[000:00:00;00] why ukraine will have to fight for the support of the event, which is taking place with the help of ukraine, when the western attention is focused on the war between israel and hamas, we are talking about this on the air of bbc news ukraine live from london, i am evgenia shedlovska in the united states... blocked work of congress , they elected a new speaker of the house of representatives, so now they can pass bills on providing aid to ukraine, but the newly elected speaker was previously opposed to it, so what do you expect from mike johnson? but, before speaking about american aid to ukraine, what are the risks, let's talk about aid from

the european union, within the eu there are more critical voices, and yes, i mean slovakia. the eu is considering allocating eur 50 billion in aid to ukraine. for several years, the european commission had previously proposed to do this, and now in december the eu leaders must agree. and the new prime minister of slovakia, robert fico, has already stated that he wants guarantees that the money will not be wasted and wants a part of this package to go to renewing the infrastructure on slovakia's border with ukraine. such a statement fizo spread his office then as for help. spoke at the summit in brussels, and the prime minister of hungary, viktor orbán, said that he wants more justification for such financial support, that is, hungary, which previously blocked aid to ukraine, is joined by slovakia, which expresses reservations in this way, about ukraine, the leaders of the countries spoke under the time of the summit in brussels, it was a two-day summit, yesterday was devoted to the war in the middle east, the war between israel and hamas, the situation in the gaza sector, it is important to take into account

that this was the first meeting. heads of eu countries after the attack by hamas militants on israel on october 7. they strongly condemned this attack and called for the creation of humanitarian corridors and pauses in hostilities so that civilians in the gaza strip could receive humanitarian aid. and already today at the summit in brussels, the eu leader talked about ukraine and here is their statement following the results of the meeting, the eu agreed to continue strong financial, economic and military assistance to ukraine as long as it is needed. such bbc correspondent zhanna bespyedchuk said when we contacted her. zhanna, you followed all the statements this summit in brussels, so what now? will orban and fitso together block aid to ukraine and sanctions against russia? good evening, janie , you know, it's too early to talk about it, at first glance it may seem that the prime minister of hungary, viktor orbán, and the newly elected

prime minister, slovakia. robert fico have almost simultaneous positions on ukraine and on russia's war against ukraine, accordingly the issue of support and assistance to ukraine arises, however , there is a significant difference between these two cases, and the difference is that the hungarian prime minister already has such a well-established practice of blocking aid to ukraine, this is part, as many experts and politicians and leaders of other eu countries believe, of his political strategy, which is actually the most relevant, and is conditioned by the problems of hungary itself. its economy, which i mean, hungary, the hungarian economy very much needs the funds of the european union, which it allocates from the multi-year budget of the eu, which

was adopted even before 2021, until 2000 27 , it also needs funds from structural aid funds, from the european support fund, peace, etc. , and this is why this is happening, because the hungarian economy has been in a very serious crisis in recent years, but due to problems with democracy, problems with freedom of speech, with the independence of judges, the european union recognizes , that because of these problems in hungary, he has to impose certain... sanctions on this country and blocks financial aid for hungary. accordingly, viktor orbán offers the leaders of the european union in exchange for abandoning his hard position, hard criticism of ukraine and the blocking of macro-financial aid to ukraine, the fact that the aid to his country should be unblocked by brussels, that is, in other

words, this is such a certain political blackmail. this is about the position of hungary, and until now it has managed to periodically block aid to ukraine, and then negotiate with the european union to unblock it in exchange for funds for ukraine, this happened during a large-scale invasion, about slovakia, today we heard statements that are not should be interpreted as an unambiguous intention blocking aid to ukraine, one can hope that robert fitze will not do it, but he partly repeats the messages of russian propaganda regarding ukraine, partly doubts ukraine's ability to properly use the eu's multi-million aid, he says. about corruption and the fact that it is necessary to check whether the allocated funds, in particular those allocated by slovakia for ukraine, will fall into reliable hands and will be spent as intended, that is, for now, we can say that the slovak government is in control,

the new government is gaining such experience and looking at how they can use this rhetoric regarding ukraine and russia's war against ukraine in their own interests. but here are the 50 billion euros that are planned to be allocated. from this eu budget, they must be approved unanimously, that is, there must be the support of all eu countries, and german chancellor ol scholz said today that it will be possible to do it, he believes in it, but what do you think, will it really be possible to do it? yes, following on from what we were talking about before this, the odds are really, really high for that, that it is will take place at the next summit of the leaders of the european union countries in december this year, what will it depend on, at least it will depend on the situation at the front, that is, if there is a serious threat of escalation, it will be december this year, this is already a priori a threat of shelling of massive ukrainian energy infrastructure.

