from my family, my father and stepfather are fighting, they have been fighting for about eight months, we need to win this war as soon as possible, help the boys, from kropyvnytskyi for the espresso tv channel. congratulations, the program of the ukrainian voice of america service, chas time, is on the air. i am oleksiy kovalenko, the host. leaders of 27 countries of the european union gathered in brussels on october 26-27 for a summit. among the main topics of international discussion was the situation in the gas sector and ukraine. the president of the european council, charles michel, emphasized the importance of cohesion and unity, as well as support for ukraine as long as necessary. we will talk more about this with our european. correspondent

bohdan tsyupin, who joins us from london. bohdan, congratulations. in addition to the issue of aid to ukraine, the summit in brussels also discussed events in the middle east. with the new war in the middle east, isn't the issue of ukraine now taking a backseat? also, can you say what is the fate of the €50 billion aid package for ukraine, which we know is currently being considered in brussels? so, as for the near east, you are with us. in the reports, in particular, we saw and heard that the middle east is now being talked about by everyone, everywhere, and in particular, the european leaders in brussels at this meeting, there is also a large section devoted to the problems of the middle east in the final document agreed upon as a result of the two-day summit, but still

, this section is in the second place, in the first place, the issue of ukraine, that is, the middle east and the problem between israel and hamas, this is , of course, a big problem, but the russian war against ukraine, it is still more a european problem, we can say , as far as the 50-billion-dollar aid package for ukraine is concerned, this issue remains on the agenda, and ursula fondern gave no indication that this package is under any serious threat now? it was very clear during the discussion that, despite the geopolitical tensions in the middle east, we will continue to focus on supporting ukraine, and therefore i very much welcome the fact that yesterday you invited president zelensky to speak with us via video link, we will continue to supply much-needed weapons and ammunition, we will continue to provide much- needed... financial assistance. if

you look at the european team, then in general we have already provided ukraine with almost 83 billion euros of aid. now the next step is to approve a program for ukraine worth 50 billion euros. because ukraine needs reliable and predictable financial support. of course, we will also support ukraine on its path to membership. we will give our progress assessment in early november. bohdan, but we know that despite the call for unity of the european union summit, we also heard him. you are against the support of ukraine, in particular from slovakia and hungary. is it possible to talk about the formation of such a pro-russian bloc in the european union, and what could this mean for the future support of ukraine? we have been following hungarian prime minister viktor orbán for a long time and know his position to a certain extent repeats what is declared in moscow regarding the war, on the other side of the statements. that

hungary helps ukraine in general, but does not want to help only militarily, this time mr. orbán had to justify his handshake with the president of russia vladimir putin during his visit to beijing, which concerns the relatively new face, the old new face of the prime minister of slovakia, because he was already in this position before, he also, when it comes to communication, says in brussels more appeasingly, again, very interesting statements sometimes come out of his mouth, such as can be read in pro-russian anonymous channels on the internet, about fascists in ukraine, about er, ukraine as the most corrupt state in the world, but on the other hand, he sometimes shows signs that he is ready to play a certain constructive role. here is

one of the excerpts of his words. again, to avoid any red tape, i made it very clear in my speech that we do. helped ukraine, i reminded about gas, otherwise ukraine would freeze if there was no gas reversal. our people welcomed the refugees, shared food, and so this assistance will continue, if for example they need some equipment in the winter, some heating systems, for example, mobile, then i will look for some options, but i also very clearly said on session, that when it comes to weapons from the warehouses of the army of the slovak republic, the government will not continue this policy here , because i have a different opinion about the war in ukraine, that there is no military solution to the conflict in ukraine, and plus, of course, i said that in the case of sanctions, because there is another proposal for the 12th package, we will watch very carefully that they will not harm us, at the beginning of november, as we know, there will be a report assessing the prospects of ukraine's membership in

