the marketer said that ukrainians don't read much, and in general it's a nightmare, a nightmare. and for some time there were sociological studies, yes , which pointed out, which interpreted, more precisely , many people, as well, as a betrayal, that ukrainians do not read much, perhaps the phrase itself is not read much, it is kind of simple, probably that this is a more difficult question, but anyway, do you think we have this problem with... well , this readership, or is it not so bad after all? of course, ukrainians read less than us, that is, ukrainians read less than many of our neighbors, certainly british, americans, germans, french and so on, of course there are those who read even less than us, but... we should not

compare ourselves to them, because you can also make a correlation that the level of a country's income, gdp higher where people read more, or on the contrary, where people read more, higher gdp. let's focus on the leaders, as for felixov, i just admire and... such idealists who want to change the world for the better, while making money, of course, a bookstore is this, it must first of all be self-supporting, because you can't invest in the book business, in the book trade, in the same way , in the end, as in the publishing house, and, well, let him do his thing, he has such a wonderful instagram bookstore that one category likes. people recently

opened on yarvala, another bookstore opened on lysynka street, there is a different style, very minimalistic, soon i read that a bookstore will open on khreshchatyk street, and it will be too, if it is so wow-wow for me , because i can’t even imagine how much does it cost to rent a house and how many books should be sold. to her to pay, but to those people who open honor, respect, and there would be more such people in other cities, and especially in small cities, where these bookstores do not even smell, and uh, well, unfortunately, i have to end our conversation now , because i have an event ahead of me, at which they are waiting for me and... i have to appear there, yes, i

understand you, mrs. aleksandra, because usually we now have an extremely large number of people at such events, at book events , there are a lot of panels, a lot of speeches, i understand that you are waiting, thank you very much for this conversation, let you go on to the meeting, i will remind our viewers that we had the head of the ukrainian book institute oleksandra koval on the air, we talked with her about you in particular... the reading day, which has just started, is an initiative of the book institute, and a lot of people joined , as the ambassadors are called, this is what ms. oleksandra said at the beginning of our conversation, that they tried to include among the ambassadors people from other fields than the book field, this is very correct, because this is how the reading audience expands, and i want to tell you about , finally, about the rating of the most popular...

books, ms. oleksandra and i also touched on this issue a little, the ukrainian institute of books, they conducted such a survey, as far as i can understand, it cannot be considered that strongly representative, but at least these are the respondents bookstores, and well, the trend with these tops, with bestsellers, so it basically coincides with those books, which in the public sphere of people who are interested in books, follow ukrainian literature today. behind bookstores it coincides, so if we talk about the most popular ukrainian classics, which ukrainians bought in bookstores during 2023, it is, first of all, the city of valerian the undertaker, volodymyr vinnichenko’s carpathian mephistopheles, all of them are the vyhol publishing house, they have such a fashionable diverse non-canonical canon, such a series, as well as tygorlovy sad . well, to be honest

, i haven't seen this book, i can imagine how thick it is, because... the garden of gethsemane is not only an interesting, fascinating work, but it is also large, which is good, it can be stretched, read for a long time and also the story about the senatorial zone mykola khvylovy was very well bought this year, it is understandable, because all the books i mentioned are adventure, well, maybe, except for mykola khvylovy, which is more difficult to understand, everything else is excellent literature, which... especially are responding to us now, if we talk about the most popular books by modern ukrainian authors, not classics, then the book by hilarion pavlyuk is definitely the first place here, i see you are interested in the dark, here already, if you are interested in ukrainian literature again, just follow

book reviewers, book publishers , etc., this book has almost been turned into a meme, so i already use this phrase in many posts... i see that you are interested in the dark , and of course, it is so successful, as it is called , and accordingly, successful sales of evgenia kuznyatsova's ladder are very sold well , it was predictable because zhenya is such an interesting person, she is very cool, she writes posts to herself on facebook and instagram, she runs her youtube channel, and her previous book , ask the bear, also became a super hit. the story is extremely ... coffee, which , you know, very mistakenly, many people might have perceived it as girlish at the beginning, when this book was still published, because it was written by a girl, the main characters are girls, there are a few boys, but in fact no, it such a stereotype, because this book was very well read by both boys and girls, it

is also for adult boys and girls, there is such a wonderful, slightly cynical humor in it, and... therefore, the book is definitely very cool and therapeutic , new dark vetches, colony, seal maxi, bearded tarmarin, publishing house, there is also such a book that you can finish at will, and max kydruk surpassed , of course, oksana zabushka and all other authors who like to publish such books, because it is really huge, and certainly dances with bones by andrii semyankov, who this move, it stretches to this time, well, to the end. the most popular translations here too, well, i say the word predictable, well , really predictable, because if you follow our books, our discussions, then in principle you can already understand that we have a super move, that we have the most popular, which causes resonance and