if by that time ukraine manages to free part of its territories, for which battles are being fought today, then, perhaps, there will be such a situation that the question of whether or not to allocate these additional funds and this assistance to ukraine will not arise, in addition, in general, this aid will be considered in the international context, it will depend to a certain extent on the events in the middle east and the war, how the events will unfold in the hostilities between israel and hamas. thank you, zhanna, bbc correspondent, zhanna bespyatchuk was with us in direct communication from kyiv, and now we will talk about american support. i will remind president biden offers congress to approve a joint package of military aid for ukraine and israel in the amount of more than 100 billion dollars, and now it will be possible to do it, because the work of congress is unblocked, there was elected the speaker of the house of representatives, he became the republican mike johnson and in general it was

a long speakership after the first time in the history of the american congress that the previous speaker was sent to resign. who is mike johnson and, in general, what kind of political process was it in pickerriades, listen to what a bbc correspondent tells about it. in my opinion, this has damaged the credibility of the united states. i mean the way the world media commented on it. thus, the german spiegel noted that this is a threat to national security, and an informational one agency of iran, countries that are hostile to the usa stated that the american parliamentary process was cursed, it did not contribute to the authority of the united states, which is trying to be a world leader on many fronts, it is also about the middle east crisis and ukraine, because the american system of democracy in the last three did not work for a week. so there's a sense of relief in this building on capitol hill, where things seem to be getting back to normal. of course, the democrats next year will try

to get mike johnson, the new speaker from republican camp, on many political issues. they already criticize his position on abortion rights, his negative attitude towards same-sex marriage, and they will. to use it in the election campaign, but now in washington heaved a sigh of relief and back to normal life, at least for now in congress. mike johnson was elected to congress in 2016, the year donald trump became president. he belongs to the traditional conservative political wing that espouses the slogan america first. he is staunchly pro-trump. in 2020 , he was even involved. to attempts to review the results of the presidential election and declared that donald trump won, because of this, too, democrats will criticize him. so he's very close to donald trump, he 's out of his political wing, but when

it comes to mike johnson, let's be honest. many of us, myself included, had to learn who google's mike johnson was, so little known was he in republican circles, but as one republican told me, think about mike pence, well mannered, very conservative and faithful christian, but kind of decaffeinated, i.e. not that interesting. so, mike johnson is modest, very resilient, maybe he will win over the democrats, as he himself said. let's see, it hasn't happened in washington for a long time. it really wasn’t, and the already mentioned mike pentz, he is a republican, was the vice president during trump’s term in the white house, and by the way, if something happens to the president of the united states, it is the vice president who takes over the powers, and the second in line is the speaker of the house representatives so, speaker congress is an important position, but how decisive is it with regard to american aid to ukraine. this is what we asked columnist mykhailo

samus. the role of the speaker, it is important, is a moderator who organizes the process, but still, one should not exaggerate the importance of the figure of the speaker, he cannot single-handedly make this or that decision, although of course, that is human nature, he can to influence the preparation of decisions, to put or not to put a relevant decision, or in which to... at any time put to a vote, we know all these features political processes in different countries, all this can be manipulated, influenced, and so on , but one should not exaggerate, i.e., well, for example , if we are talking about the previous decisions, the allocation to ukraine, the f-16s themselves and the transfer of ammunition, the transfer of attack missiles, i i think that these processes will not be stopped, they will continue, and at least until the elections in the united states, that is , we have 24 years and these decisions, they will only

