fleet of the muscovites, the cruiser moskva sank. the european parliament supported granting ukraine the status of a candidate for eu membership. we continue the saturday political club of khrystyna yatskiv and vitaly portnikov. so the asian summit. economic cooperation and the meeting of joseph biden and xijin pinh, whether it was possible to renew the necessary conditions for the coexistence of these two states within the limits of one planet. from this we will start our conversation with the next guest. valery chalylei, ambassador of ukraine to the united states in 2015-19 , chairman of the board of the ukrainian crisis medical center congratulations mr. valeria. i congratulate you. glory to ukraine. well, let's try to understand what happened during the meeting between the president of the united states and the chairman. were the expectations of this

meeting reasonable at the time of its holding? well, we knew that the expectations were different, because if you look at the indian media, then, for example, there were very high expectations, but if we talk about the american media, then it is quite calm, and if we talk about the russian media, then they are generally hysterical in them, they somehow decided that china should be on an equal footing with them. they have a strange perception of ancient times, but in reality they are now just a tool for china. regarding our expectations, of course, everyone talked about what would happen to ukraine , whether it would be possible to convince the leader of china to change his position, well, it was quite predictable, of course, it would not be possible, because that is how decisions are not made in peace there, but if we talk about the general situation, then everything that was good in this meeting was to our advantage, everything that was not resolved on... will be paid off later, and here are

the moments that were still agreed upon to resume, in relation to the circulation of narcotic substances, in relation to the resumption of military cooperation, which is actually a very important point, because just after the visit of nantsipolos to taiwan, if i am not mistaken , china china unilaterally, in fact, stopped the communication of the military, the united states and actually ... of their chinese, can this be considered, well, a return to zero at least from such a big, big minus, well, if we take the reference point last year on november 22, when the meeting was held, then in principle, i think that they are leveling the situation to such a level now, it has already become quite emotional , and the fact that these so-called spy bullets were shot down,

of course, these were already the reactions of the americans to the really quite active, active activity of china in the united states in acquiring additional technologies there , as the chinese are doing it all over the world, and they decided for themselves in a bilateral trade plan, ee china agreed to buy i don't know the number, but definitely more than a hundred american boeings, and, accordingly, the usa at normal prices... the market will be sold to china, in particular agricultural products, but in the economy the two sides have reached solutions, as for military issues, they did not have such deep military cooperation, it is about three things, the first is the line of communication, the so-called red line, when the escalation acquires a threatening character, there is a direct line between the military , by the way, washington and moscow also have such a line, and they also

resumed the work of the military-political commission, well, it is not exactly the commission that we have, for example, on the deepening of procurement there weapons, more something, no, these are once again political issues in the military sphere, and on maritime issues, they also have a commission, they will also resume this work, that is, they will actually fill up for the next year, these relations with such demonstrative steps from both sides, and i said, and i think this hypothesis is supported, that after all, from the point of view of the domestic positions of the united states and china, it was beneficial to pause to avoid confrontation in a year when it is not beneficial for either china or the united states, that is, the u.s. election, joseph biden needs a situation predicted, and this is the day, the situation is such that he expects elections in the republic of china, on january 13, that is in taiwan, and

will see further whether taiwan can be controlled without the use of military means, and obviously he asked, well, asked or insisted. as he said, dividing the world was, in fact, such a claim, but at least for this period not to take any steps in the usa, in the south asian part, and china will also, i think, refrain from reverse steps that would create problems for the united states, but whether it applies and how it applies to the middle east and europe, it is difficult to say, i will only say one thing that exactly... the main thing is that we do not know yet, i have not seen any manifestations yet, it is their walk in the garden, which, well, actually , without translators, they discussed those issues that could be trusted only between them, and you know that the relationship between joseph biden sydzeny

