized the russian army, therefore russia will need another 10 years to update and restore its forces in europe , the combat experience skills of the ukrainian military are simply incredible, therefore it is definitely in the interests of nato to have ukraine, according to the latest public opinion polls , more than 80% of ukrainians want ukraine to join nato yatsenyuk says that their expectations from the vilnius summit are clear. samet ukraine , the ukrainian people expect that during the vilnius summit, they and ukraine will at least be invited to join nato, and realists i i believe that our nato partners will find the political will not just to issue another

declaration with vague and ambiguous definitions, so the door is open. but the time will come when we, as ukraine, will enter this door. we paid a huge price for the chance to be a member of nato. right here, july 11-12 has a chance to become a historic moment for nato or a lost opportunity, experts believe that the alliance will find some half-hearted solution here in poland, a member of nato, a country that has been subjected to russian aggression many times in history. and now it strongly supports ukraine, there are no doubts that with ukraine in nato, europe is safer myroslava gongadze voices of america warsaw poland canceling the action plan regarding ukraine's membership in nato until there is a formal invitation to the alliance cannot be a positive result, thinks it is good hopko , a member of the verkhovna rada of the eighth convocation , heads the network for the protection of national interests

of the enc and lobbies for the promotion of ukraine to nato at the summit in vilnius, the voice of america spoke with her about why the invitation of ukraine is not only the first symbolic step on the long road to membership why the allies do not we should be afraid of the automatic application of the fifth article on collective defense and what ukraine is ready to do to prove that it will become a worthy member of nato, we clearly understand that we want a formal invitation , we have done our analysis, what are the next steps, because there are a lot of such manipulative statements that the invitation of ukraine means the immediate membership of the functioning of the fifth article, and whether american or other taxpayers in ukraine, members of nato, will pay for the implementation of the fifth article. no, this is a complete manipulation

i.e. there is a complete algorithm. we have analyzed, for example, the year of joining the membership of finland in particular, from the formal invitation to the acquisition of membership and the action of the entry into force of the fifth article, a year has passed. to the alliance already as a full member well, in fact , we tell our partners, look, the formal invitation of ukraine to nato does not mean membership tomorrow, today the invitation is not membership tomorrow, because there are a number of procedures that must be passed, and in particular, the certification of each the parliament of each member of the alliance, and this is also a difficult negotiation path, it is a geopolitical signal not only to the putin regime but to seven other elites, just as it was with

the eu candidate status when we actually talk about the geopolitical integration of ukraine into the eu and nato , where ukraine is a powerful security countermeasures with the more powerful armed forces of ukraine unique experience well, let's be honest , the biggest guarantees are ukraine's membership in nato for investors, so it is important to explain that from the moment the invitation to the plenary when all the ratifications will come and so on, we do not know how long it may take, but it is important to start this process and it is the most important thing for our armed forces, eh , that this is the same signal as was the status of the candidate that more than 90% of ukrainians support

the euro-atlantic integration and the armed forces, my life is now the best . the troops are now a question, uh, not just the survival of democracy at all, because ukraine can’t , and at the same time, ikrimentalism is suitable. it does not say guarantees, it is a lie. now we recognize that we need to carry out reforms, we are trying to do so in those realities , not everything is perfect in ukraine, there are certain attacks on local self-government, we need

to work on security sector reforms and defense of the sbu is a timely reform, we need it in order to end the war faster, so that our best detectives return to the nabu , our best investigators return to the sap, and so on, but for this we need an invitation as an additional and a lever of influence of civil society on the course of reforms as a motivation to win faster and this as a powerful signal in the aggressor state, about a hundred activists gathered for an action near the famous 500 in the city of santa monica, near los angeles, with

demands to invite ukraine to nato. during the protest, they also demanded the deprivation of russia's membership in the un security council, khrystyna shevchenko spoke with them, ukrainian activists gathered with a flag and posters the day before, tonato themselves decided to voice their wishes to you, we understand that this is a long process, and therefore, to begin with, we need an official invitation for ukraine to receive at this summit and we are here to draw attention to this issue, to turn the attention of the international community. and we expect that ukraine will be able to receive additional guarantees from nato . the community of immigrants from lithuania in whose capital vilnius will host the nato summit message we really want to emphasize that ukraine can be invited as a member just to encourage you from the baltic countries we also accepted the invitation to join nato in 2002 when us president george bush came to vilnius to ensure this expansion for lithuanians, latvians, estonians, and we were encouraged by the fact that we will no longer be

