of international law of the kyiv-marian academy, the former deputy minister of justice was in touch with us. i say goodbye to you on this, i advise you to watch katsapoznavstvo and return more often to espresso tv, because katsapoznavstvo is my program on tuesday, and then it will be saturday-sunday, as usual. it's all good, bye-bye. the sudden meeting between zelenskyi and orban in argentina, the evacuation of ukrainians from the gas sector, and part of donetsk remained without electricity. greetings to all espresso viewers, details of this and other news from the espresso team will tell with you, annayeva melnyk, i will start with

this: volodymyr zelensky in argentina took part in the inauguration of the newly elected president javier miley. the local edition "la nation" called the ukrainian head of state one of the most important figures who will be present at the inauguration. after the inauguration ceremony , miley held a ceremonial reception for the ukrainian president and presented the jewish symbol of the minor. miley is a former libertarian by conviction. a participant in television shows, in which he is similar to volodymyr zelenskyi in his political career. he rode the wave voter anger over triple-digit inflation, rising poverty and the country's worst economic crisis in more than two decades. today begins a new era for argentina. today we end the long and sad history of decline and begin the path to rebuilding our country. back. there is no way, today we

are burying decades of failures, internal strife and senseless disputes, confrontations that only destroyed our beloved country and left us in ruins. a trip with benefits, during a visit to argentina, volodymyr zelenskyi held meetings with the presidents of paraguay, uruguay and ecuador. it was about bilateral cooperation between the countries, expansion of trade relations, as well as a pro-ukrainian peace formula. holding the ukraine-latin america summit, this is the first visit of the ukrainian president to the continent in almost 30 years. leonid kuchma visited the uprising in buenos aires in 1995. unplanned meetings also happened in argentina. zelensky took over from hungarian prime minister viktor orban in buenos aires. the politicians spoke in argentinian parla menty in the guest box. footage of their

conversation was shown by the official youtube channel of the senate of argentina. the president's office is currently not commenting on the details of the conversation. and already in argentina, volodymyr zelenskyi had a telephone conversation with french president emmanuel macron. the parties discussed the priority needs and the next french defense package, president zelensky thanked for the preparation for the reception of ours. pilots for the second stage of the f-16 fighter training program, and also emphasized the importance of the opening at the eurocouncil summit negotiations on ukraine's accession to the eu. next, about the situation in the regions: the russians attacked nikopol region with three kamikaze drones, the drones hit the district center, said the head of the dnipropetrovsk regional military administration serhiy lysak. also on... nikopol, the enemy hit with heavy

artillery, the premises of one of the enterprises and the power line were damaged. fortunately , no one was hurt. the settlements of the northern part of donetsk remained without electricity. at the slovyansk thermal power plant , the automatic protection function was activated - informed regional military administration. currently , energy companies have started to restore electricity supply to houses. it was also possible to restore the voltage. on thes. act of vandalism. in dnipro, unknown people burned down a memorial opposite the nine-story building that was hit by a russian rocket. at the public transport stop, people brought toys and flowers in memory of the fallen citizens. let me remind you that 46 people died as a result of a rocket strike on january 14. at least 80 were injured. another 11 people are considered missing.

a rally was held in kyiv in support of the prisoners defenders, hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital with posters and calls to return the kremlin prisoners home. a kilometer-long queue stretched from the post office square to the pedestrian bridge on trukhaniv ostriv. a similar action took place today in 11 ukrainian cities. a shipment of trucks from ukraine arrived in poland by rail. the parties have agreed on all issues regarding transportation and customs procedures. reported to ukrzaliznytsia. it is known that the trucks will go to their destination by road. and... the next shipments for sknyliv, slavkuv route will be regular. ukrzaliznytsia promises to use even more modernized platforms for the transportation of trucks. two people died, two more were seriously injured as a result of

the accident in kharkiv. this was reported to the regional police. the wreck happened on the ring road, two cars collided. people were hospitalized, the circumstances of the accident are being established. rescue from a water trap in the village of novi sanzhary in the poltava region , rescuers pulled a woman out of a well. specialists instantly arrived at the site and for with the help of rescue equipment, they went down into the well. later, the victim was lifted to the surface and handed over to medics. in the capital , sofia, kyivskyi. met the bethlehem fire from the birthplace of jesus christ. in ukraine , the tradition of its distribution has existed since 1988. this year, the torch will also be handed over to military, volunteer and public organizations. and along with it, gifts for

defenders. the fire will then travel across ukraine on ukrzaliznytsia trains, the first train leaving kyiv for uzhgorod at 6:40 p.m. the main directorate of intelligence and the ministry of foreign affairs completed the operation to rescue ukrainians from the gas sector. 315 people were evacuated from the danger zone. 304 ukrainians, two palestinians and nine citizens of moldova. 150 artists and the magic of the holidays in lviv. they said christmas musical, write letters to nicholas. this is a large-scale performance for the whole family, the performance also has a charitable mission, my colleagues will tell you in detail.