is quite old, they met 10 years ago, by the way, sydzeny always emphasizes this, and it is clear, that it is very important for the chinese now where to achieve success, because they themselves do not know, what will happen in a year, because i will remind you, the position of donald trump, during his presidency in the previous one, was very tough towards china, especially in economic matters, so the complex of issues is more bilateral, and such a claim that the world is now bipolar, and in principle, it seems that everyone accepted this, if you look at the comments of various publications in different parts of the world, everyone somehow calmly accepted that the world has returned to polarity, and you agree with this idea, mr. valery, of a bipolar world, how much is it realistically, as far as you can imagine, the two main powers in the world right now are the united states and the people's republic of china, and india, and russia's capabilities, what does it look like realistically, first of all, the forecast is this, and i talked

about it, not only me , you also said, mr. vitali, the same thing, a year ago, and in principle , the scenario, the scenario is going like this . word, there is really more population now, there, they are trying somewhere to keep up with china in the space program, in the nuclear program, although they are lagging behind in the number of warheads, that is obvious, but as for russia, well, russia is not here, in my opinion, it is already clear. russia in an independent version, since they, in some of their brains are so sick, they said a multipolar world, meaning russia, it is obvious that it will be a player, russia will not be a player, and someone says that

they could even discuss how what to do next with russia's nuclear potential in the future, well , these are assumptions, speculations, i think we are unlikely to know it, but russia is no more. whether india will be, it is difficult for me to say whether india will be, because india has many of its own internal problems, and the fact that there will be an escalation in this region, well, it all goes to that, because a lot of contradictions were accumulating there, there are nuclear countries china is surrounded, in fact, there are unpredictable actions of north korea, and i don't know what russia can offer here besides nuclear crimea. of the nuclear potential, which was inherited from the soviet union, but it is telling that sidzenpin did not pay any attention to the russians. i will say one thing, we did not pay attention to apec at all, it so happened that everyone came to the summit of asia-pacific cooperation, but

this summit did not interest anyone at all, everyone was interested in this bilateral meeting, but in fact russia was also there, i was for the minister of defense of russia present, were...' in the economic bloc, they were not visible at all, it's not that china didn't notice them, they weren't even noticed there by those countries that participated from this apec system, that is, no, there is no russia, and therefore, in principle, it is the further away russia is will fight against ukraine, then its subjectivity in the world will fall , not grow, and this is a huge mistake of putin , because he thinks the opposite, but you can see that the subject of russia is falling, realistically, and this is one of the results of this apec summit, where i emphasize once again, russia was completely speechless, so look for some material from the media that russia has announced something at apec, try, i did not find any material, but if

we talk about the vote, let's talk about it, about voting in the congress on aid to ukraine, well, we are already... in that one the point where the situation is dynamically changing, and well, there are two scenarios, i will say the main ones, the first scenario is still the best for us , they vote... the package is where there are not only funds, but there is such a plan for the year, how to keep the situation under control to ukraine, there are not only funds for military supplies, but also for our stabilization, financial sphere, social sphere, the social sphere is very important, and the package has not yet been refused by the white house, it will be offered all the same, wherever together with israel and with other issues, this scenario. possible, but still i consider it less likely, after all, a more likely

scenario, when one way or another the decision on ukraine will be singled out separately, a separate vote, and then everything will not be combined into a package, in law, synchronous voting, something like that , on israel, on ukraine, on other issues, and here now the most difficult thing is the timing , that is, the time, well now... a conference is being held in halifax, there are statements of us senators, congressmen, and our members of parliament are participating there, they say that it is still possible to vote in mid-december, to be honest, i am more pessimistic about this story, so far, i still think that, unfortunately, this situation, with the fact that the temporary budget was made, gives the gap very far, even until the month of february. moreover, unfortunately, there remains a risk that no aid to ukraine will be voted at all, except

for military aid, which can be placed in nda-24, that is, it is a military budget, that is , such a situation can happen, and now the republicans are advocating it, in order to place ukraine's funds only for military purposes, military budget, and this is not a very favorable situation for us, but nevertheless, the plus point is that now there is no support with the supply of what has already been planned, and the head of the pentagon spoke about this literally yesterday, that now there is no shutdown and all, all the work of the military is going on, they are dividing the remaining funds into certain packages in order to maintain the current situation, well, but in any case , we need to concentrate now, use these weeks to get an understanding of what will happen next. next year's funding year, well, i'm trying harder