alone in the face of the cruelty of fear and terror. the glory of the nation, death to the enemies , organized a protest by activists at the state organization from the ukraine fantation center the picketers also demanded that the russians stop creating danger at the zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and withdraw their troops from there. they also called on partner countries to revoke russia's membership in the un security council . expressed their support by pressing the horns of santa monica khrystyna shevchenko bohdan shevchenko america's announcement we cannot submit to russia's aggression or put up with it

brazen attempts to change the borders with the force of 500 days, we stood firmly in unity with ukraine and will continue to do so as long as necessary during a briefing on monday , stated deputy spokesman of the state department matty miller and added that he himself believes that the war was a strategic failure for russia because sometimes on sunday, july 9 , a joint prayer was held in the historic national cathedral in washington dedicated to the five hundredth day of the full-scale invasion of russia, the liturgy gathered a full hall. both ukrainians and americans were there as well ilona voytovych and vyacheslav filyushkin visited, and to mark 500 days since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of ukraine, washington held a joint prayer for ukraine ukraine and ukrainians ukraine and ukrainians prove that light is stronger than darkness and today we thank you for the joint prayer and thank you to the lord, for giving us the strength to unite and defend ukraine

, the washington national cathedral became a place of unity for ukrainians and americans who came to pray for peace and an end to the russian aggression, church voices from different parishes united in one choir of the american cathedral together with priests of local ukrainian churches held a prayer for ukrainian defenders who defend the ukrainian land , fallen and wounded civilian children and adults suffering from the war in ukrainian and english when i met brave young people people who came to the usa for treatment without legs or arms and could only imagine what kind of emotional trauma they will have

to live with, it's hard not to cry and of course an owl gratitude for their service is not enough, this is a cathedral that unites americans. american presidents were buried here. and a lot is happening here in the history of america, and to come and pray that they, together with the embassy, ​​together with us, the churches, unite in prayer, this is a great example of that that act of loving each other, supporting each other and standing in solidarity in prayer for ukraine, the event gathered a full hall of people. among those present were former diplomats and officials who continue to support ukraine, this is 500 days of russian aggression 500

days of courage of ukrainians, 500 days that united people in defense of their land, history, culture, language, these 500 days of sadness, but also of confidence that ukrainians will win this war. i am very happy that today is a national opportunity to pray together. i am very glad that the church was full of people, citizens, thank you it is obvious to the americans. for their support , for their prayers, for the weapons, most of the weapons, and i think that, uh, we need not only to pray , we need to continue working and working towards the end of this terrible war. of the local diaspora and the state of virginia believes that such events also help in the informational struggle with russia, people of different faiths are coming and these people who listened to this today stayed here. they will go home and tell their friends. do you understand this dissemination of information which, in my opinion, is

extremely important as a diplomatic achievement 500 days after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, ms. oksana markarova, the ambassador of ukraine to the usa, calls the status of ukraine on the world stage as a full-fledged partner, an achievement to which ukraine owes separate decisions for their defenders. of course, you can go on a monthly basis. and if we talk about weapons, every time we received a new capability, from fountain guns to high-mars to howitzers to other types of weapons, these are small victories that allow us to move towards our big victories from washington ilona voytovych vyacheslav filyushkin voice of america on this we will say goodbye you watched the program of the ukrainian voice of america service time time also join our daily

briefings from monday to friday at 6:00 p.m. kyiv on youtube and facebook where you can ask your questions live to our hosts ostap yarosh and yuliya yarmolenko. thank you for trusting the ukrainian service of the voice of america. i am nataliya leonova. have a good night there and a good morning

. we are looking for 15-year-old mark smrodinov who lived in mariupol and disappeared at the beginning of the full-scale war on february 24 last year at this time in a year and almost 5 months of war there was no news about the child where the boy may be now no one knows that is why your help is important take a close look at photo, remember the face, brand, currant, he is thin, he looks like he is 15 years old, he has light blond hair and dark eyes. if you know any information about the child, immediately call us on the hotline at the short number 116 000. i will remind you that calls from any mobile the operator is free. if we suddenly do not have a mobile connection , write to the chat bot of the child search service in telegram. believe me, even a small clue can be very important. i also want to remind you that we are continuing the search for five-year-old