the european union, bohdan, how likely ukraine's accession to the eu now looks like and what was actually said about it at the summit itself? the accession of ukraine to the eu does not seem likely now, but the beginning of the process of ukraine's accession to the european union, it looks quite realistic given the signals we hear, see, notice from brussels, in particular , ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy spoke about this process, which had the opportunity to address the participants of the summit via video link, and as already mentioned, literally in a week, a little more, in november, we are expecting a report from the european commission on an assessment of ukraine's readiness to the beginning of the negotiation process with the european union on accession, and then already at the next summit

in december, in mid-december, the heads of states and governments of the eu will have to decide on this issue, if there is a recommendation from the european commission, then they... will have to decide whether to start the accession process negotiations on ukraine's accession to the european union, such a process can last many years, in the best case, for example, sweden, it was two years, in other cases 10 or more. thank you very much, bohdan, for such a thorough analysis of the results of the summit of the european union, and i will remind our viewers that our european correspondent, bohdan tsyupin, was in touch with us directly from london. and in other news, the new speaker of the us house of representatives, mike johnson, advocated that congress consider aid to ukraine and israel separately. he also demands

greater accountability from the white house on aid to ukraine. during the meeting at the white house, the speaker presented 12 questions to us national security advisor jake sullivan regarding assistance to ukraine. at the same time, johnson expressed his commitment the policy of the us policy on aid to ukraine. we also know that ukraine's ambassador to the us, oksana markarova, commented on concerns about ukraine's future support in congress at a conference of military reporters and editors in washington. in the military sense , we are 100% dependent on our partners. now yes, we started our own. drones and ukraine is one of the fastest producers of these new capabilities, but we desperately need air defense and artillery. recently, we had a big defense forum industry in ukraine, so we are trying to establish a partnership, but it will take time, we do not want to be 100% dependent on our friends

and allies, so we are waiting for our own restart of our production, but it will take time. that's why this extra help is so important now. we have help from european countries, japan and others. countries also help us, but without the united states, of course, it will be very difficult. i look at all the polls, i talk to a lot of people in the us, i talk to both parties, and we all we still have the support of both parties. and at that time , on october 28-29 , an international meeting at the level of national security advisors will be held on the territory of the island of malta. more than 50 countries are expected to participate in it. representatives of these countries will discuss the implementation of the formula. peace of ukraine. we will remind you that this is a continuation of previous meetings in denmark and saudi arabia. strategic communications coordinator of the us national security council , john kirby, said in an interview with voice of america that the creation of a peace formula for ukraine is important issue, and the united states is doing everything possible to bring it up to date. we

believe that the peace formula is important, and we are doing everything possible to help implement it and put it into action. i have no agenda. or the list of participants, to talk now about the meeting in malta, but we fully support ukraine's efforts to continue cooperation with the international community, and again to promote this peace formula, for it is important that whatever peace looks like in ukraine, it is important that it was acceptable to president zelski and ukrainian people, and it should start with their peace formula. and actually, one of the tasks of such meetings regarding the peace formula for ukraine is to enlist the support of the countries of the global south. how russian aggression is treated in the global south, in particular in african countries, my colleague ostap yarysh talked with chat house researcher olga tokaryuk, who recently. she went to a conference in south africa, very strong

anti-western sentiments and, well, it is interesting that these are actually anti-european sentiments, because in the countries africa, europe and the expression european values ​​are perceived through a completely different prism than it is perceived in ukraine , for us european values ​​are something positive, these are the values ​​of freedom, democracy, these are the values ​​that ukraine strives for, on the other hand, in african countries, european values is oppression. this is colonization , this is the use of resources, this is simply using the countries of africa for their own needs, and accordingly, when ukraine communicates with these countries, we must be very careful in what even the vocabulary we use and what we talk about, and here, of course, it is much better to communicate, to talk about some common experience of colonial oppression, because in principle ukraine is not perceived as a country that also had its own struggle against colonialism against russian oppression, few

in africa knows that the ukrainian language was banned, that ukrainian culture was also under oppression for centuries and decades, and actually, when you start talking about it, more points of contact appear, that is, the main narrative - this is natural and the narrative used by russia is connected with the past of african countries, with the colonial past, the narrative that europe is bad, that nothing good can come from cooperation with... and russia is an alleged alternative to imperialist europe, imperialist of the west, and to break this myth about russia as an alternative to western alleged imperialism and actually blindness to the fact that russia itself is an empire, well, this is probably the main task of ukraine. you know, i've also heard arguments that say, why does the west need us to indicate who should be our ally and who should not, we ourselves have the right to decide with whom we should build an alliance. these are the thoughts, in particular, from certain african leaders who gave comments in the meeting