to look optimistically, although to be honest, i don’t really like the scenario that is unfolding, mr. valery, during conversations with experts, americanists, in particular ukrainian ones, such news came out that some political figures, in particular in the united states, now understanding , that the epic from the budget can continue, respectively, the epic with aid for ukraine and israel. and so on, they insist that it is necessary to look for some alternative ways of helping our country, some programs bypassing the budget itself, if we simplify, in particular for our viewers, what prospects do we have in general, well, in fact, to win even from this situation, to get help to bypass the budget, and then help from the budget, we have a tool that... currently does not work, but if the military budget for the 24th year is adopted, there is paragraph

12:24, i follow this situation myself while it remains there, and if the budget is adopted, its signing, we have a lend-lease tool, maybe not the best from the point of view of our government, i don't know why, because i think it is possible to sign a bilateral intergovernmental agreement on favorable terms for ukraine, and this lendlease does not necessarily have to provide for the return of all weapons, that is, it depends on how we write it all in the agreement, and therefore, if there is such an instrument on the table, then the opponents it will be very difficult, the republicans, by the way, supported it, and this is exactly what can unite, maybe yes, there will be certain, well , less attractive conditions, there will still have to be some funds, but this instrument must be returned, this is the first, the second, i was, you know, surprised, sort of from... america, but when donald trump said that he could be the speaker of the house of representatives,

i honestly, well, i honestly didn't know that there could be such a situation, a non-member of congress is in charge, so i i admit that there are many other nuances that the americans know deeply, appropriation , that is, the allocation of funds that they can use, we have 300 million in the budget, well , 300 million is not much, but nevertheless they are accurate. will remain, a decision has already been made on them, therefore, i think, it is necessary to look comprehensively, it is necessary to look at ours now government, really, what will happen if part of the funds are not... there will be no way to close it, this means that we need to cooperate with the european union, first of all, well, of course, japan is helping us a lot here, but literally just yesterday , the netherlands announced about 2 billion next year, that is, in principle, there will not be a catastrophe, if we collect what is called, to close these holes, but everyone understands, i emphasize, it is not only about money, it is about a signal to putin,

a signal to moscow, the position of the united states, the general understanding is not only the white house, but and the congress, and there is a risk, there is a risk that the number of these people, during the elections , republicans, who will use populist slogans, that is, give everything to america and why do we give it to the outside, will grow, so time is important, i am sure that if we do it quickly, we can in principle get a result, and the us , well, it is very important to... be a leader, remain a leader, it may be even more important than the funds that come in, and i emphasize once again , the plan that is written there, i do not see such a plan, it is clearly written there for which directions that need to be closed, with what funds, i did not find such a plan in ukraine, but the americans not only give us funding, they actually plan the medium-term perspective for ukraine, and

this is the important position in this plan, there is such a moment, what a challenge too'. certain concern, this is the mood among the republicans themselves, so i saw the report that the leader of the republicans in the senate, mitch mccone, who is a sincere supporter of ukraine and believes that ukraine should be helped, a decision should be made on what to help, that he is in as a result of such a position, he is losing ground to the republican party, that is, in fact , in order to be a representative of the republican elite, he now has to be much more cautious about helping ukraine than mr. mcconnell, on whom we could count. i think mitch mccone is losing really it's not because of that, he has two key factors, one i will say is that mike johnson took over the leadership of the republicans in the senate why did that happen because if there a minority in the senate, then it is not the minority leader who rules, but the house leader who rules