be implemented, as for the future, well, it will depend on after all, the presidential election and who will enter the white house after the elections, and by the way, you can read more about the new speaker of the us house of representatives, mike johnson, on our website bbc.ua in this article, why is his election important for ukraine? and i already am. mentioned the $100 billion military aid package that biden is proposing congress approve for ukraine and israel. so, the new speaker proposes to consider it separately, which can slow down the process. but to what extent ukraine now competes with israel for military aid from the united states. we also asked mykhailo samus about this. if talk about the possibility of the united states to combine aid to ukraine and israel, first of

all, it should be noted, it is completely. other characteristics of the hostilities of the theater of war, that is, they cannot be compared in terms of scale, and if you even look at the maps, the war between russia and ukraine, russia is the largest country in the world, ukraine is the largest country in europe, territory, potential and so on , military potential, involved, power from both countries, it simply cannot even be compared to what is happening in israel and terrorist organizations, when they say that israel will now need the same amount of ammunition in ukraine, this is not true, the military potential of israel is powerful, it also has aviation, it does not need to hand over f-16s, it does not need to hand over atakavs , he does not need to transfer weapons that the united states only promised to ukraine , that is, israel is ready for war much better, if we talk about competition, i can give an example, for

ukraine, for example, it is now very acceptable, i would say expedient, to supply the united states states, just cluster ammunition, which, well, not always, not only human rights organizations are favorable to this, but also in many parts of the world, in many countries, especially the civilized world, they deny the use of cluster ammunition, and indeed in the gas sector, cluster ammunition should be used absolutely it is inhumane, and it is absolutely contrary to the military task to set, but for ukraine, in the steppes of the zaporozhye region, in the donbass and in the kherson region, i think that cluster munitions are very, very appropriate to use, they show their very high efficiency precisely in the defensive lines that the russians had built there. well, that wraps up our newscast, next time see you on monday at 90pm, all

the best! good health ladies and gentlemen, my name is mykola veresen, until about 10 p.m. we will work for 55 minutes and we will have both war and diplomacy, france, china, poland, israel, in short, it looks like this, well, let's definitely start with the war, that 's what hurts. among all ukrainians, oleksandr musienko, director of the military-legal center of research, he is in touch with us, we see him, thank you, mr. oleksandr, for finding time for us, thank you very much, so my first question, so cunning, i would say, is that the russian federation, led by mr.

putin, simulated a nuclear a strike, well, like even a massive nuclear strike, i thought to myself, well, everyone is afraid of that too. strike, everyone is waiting, suddenly, will he dare, he doesn’t dare, and sometimes i have the impression that maybe he doesn’t dare because he knows the quality of these missiles, he gives himself up, i imagine such a picture, he is such a person , which suspects the whole world around him, and he says: come on, start, but it doesn't fly, and then the end of history, you understand, the end of russia, the end of russia. federation, the end of the russian empire, the end of the ussr, everything is coming to an end, and therefore, in addition to scaring, we are afraid, but he is also afraid, and suddenly it will not fly away, considering even this, mr. alexander, that he was preparing for war, this is the second army of the world, hello, but it is not the second

, it turns out, and now it is sitting there in the kremlin at home and i think, well, listen, how have they not prepared here, it is bad here, it is bad here, here... it's bad, but if i say pli , and it's not pli, you discussed such options between the left and right parts of your brains, yes, i discussed and considered, but i'll tell you, let's think like this, let's consider how much percent of everything will not fly, that is, you understand that taking into account the reserves of russia, even if 90% does not fly, even if 10 fly, then... it is still a lot, that is, it is also a lot, and it is 500, because they have somewhere more than 500 warheads, so 10%, this is 500 warheads, well, that is, even if, even if 500, well, that is, we have to understand that it is still a lot, because after all, i understand and allow that a certain number

of their nuclear arsenals, the very carriers, i mean, of these weapons, they can be in such in an unusable state, it's true. this is how it should be understood, but i also understand and realize that based on the information provided, which was based on conclusions, even when the relevant observations and monitoring took place, when the relevant agreements were in force, and russia was a participant, that is, they monitored one one location of weapons and so on, the usa and the soviet union, well, then russia , of course western analysts, they also calculate these options, here is the probability that even though something could fly there and eventually cause an irreparable nuclear war, it exists and it is always such an element of deterrence for the event, for the corresponding reaction, etc., but it should also be noted that in the end, if we