, how to work with such an approach in ukraine, yes, because it seems that here, no matter what arguments ukraine gives, they will hit the wall, no, absolutely, i believe that, first of all, we should learn to listen and hear our partners from the countries of the global south, and listen to their opinion, to their vision, i think that this is actually some kind of show of respect, empathy, that we're not just here to talk about us, but we want to listen to you, we want to know your story, we want to know what's on your mind, that's actually what helps make those connections, and i saw during my trip to south africa, i spoke at the university of pretoria at a conference, also at the university of johannesburg, i talked to students, i saw, at least in this academic environment, among the youth, african, in south africa, students study not only from this country from other african countries, i i saw in them a great interest, in principle , in what is happening in ukraine. a certain skepticism, of course, to the theses that we are resisting the imperial invasion, because

for them this is a completely new thesis, a completely new opinion, they do not perceive russia as an empire, but if you start to explain, start giving examples from the history of ukraine and draw certain parallels with the history of african countries, then understanding appears and people begin to nod their heads, returning to the news from the middle east, the israeli armed forces are expanding a ground-based ground operation in gaza, said daniel gagari, spokesman for the idf. thousands of israeli troops in the air, on land and at sea are on the border with the palestinian territory, the representative of the israeli army said. all this is happening against the background of massive airstrikes in gaza city. the israeli army is urging civilians to move south to the egyptian border, where they will be safer. israeli aryeh ben yehuda has been fighting for. a thrice-wounded man has several military awards from president zelenskyi and general zaluzhnyi. when he heard about

the attack of hamas on his country, he took the first plane back home. however, after staying in israel for only a few days, he decided to return to ukraine. she needs my help, she needs my help now more - said an israeli volunteer with whom my colleague antalka churiko spoke in an interview with voice of america. his name is arie ben yehuda, he is 58 years old, and he has nothing to do with ukraine. before the war, no ties with ukraine, my ex corrects me an israeli policeman who has been fighting for ukraine for over a year and a half. after seeing footage of the war from ukraine and hearing president zelensky's call to foreign fighters to come to help ukraine, i thought: "i have knowledge and experience, i should go and help." the experience of serving in the israeli army and more than 22 years of police service

is what was needed, he was confirmed at the ukrainian embassy in tel aviv, and a few days later he was already in ukraine, and soon on the front lines. he names places where he had to fight side by side with ukrainians. first as part of the international legion, and later in the regular ukrainian brigade. according to him, ukrainians welcomed him with open arms. to the front line, the more ukrainians appreciate what you do for them, the attitude of those whom we freed cannot be compared with the attitude of people in kyiv or lviv, who are also sometimes bombed, but they are not under threat of occupation, the people you free , this is greatly appreciated, when we liberated bucha in the 22nd year, the old people brought us food to at least somehow thank us, it was their last

food, we understood that and of course we refused, but it was very touching, because they ... well understood that we came to free them from russian tyranny, they didn't care what color you were, whether you were a christian, or a muslim, or a jew, whether you're from england or israel, they appreciated every bit of help, says arieh ben yehuda, who was born in england and moved to israel as an adult, converting to judaism. he was wounded three times in ukraine. shrapnel hit him in the leg in verpen, and his humvee blew up last september mini. he nearly lost an eye in the summer when shrapnel hit him in the face. for his contribution to the ukrainian struggle, the israeli volunteer was awarded several ukrainian combat awards, a gold cross from general zaluzhnyi and an order for courage of the third degree from president zelenskyi. but when beniguda saw the footage