representatives, actually now mike johnson over mitch mcconconon, that would be the first thing, secondly, there is another factor, i don't want to talk about it publicly, but it affects the fact that they are already looking at his replacement, and he knows it, he frankly said about it that he is not eternal, there are questions, well, there are his personal ones, and they are already looking for candidates to replace him for the next period, so the position has really decreased politically now, and still i believe that not because of the fact that it is not because of the support of ukraine, the support of ukraine is a popular position, therefore...' republicans do in the face they can't, those who are against, yes , right now, even against direct aid, they can't say that publicly, but, well, i will say my subjective opinion, i think that mike johnson, the leader of the house of representatives is playing to come until the moment when ukraine

is not given the amount of aid that the white house is asking for, and we will see it, it seems to me that he is leading there filigree and, well, quite clearly, there are other people in the party behind him, and these people are well-known, everything has to do with the election, show the weakness of joseph biden, who stands for maximum support for ukraine, it is very profitable for them now, and they want to drag it into, you know, what kind of game, that is, if you want to give ukraine, if you want, this is such a strange situation, the republicans here, unfortunately, chose a different narrative, they did not choose a narrative to criticize their... opponents for insufficient aid to ukraine, which could have been six months ago , it was talked about, they chose another narrative, that the funds should be allocated inside america and not outside, and therefore they can strengthen this line, they will put it up for auction , well, what we call the border, actually i looked at what they are asking for on the border, it's not just the border, there are a lot of positions that

will help them in the elections in texas, in arizona, in california, and... in principle, a decrease in, for example, funding ars, this is an analogue of our tax system, they want to reduce ars, expenses, and this is a political blow to joseph biden , that is, they want to lower his chances in the elections, that’s all, but the situation with ukraine has become a hostage, this is a very bad story, so it is necessary to appeal to them, to the republicans, to those traditional republicans, but also to the opponents, i think, i emphasize this, that it would be very correct to show the real position of mike johnson in this whole story, because he is playing his game, he announced this a long time ago and he succeeds in this game, he outplays the white house so far. thank you, thank you, mr. valery, valery chalyk, former ambassador of ukraine to the united states, chairman

of the board of the ukrainian crisis medical center, and now we will move on to another important region of the world, the middle east, the 43rd day of the war with israel against the terrorist organization hamas, the 43rd day since the attack by hamas on israel, the 43rd day that there is a special operation in the territory. of the gas sector and our interlocutor, the director of the center for close school research, ihor simivolos. congratulations, mr. igor. congratulations, so what are we up to on this 43rd day, what's going on? well, if we talk about the situation in gaza itself, then there are ongoing battles, as far as it is possible to assess information from the ground, or to draw information from israeli newspapers, it turns out that so far, well, there is none. has clear signals that hamas is ready give up

actually, there is one of the last, extreme, let's say, messages from the israel defense forces tzagal, they say that they are expanding their operation in the gaza strip, namely in the areas of zeitoun, gaza city and jabalia, and they say that these are strongholds for hamas. as we understand, the search of the alshifa hospital continues, and insists that it is once again a base location and almost a decision-making center, if we didn’t hear it here from ukraine now, can we talk about getting closer to some climax point now, well, not yet, so far i don't see any such signals that say that the parties, well, in this case , the party has achieved the tasks that they set... yes, on the one hand, we see statements

representatives of the israel defense forces that hamas has lost control and coordination in the sector, on the other hand, well, so far what i read and see, well, it does not look like that, the situation with hostages taken by hamas terrorists is getting worse every day on the first day of their actions on the territory of israel itself. and with that i can't see mr. ihor, no real solution to this problem. we see that this kind of public attention is getting stronger. today there was a march of the relatives of the hostages who reached jerusalem to the office of the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu, the president of the united states, joseph biden, spoke with the emir of qatar, who can be an intermediary, that in order to release these people, but whether there is some real solution to the problem and what it might look like, well, it looks like there are two ways here, or if the israel defense forces its special services will succeed in freeing these