look, in principle, the doctrines of war that existed at all, and which were based on the use of nuclear weapons, nevertheless predicted... that in the event of a war and in the event of a major conventional war, the parties were preparing both the usa and the soviet union, and then russia to exchange tactical nuclear strikes, and as for tactical nuclear weapons, russia has a lot of questions, but in the end the very factor of that , that they have something and it can fly away, it is definitely present, and i think this is the element and the factor that deters the west from reacting. because i think, you know, if it weren't for this factor and if it weren't for these ideas, which are somewhat possibly mythologized, they are exaggerated, about this one about nuclear power russia, if they were not in the west, then perhaps something would have flown at the kremlin a long time ago, from different sides, i admit, and since no one wants to allow a nuclear

confrontation, it is obvious that, let's say, they take into account the factors that certain arsenals they have such, and it is of course that there are still risks, you mentioned about 500 missiles, well, this is equal to, for example, almost the same potential that china has, for example, that in general pakistan has more than 200, small, but but, but india doesn't attack pakistan either, because well, even 200 is a lot, now from such a global issue to a very ukrainian issue called avdiyivka, how do you evaluate, evaluate? the situation in the oleksandr case in the avdiyiv direction, because there are very controversial opinions, some say that the russians almost surrounded the ukrainians there, others say that they did not surround them, even the road. there is one, and the third say that one is not too expensive, the fourth say that it is a trap for the russians, the fifth say that the weather

has already rained and the russians will not be able to advance, in short, such and such a dispersion of different opinions, what do you say , i will say that well first of all, if we look at the situation, in general, from the northern and southern flanks , the russian troops were at a distance somewhere...' earlier, since march of this year, since march of this year, they were actually standing on one flank from the north, the other from the south, the distance between them was about 15 km. now this distance has really shortened, now the russian troops managed to advance at the cost of heavy losses, well, the president said that they practically lost a brigade there, russian troops, that’s really a lot, a large number equipment, however, well, now... we can see these flanks, which i am talking about, where there are red arrows, it was about 15 km, and this situation has been like this since

the beginning of the year, so we can say that since the beginning of the year, avdiyivka was under semi-encirclement, in a real situation, and the situation there was really difficult, now it was all intensifying, of course, one of the goals pursued by the occupiers is to encircle our group of troops, cut off from support, well if ... then it will not be possible to go into these frontal attacks, whether they are frontal or not they are now carrying out, it is obvious that what they will continue, will try in the future , will push there, at the cost of great losses, it is clear that for them this issue now stands, well, let's say, as an extremely important task, taking into account the entire situation on the front line, and they will try to see how far they will succeed or fail and within what time limits , well, only the development of the situation on the battlefield will show, only , only the combat conditions and only, and only after that will it be possible to draw any conclusions,

it is difficult to make any predictions now, and these are the tunnels which the russians are digging under the cover and in these tunnels it is as if they are advancing, and it is as if when i spoke with specialists, they said that this is a normal state of affairs, this happens very often, and it happened even during the first world war and so on, and now this is happening, well, actually, this, well, it’s hard for me to imagine an offensive, this , well, these tunnels have to be dug for weeks, and and and and ukrainian troops are also standing there and probably watch and see and and and many tunnels not on them damn, what do you say about those tunnels, how far is it at all, or can it be, that's my next question, maybe this is a sign of braking at the front, maybe? we are entering the winter period, when these tunnels are used as arrangements for ourselves, and not for and not

for an attack on ukraine, on the ukrainian troops, well, indeed, on the one hand, we must understand that these tunnels and dugouts, they are now typical for the front line, in the east, especially, i can tell you, there are a lot of them near bakhmut, and the peculiarity is why the advance is not so fast, because you have to pass, and they buried whole networks of them. and they set up ambushes, well, because, of course, that's what it is certain challenges and threats, the fact that russian troops are digging tunnels here right now is just a sign of our good defensive actions, and signs of how ukrainian troops are fighting back, in fact, because the calculation was absolutely clear, it was obvious, and we saw these all the cadres watched how these columns moved, with disantura on armor and so on, and it all happened. that is, they wanted to take, come in with equipment, they thought that they would succeed. and then, when it was already two attacks,