of the hamas attack on israeli towns, he immediately remembered what he had seen in ukraine. it reminded me of buch, and the atrocities that happened in buch, it was the same. as ben yehuda says, he was amazed how ukraine reacted to the events in israel as their own misfortune. i was discharged from the hospital in kyiv when it happened. i found out about the attack, probably around this morning, half an hour after the first attack. as soon as i got out of the hospital, i contacted my commander and told him what i needed. to go, he said: yes, of course, and i got on the first plane to israel. due to the current events taking place in my country and the personal losses i have recently experienced, i have decided to return to israel, my thoughts and prayers i'm still with ukraine and its people, but it's time for me to go, - huda wrote on social networks, but

after a few days he was already returning. to ukraine. my part was not drafted, so i can return and be useful in ukraine, because we are fighting the same enemy. he adds that if his help is still needed in israel, his ukrainian experience will come in handy. the fight against drones. the palestinians use drones similar to those used by the russians in ukraine. i have been at war with them for more than a year, and the palestinians before them did not use back then, in march of the 22nd year, i said that this war in ukraine would one day reach israel, no one believed me , they said that there was nothing to do with it, but now it is becoming obvious, according to the way hamas is fighting, i can say that they were definitely trained by the russians , they get help with weapons from iran, which supplies drones to russia, so i think everything

is connected here, in his opinion, the war in israel will not last long. unlike ukraine. i really hope that the war in israel will not divert the attention of americans from ukraine, and the ukrainians will get all the weapons they were promised earlier, because the ukrainians are now helping israel and they need weapons much more than israel. ukrainians learn very quickly, it is necessary to give them f16 as soon as possible, because they will master them very quickly. i saw how they studied new tanks, how they improvised. it turned out that when asked about plans after the war, he also answers with the question: which of them? yes, good question, both. big cherka in the crimea, somewhere on the beach, and then return home, i hope it will also be in israel rest. natalia churikova, dmytro savchuk, voice of america. a neurosurgeon from one of

the largest american hospitals visited ukraine in the summer, where he treated war injuries and healed old family wounds. in the hospital, nimechnikov helped perform more than 20 operations in 17 days. in kyiv, he remembered his jewish ancestors who fled ukraine more than 100 years ago. he told my colleague ilona vaytovych about his experience. american doctor conor berlin decided to spend his summer vacation away from home, in quiet virginia with his family. instead, he flew to ukraine to help doctors save wounded soldiers. dnipro is the city where i am most in demand, and i wouldn't want to be a burden either, so although i would definitely get good experience operating

in lviv, kyiv and other places, that's not what i went to ukraine for. 30-year-old conor is a neurosurgeon. in three weeks at the mechnikov hospital , he helped perform 20 operations, pulled out fragments, restored vital tissues and reconstructed the skull. on my first day at the hospital, i walked into the ward neuroresuscitation was built on the site of empty operating rooms. the intensive care units have only five beds for patients, all attached to ventilators, all soldiers. the soldiers were also lying in the corridor. i'm not trying to shame these practices, it just struck me how dire the situation really is. i almost cried that first day, because the soldiers were very mutilated, you will not see this in the usa, very, very rarely do doctors encounter this. at this moment, it seems that i realized the

sacrifice that these people have made and are making for the sake of his country. you know, it was very important to see, it motivated me to do my work. he says that he communicated with his ukrainian colleagues in a common language. is almost shared and that's a strength, there's just an understanding when you're working with somebody or helping somebody, you don't have to say anything, you understand that a good surgeon knows what we're trying to do, that's how i can help colleagues to perform this or that part of the operation, on the day of the medical worker, which was first celebrated in ukraine on july 27, conor berlin received honorary gram... of the mechnikov hospital from the hands of its general director professor serhiy ryzhnyk. dr. honor berlin is awarded.