lively discussions among us, is extremely cool, but actually the translations of the two most popular this year are mosat, the most outstanding operations of israeli intelligence. here i think it is not necessary to explain why exactly, because we have been talking about this mossad for the second year and we are also talking there and in the ukrainian massad, so everyone is interested in how this israeli structure works, and definitely the cherchel factor, how one man changed history, this is boris johnson's book, boris johnson's popularity certainly disappeared, and the popularity and discussion of winston churchill also, probably, which contributed to ... this book being bought, but certainly also its interest, because boris johnson, he is not only a good speaker from my point of view, but and a good writer , let me remind you that cherchel was also a writer and won the nobel prize for his works, by the way, he is one of my favorite writers,

well, this is how we will end our conversation about reading, let me remind you that we have a week of reading, and during it you can write to the social worker. about your reading impressions of the present, past, which books you are interested in and read about the same in your feed in social networks. that's all, thank you for your attention, i wish you a good evening, a good night, stay with espresso. welcome to the espresso channel. today, in our military program, we will talk about what new prospects for ukraine will be the decisions and plans that were discussed in washington on december 6 and 7. and there , representatives of ukraine discussed the situation on

the battlefield and current defense needs. also it was about security guarantees for our country. and in washington at the same time , a large-scale conference of government officials and... gunsmiths from the usa and ukraine took place, in which about 350 representatives of defense companies from both countries took part. and the goal was to find ways to speed up the production of weapons. for the defense forces of ukraine with the help of the united states of america. according to the results , among other things, they signed a memorandum on joint production in the defense industry, and it was also announced that production facilities should be built in ukraine for provision of the armed forces of ukraine with the necessary weapons in the spheres of air defense of ukraine, production of critically needed ammunition, as well as repair and maintenance of samples. equipment that has already been transferred to the armed forces of ukraine. so, how will all this affect the defensive and offensive

capabilities of ukraine, what should we hope for, and where should we bet on our own capabilities. we will talk about this with professional experts and managers of our companies, who want to strengthen the combat capability of our army at the expense of potential and own projects and initiatives. my name is serhii zgurets, i am the director. of the professional consulting company defense express, which, together with espresso channels , strives to highlight the most relevant trends in the field of the defense-industrial complex and in the field of security. and now we have our first guest, valentin badrak, director of the army, conversion and disarmament research center, a military analyst and writer. mr. valentin, i congratulate you, i am glad to see and hear you. mr. serhiy, congratulations, i am very glad of the invitation, as always. i would like to start with the first question but i am sure that you actually followed the results

of our delegation's negotiations in washington, the minister of defense was there, the head of the president's office was there, and the minister of strategic industries, that is, it was about the military-political and military-technical components, but when we are talking about the military-political component, first of all i was interested in this thesis that security guarantees for ukraine were discussed, this is a topic that was... raised after the vilnius nato summit, then it somehow a little bit on the back burner, but we see that the process, the way it is happening, i would like to ask, how do we now understand these security guarantees from the united states, is there still this concept that there might be an option that the united states has with israel, where , conditionally speaking, security guarantees do not seem to have such a direct understanding, however, there are agreements that are guaranteed to provide assistance to israel from the allies... and must always ensure that the israeli army has a technological advantage over its own

opponents, is this option possible for us in the context of these conversations and plans about guarantees for ukraine? in fact, the question of guarantees becomes even more urgent, because the war is dragging on, and under such conditions, in principle, we cannot, if we are realistic, and we understand that we... cannot count on full membership in nato, which would provide us such, such full-fledged guarantees so that we are protected from attacks in russia, but it is the guarantees that can be modeled on israel that are very effective and very interesting, why, because israel does not only receives more than 3 billion dollars annually, and from the united states, but... which has been constantly developing joint developments, for example, the erov anti-missile defense project, the third

version, the united states has spent more than 50% of all allocations for this project, this is very important , and during the war it worked very well, because both the united states and israel have these weapons, and when it starts more often, so to speak, yes, that is, hostilities. israel made a request and almost immediately received all the necessary high-tech items, ammunition, primarily for these anti-missile systems, so this is a very important point, regarding guarantees in general, of course, and this was heard during the summit in july, and it was recorded in the g7 protocol that ukraine should not only receive resources and receive. weapons from western countries, from guarantors, guarantor countries,