at least two stages of those attacks were repelled by ukrainian troops, they began to search and to be clever, and how can you, let's say, try to improve your tactics, they invented tunnels, well, tunnels are for subversive groups that can come in and perform some tasks point by point, these are not the tunnels when someone had an idea to undermine, under the medieval the fortress, entered, opened the gates and let in another part of the army, no, absolutely, so these are certain threats, but they, they are perhaps even a little exaggerated, and here i agree with you that they need to prepare, you know, there are open areas of the area, they are under that terekon hid as much as they could from the artillery, and there they were taken out by drones, so of course, they dig it up in order to protect themselves from the counterattacks of the ukrainian troops. mr. alexander, what will happen in winter? again, there is a big debate here, some say that the ukrainian army will not stop and will

continue, at least there in the south. and even in the south and east, others say no, in winter it is very difficult, it is almost impossible, and it helps ukraine to contain the russian counteroffensive, and it is not a question of what the ukrainians will continue to carry out their tasks given by the general staff , and we can see that we are now holding back very well, look, come on, it was obvious that the idea was for the russian troops to start... actions for the fall and winter in the east, it was predicted why east? two reasons, the first is to withdraw our forces from the south, because it was important for them to do this, because they are wary that there may be some actions from our side in the winter, in the direction of melitopol, for example, at least this was even announced publicly by our military and political leadership, the east is more convenient for them, because it is closer to russia there, plus they

had more opportunities in the occupied territories during the years of occupation to create a certain network... logistical support, ukrainian forces are hitting them, but they still create, plus no were still destroyed, so they started in the east, but please note that the plan was obviously to activate a powerful, powerful offensive and combat operations in the kupinsk-lymansk direction and in the avdiivsk direction, now it is obvious that kupinsk has been reflected, there the weather conditions are somewhat still got in the way, but they left to avdiivka, that's why, but we saw how actively our units operate in active defense, deter and destroy the enemy, and it also works, and further, i think that the scenario for the winter will be such that we will mostly be in active defense, if suddenly it will not happen, for example, that there are currently some events on the left bank of the kherson region, where it will not happen so unexpectedly , i hope, perhaps for the enemy, that there will be some of our actions there, there is various information, it comes from there, some kind of flank

operation will not succeed, which, well to which in general, already... no one thought and prepared directly for the winter and then long-range weapons will be used to defeat the rear, plus the actions of small groups in the south, in the east there will be defense, well, then everything will depend on our support, on our partners, what weapons we will receive, and under these, under these weapons , taking into account already planning the tasks that we can perform. thank you, thank you to oleksandr musienko, director of the center for military legal research, thank you very much. oleksandr, as far as i am informed, pavlo klimkin, diplomat, minister of foreign affairs of ukraine from 14 to 19 years, joins us, thank you, mr. pavle, thank you, mr. minister, for finding time for us on friday evening, not everyone finds time on friday evening, congratulations,

please tell me, what is the trend, the defeat of the anti-european...' well, conditionally , the anti-european forces in poland or the victory of the anti-european forces in slovakia, or could it be something like this: the urbanization of eastern europe, central eastern europe, is this a trend, or is it like this , well, these are the exceptions of today, but tomorrow everything will be fine and will be again, as they said in the soviet union, friendship is chewing gum, well, that is, either everything is great, or everything is lost, betrayal or victory, yes, yes, yes, yes, in fact, as in that bearded joke, neither one nor the other, it’s them, you know, as in the east, as in yin, they are afraid, i actually see authoritarian tendencies now, well, we all know the hurshchyna, slovakia has already been discussed, there is nowhere else to go, not everything is perfect in the czech republic there either, and we

know that there are enough populists there too, well, and poland, the result is actually very difficult, and i believe that donald tusk has a lot at the moment cool positions regarding the formation of a coalition, but they are not one hundred percent, other options are possible, and in key positions, representatives of the ruling party, that is, the start of a new coalition, if it is an opposition one, will not be very, very rosy, but also, it is very important to understand whether central and eastern europe , they will be determined in the future , as you said, by the struggle of these tendencies, well, conditionally, such stable, perfect democrats, and equally stable, but imperfect autocrats, and the father's struggle, it is