they gave me the first award for helping out, and it was totally undeserved in my opinion compared to the hard work these people do every day, but i thought it was very nice. instead, the american was impressed by the bravery and dedication of ukrainian doctors who work under the sound. you're operating on an open brain and you can't escape, that 's the reality of the situation and the doctors know it, self-sacrifice, for my part i don't feel that a victim, especially on the part of ukrainian doctors there is no such feeling, they are extremely selfless. conor saw firsthand the critical nature of the situation during martial law. doctors do not turn away. nobody, neither the sick nor the wounded, not even his enemy. that was one of the first questions, were there russian soldiers here? they tell me,

yes, we treat them. perhaps the only thing that sets our profession apart from others is that we take the hippocratic oath, an oath to treat all patients, regardless of their beliefs. some doctors don't they keep their oaths, but ukrainian doctors do. i think eat. what distinguishes us ukrainian doctors from the russians is that they will treat everyone , as soon as they stop doing it, everything they are fighting for will die, because we are fighting for freedom and democracy, humanity and all those values, for who have already given their lives so much. during three weeks of working with ukrainian colleagues, he believes that he learned more from them than they learned from him. ponor is a former firefighter, but says neurosurgery... is his calling. most of what i want do related to the spine. ugh. he is in the fourth of seven years of clinical

residency at the university of virginia hospital. neurosurgery, having basic knowledge, he planned to go to ukraine in the fall as part of the charity project of the razom co-pilot project. he read about previous missions of american neurosurgeons to ukraine on the internet. so why are you so affected by these events? i think there are a few reasons why it's obviously good versus evil. what russia is doing is simply absolute. right, i think people should think about it every day, on a personal level i have a deep family connection with ukraine, more than 100 years ago my family fled ukraine, so did you manage to meet zelenskyi? i was a moment away from meeting him during his visit, what happened? he met with the manager there, he left very quickly, probably for

security reasons. conor always knew about his ukrainian-jewish roots. last year, his relative wrote the story of lilia's great-grandmother, who witnessed anti-semitism at the age of 15. the book was called a family saga. felsher's great-grandmother's father was killed along with his two sons during pogroms in 1918 in kyiv region . more than 100 years ago, my great-great-great-aunt lilya fled ukraine. this story was handed down from generation to generation. at that time , there were great pogroms in eastern europe and ukraine. on easter sunday , the story goes, the townspeople got drunk and started killing jews. and so his so-called final punishment for being a jew was to have his sons killed before his eyes. then he was killed and lilya saw it all. in the biography it is said that lilya had a hard time surviving the tragedy, and

until she got married, at the age of 18 she met her future husband lou berlin in kyiv and with the help of his relatives from america emigrated to new york. we grew up with such an impression of ukraine, that this is the place from which we fled, but this does not reflect today's ukraine. studies conducted in eastern europe show that it has one of the lowest rates of anti-semitism of all eastern european countries. conor says that he is a witness to this, for him the trip to ukraine became a personal journey that opened up to him eyes i can say from personal experience, being there, i did not experience any anti-semitism, i openly said that i was jewish. when i was in kyiv, i asked to be taken to baben yar. at that moment i thought, okay, this is why i'm here, i'm here to do i think, i know

my ancestors would be proud of me. when the war ends, he plans to return and share the experience with his parents. ilona vaytovych, vyacheslav elyushkin, voice of america from virginia. that's all we'll say goodbye, also watch our daily briefings at 18 on youtube and facebook, where you are live you can ask us your questions. thank you for staying with us. good night and good morning, see you soon, congratulations, we have great news about ten-year-old liza, whom we have been looking for for almost two years, we managed to establish that the girl is alive,

everything is fine with her and now she is... abroad with her guardians, and the story of finding lisa was very difficult, we did everything possible to find the girl as soon as possible, but for a long time nothing was known about her at all, and only in september of this year we received the first one, but as it turned out, an extremely important call from a witness: a woman who now lives in spain called the hotline of the child tracing service 1163 and said that on social networks ... she saw our program about the search for lisa and recognized the girl. this girl, this lisa, this face, these eyes, this, i am sure that this is this child. the woman said that in the spring of 2022 she was a volunteer at the red cross in barcelona and helped register refugees from ukraine, and among them she remembered ten-year-old liza. and sure, lisa, and sure,