but also to receive technologies that will allow ukraine's defense-industrial complex to be integrated into the defense potential building system, and this again corresponds to this israeli model, because it gives us exactly such opportunities. the only thing i wanted would say that we are very keen that the bilateral guarantees with all the countries... let's say with the united states there or with germany or with france, that they have the form of a legal document and that they clearly define both the figure of aid and... those directions in technologies that we need, for example, missile technology or air defense, this is a very urgent need for ukraine right now, it would greatly accelerate our development, this is especially relevant at a time when washington and berlin are wavering whether to provide us with missiles with a range of 300 and more kilometers, we could

to make our own, especially since i won't go into details, but we can also make... an upgraded cruise missile that will hit targets on the ground, and a ballistic missile as part of the operational-tactical missile complex project, they know and understand this now in the united states, but the negative moment came from the french foreign ministry this week, they said there that they are finalizing negotiations on security guarantees and could finish by the end of the year, but they do not want to. they are not interested in the parliament, so that, first of all, there should be some numbers, that there should be a definition their clear obligations, and secondly, for the parliament to ratify it, let's put it this way, yes, and this is a danger for ukraine, because it can become a trap just like the budapest memorandum was, when everyone agreed and everything was fine,

but when one country, as we know, russia , the guarantor country, violated its obligations and started a war against ukraine, that is why we would like a legal document. now back to the united states, very interesting things have happened in the united states, in my opinion, and the first two projects that have already been reported in military-technical cooperation, namely the adaptation of western-made missiles to... domestic, well, not domestic, but to soviet, let's say, complexes, buk-300, which are in ukraine, and this project called frankensem, it is actually received, well, a new life, there yes, in fact an agreement was concluded about it, about joint production, and this is very, very important, and this

joint production will be both in ukraine and in the united states, it is a kind of, in my opinion, intermediate. project, if we do very well with it, well, together with the second project, the second project is the help of two powerful american companies, as i understand it, primarily with technologies in deploying the production of 155 millimeter ammunition on the territory of ukraine, again , it is a very important project for us and the main thing is that it is joint production, it is a very, very important thing, i i think that the situation here looks the same as with... the german company rain metal, which did not start with any high-tech projects, but proposed to produce armored vehicles, which, let's put it mildly , is not new, yes, but joint production , it is certainly about the fact that if the ukrainian defense complex proves in practice that we are powerful partners and can

do all this, then more powerful projects can proceed, and projects are possible. which will be a part, a partial localization, well , let's say that poland bought about 500 hymars complexes, yes, high-precision, high-precision artillery, and is deploying, localizing the production of both launchers, partly, yes, partly and missiles, and this a very important example for us, because in this way we can get technologies, become part of the high... technological world and ultimately gain a high-tech advantage over the enemy, this is the main thing that glass is the content of new security guarantees, because security guarantees are, strictly speaking, a situation where the enemy will not dare to attack us, but one option, yes , this country becomes a member of the nato bloc, and then it does not dare

to attack, because it affects the entire union, and the second moment is when ukraine, following the example of israel, will increase its combat potential to such an extent that when, when, when the enemy will be considered too difficult the task of attacking ukraine and will understand that it will immediately have a very powerful response, we have already started doing something now, yes, i have already mentioned our missiles, and i want to say that the attacks of russian enterprises actually began in november, a new stage in fact in this war , because before that, we remember, we received information that there were attacks on, let's say, airfields, one... two, three planes were hit and so on, but when it comes to the damage to defense enterprises, then this already, well, let's go to say, ukraine is showing its teeth

already sharpened, already new teeth, and that's why such joint productions, they can do a lot for ukraine, and of course, one of the main components that i would like to talk about is creation. missiles with a range of 1000 km, ukraine is already conducting such developments, and actually, joint actions with the united states would be, well, a logical opportunity to accelerate the creation of such missiles. another project concerns the french, ukrainian-french military-technical relations, this is the creation together with the french a company based on the antonov enterprise. the creation of such, i would say an operational-strategic drone aaron, which will be able to fly for up to 30 hours,

climb to a height of up to 10, well there are nine or so kilometers, and have 1.5 tons of weapons on board, these are the projects we are definitely needed, and they are already an integral part of the future security guarantees, this is how i see the situation with... precisely with the issue of security guarantees, mr. valentin, but we understand that the deployment of these capacities in ukraine there or beyond of ukraine, joint projects, they take a certain amount of time, there are certain, let's say, nuances related to the fact that what is needed is faster, but everything is equal, let's say, well, the inertia of these defenses is quite noticeable, and against this background, the ukrainian side turned to the united states with an expanded package of wishes for other types of weapons, because at the same conference that we are talking about now, where there were ... representatives of defense industrial enterprises, it was said that ukraine would like to receive anti-missile defense systems, thaad , and there is ballistic defense,