hostages, which as of now does not look very optimistic such forecasts, or it is really negotiations and exchange of hostages for a certain number of palestinian prisoners, well at least such negotiations are underway, showers. there are, that is, at least, there are conversations that 100 to 100, it may happen in the near future , but how it will happen, in what way, that is , it is not clear in principle, and if we are talking about what hamas can count on in this confrontation , reuters reports that iran's supreme leader ali khamenei, in fact told the leader of hamas, ismailuni, that his country would not go to war against. israel, on behalf of hamas, was allegedly offended that hamas had not been warned of its october attack. we do not know how much we can

really trust this information, we understand that even if not with our own hands and feet, then with other support options, iran will still be with hamas. as much as this is an important statement and as much as it, in general, maybe relieves a little degree of tension regarding the expansion of this conflict, eh. between hamas and the israel defense forces? well, if we if we are talking about a regional conflict , it is crazy, this shows that there are no prerequisites for a regional conflict, and this is good news, if we are talking about the statements of iran, then we should just consider them very carefully. on the one hand, of course, this is evidence that hamas is possible. exaggerated his influence on iran, and on the other hand, this may well be just a game of iran, because from the very beginning, from the beginning of this conflict, in

principle... we talked about the fact that iran would most likely not get involved in the war , it is not his style, it is not his strategy, and they will rather do, rely on their proxies and continue their own, for them the key task is, in principle, to hold the shiite corridor, and not to fight with israel. as far as, in principle, it can be said that the arab world is like this now, well, it can be said that it is cautious when it comes to the situation in the crisis between israel and hamas, that there is no desire to increase the degree of tension there, yes, it is generally cautious, if we are talking about political elites, then without a doubt, they are trying to maneuver and, if possible, put pressure on the americans, that is, they do not close any

avenues for negotiations. maybe to find some kind of compromise, but there is another issue here, this is the issue of the arab street, and it continues to press, and these are problems for a lot of arab leaders, huh. and speaking of lebanon , it seems to me that this week there were fewer informational reasons that would allow us, in general, to fear the expansion and entry of this country, or ... the proxy armies of iran on the territory of lebanon, which can join the side of hamas in this conflict. mr. simovolos, livvan and those groups that work in this sector, is there a reduction in the degree of tension? i think that what we are seeing now is a disturbing fire, that is, they are maintaining a certain level of tension, but at the same time, we see that there is no intention

to fully intervene in the conflict, that is , rather it is an exchange of such blows without the desire for further escalation, although well, of course there are hot heads in israel, they say that hezbollah should be pushed to the litany river and so on, but i think that the united states of america will not let them do it. in principle, we can say that after all these statements. hassan was screwed, it is clear that hezbollah is not in a hurry to start any active military operations against the israel defense forces, on the one hand, on the other hand, every day we see reports from lebanon about missile attacks, about the exchange of all these missile duels, as much as it cannot flare up again at any moment? well, it will depend on the two sides, yes, that is, if an israeli ground operation against lebanon begins there, then the situation

will change, well, for now i say, i see such signs, and as for lebanon, it is obvious that they will not start a ground operation, they do not want a full-scale intervention in the conflict, if only because hezbollah is feeling quite well now in the political field and livanskyi, they have the resources, they have the opportunities, so why should they slaughter the golden chicken , if we talk about the position of the president of turkey, there was already a rally, now president erdoğan is talking about the fact that he will definitely try to apply some measures of responsibility, even criminal to the leaders of israel, this is primarily a declaration, does erdogan really think about worsening relations with the jewish state in the future, what does he even want to achieve in this situation? well, this is to a certain extent a declaration, since he addresses directly his colleagues, in

this case, or to this rally, who came to him, at his request, or to representatives of his political force, and it is clear that he does not choose expressions there, he speaks there , as he deems necessary, at the same time, of course, in the international arena, he behaves more cautiously, offering, among other things, himself and as a mediator if possible , regarding the relations between turkey and israel, well, they have long since... spoiled, that is, the problem here is that they tried to restore them, but gaza crossed everything again . erdoğan visited germany , met with the president, with the chancellor, and this visit was planned back in the spring, in fact, when it became clear that erdoğan would lead turkey again after the elections, some in german...