new aircraft such as f-18, apache, military transport aircraft. what does this say? can we talk about the fact that these wishes from the ukrainian side will be satisfied, and what stage, well, of changes in the quality of the ukrainian army can we talk about, if these are post'. training will be after a certain period of time? here, of course, the situation is difficult with practice and with the transfer to the practical level, but the move made in my opinion is absolutely correct and correct, which, by the way, defense express already wrote today that we need to order more, then we will get at least something, yes, so that's a normal, normal theory, because, but i don't really agree with... the definition of the cost, yes, which was provided by defense express, why, because it's primarily a political project, and when we say, for example , about f-18 aircraft, then there is a way

to obtain australian aircraft, for example , which are no longer needed by australia, actually removed from the combat fleet, and could be obtained through various american compensations, let's say there from the development of australia's submarine fleet, for example, yes , and get not at all for such huge money, what they cost, yeah, well, that's one point, the other point, there might be a delay in paying for it, but ultimately, ultimately, if, say, the united states supplied, well, for a lot of money, let's say, supplied the eyes anti-missile systems, sed, yes, or sade, this, i mean in saudi arabia. and the united arab emirates, we understand why, because this is an issue of oil first of all, yes, an issue of the game and the issue of creating powerful allies in the middle

east, then in the end ukraine turns into an active asset in the alliance and can become, can claim, become an ally of the united states and other countries, countries, european countries of nato, precisely allies. and as we move from a partnership to an ally status, of course the supply of such things can make enormous political and security sense for the donor countries themselves, why? let's remember when, on the last day of november, the german analytical services issued a report that russia needed 6-10 years before the war with nato in order to... recover, and then after a few weeks the head of the polish intelligence service said that russia needs three years to recover,

i will say more, i believe that... these are not entirely realistic data, and unfortunately, i want to state that the western intelligence services, receiving exceptional, exceptional data of their intelligence, cannot draw the correct conclusions from these data, i say on behalf of my center that russia needs 2-2 years to attack nato. why yes, because russia has a completely different one. mental dimension and mental mental potential, than westerners, than a resident of the western world, therefore, actually saying, and ukraine, just as a country with a similar mental dimension, can stop russia, i will even say more that only ukraine can stop russia from this influx, and this should be used by western partners and created from

ukraine. a powerful ally, that's roughly how i assess it, then, mr. valentin, i would like to ask in more detail your assessment of the enemy's potential, because for a long time we talked about the fact that russian missiles are running out, they have less ammunition, relatively speaking, personnel there are no reserves, and now the dynamics are such that, in fact, a certain mobilization of the defense industry, ideological work in russia itself has led to a certain internal transformation of the russian defense industry and there may be changes even in the russian mentality, although we understand that it has always been war-minded, does this mean then, that we have to draw more thorough conclusions regarding the assessment of russian capabilities and from this actually look at ukraine's own defense strategy and in the perspective of offensive actions, but for now defense at the first stage and thus conveys this information

to our partners in a different way, who, as we see, are not quite in... reality, on the one hand, they still have big problems with the mobilization resource, i want, if someone does not believe it, let him find it, there is such a technology strategy analysis center in moscow, our former colleague , yes, with whom we communicated before the war, he conducted the so-called kharkov hearings, and put it on the internet, fortunately for us, and we ... we learned from this, from these reports it is very clear that when there was a particular occasion, not an occasion, but a debate with the participation of general boluevskyi, the former chief of the general staff of the russian federation, they clearly said, they clearly said that they, they have huge problems with the integration of the mobilization resource into the troops , that is, they admit that

they throw people there... to the trained, and not as many as they would like. further, they determined that they did not have the combat superiority and striking power to effect a breakthrough, but this is as of the 23rd year, but at the same time, at the same time, russia is now increasing its capabilities, yes, russia continues to sell oil. and gas , russia continues to sell even its airplanes, yes, russia even just now issued a ban on the export of russian diamonds, a ban on the purchase of russian diamonds, yes, and there are many other things worth $20 billion a year that russia only sells to the eu, yes, and - these are non-ferrous metals there and the same diamonds there and everything

else, that's why... the situation is very problematic, it is connected with the fact that economic resources russia at this point still has many years, i don't want anyone in and i don't want to hear even if someone tells me that russia can be there for two years or three years, russia can in such conditions as now, as now, how long to wage this war for as many years as you want, for as long as you want, further , mobilization work has intensified in russia , we know that electronic... there are registers, electronic subpoenas have been introduced, and there is very great pressure against the background, against the background of the growth of propaganda, such as in tavai country is huge that everything that the west is waging war on the destruction of russia, yes, so there will be no problems with the people there either, yes, with the number of people, with education, yes, i think it will be, with the availability of modern equipment, the same will be the case, because...