the author of the musical writes letters to mykolaiv, ukrainian writer and publisher maryana savka. she also plays the role of mother in this play. the first musical numbers of the upcoming production were born back in 2011. she finished writing the text and music for the musical already during the full-scale war. mostly in the dark, during blackouts. the musical tells about a ukrainian family whose father is at the front. the story unfolds around a grid, of some sort. i pay for our military. already after the performance, maryana admitted that the play did not leave either the small audience or the actors themselves indifferent. i am very satisfied with all the emotions that were in the hall and on the stage, especially when it snowed and all the children went to catch this snow, it was incredible. i just sang

my aria at that moment, it was like that, i have never had such a performance. the role of the holy miracle worker was played by actor and director oleksiy kravchuk. in the year the man returned from the front after being wounded, he became st. nicholas for our soldiers as well. oleksiy takes necessary things and gifts to the military to the front line. children of military personnel were also invited to the show of the musical, and they were given sweet packages after the performance. they organized such gifts for children. espresso tv channel together with the mriya charity fund. we children of the ukrainian military were invited here. and the ukrainian military, who are at the front, want their children to be happy. and it is always nice to give them this drop of joy , i want to thank the mriya foundation, which takes care of the children of military personnel, i want to thank the rukavychka store chain, the espresso tv channel, fm halychyna, and everyone who joined this holiday, because we united different people. the christmas musical is a large-scale

event that brought together more than 150 artists. an academic symphony performed on one stage the inso lviv orchestra and the dudaryk national choral chapel. evacuation of the wounded and other needs of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade of the kholodny yar armed forces. in extremely difficult conditions , the ukrainian military fights for victory every day without leaving wounded comrades on the battlefield. with atvs, evacuation will be faster and easier, and therefore the chances of saving the injured are much greater. our goal is uah 800,000. with your help, we have already collected more than 100,000. support our collection. you can see all the details on the screen. at this moment, the news team told about the most current events,

of course, you can read more about important things on our site espresso tv, also subscribe to our channels on social networks, i tell you see you tomorrow, i will wait for you in this studio at 14 o'clock, be with espresso. congratulations, friends, the politclub program is on the air on the espresso tv channel. vitaly portykov is with you. we are summing up this week, talking about the most important events that happened today, that happened this week, about trends that will determine our lives with you in this difficult situation, about this war. russia continues against our country. our first guest, ivan stupak, military expert, employee of the security service of ukraine

in 2004-2015. congratulations, mr. ivan. greetings from the studio. thank you for the invitation. well, let's talk about how the situation at the front looks like today. moreover, we know that today general tsirskyi said that the situation is very difficult, that the russians are trying to advance from all sides in all directions on... how dangerous it is, well, dangerous, dangerous, very unpleasant, we must admit that avdiivka, the eastern direction, this is number one for russia, in priority, they have passed there somewhere in the last two months, well, avdiivka, yes, it is 1.5 km from the south, a km somewhere in the north, well, plus or minus, it is still a direction, that is, well , unfortunately, it is unpleasant, and already in their public in russian, they say that the ukrainians are preparing to leave for the most profitable borders for them, well, it's the russians again. will clearly disperse this story, but in the south i cannot say that the russians are advancing there, of

course, they are holding there, but so far the advantage of the ukrainians, including in drones, fpi drones, they whine a lot about this topic, i really like it when they chase individual military and individual units of equipment, if we talk about the audio system, what goals do you think the russian troops are trying to achieve now, how important is it to them now the seizure of this ukrainian city and what does it give in terms of strategy? look, in terms of strategy, i won’t say that there is a freeway, yes, it opens to the freeway, to kyiv, lviv, never mind to warsaw, but there is no such thing, that is, they will close it for themselves the task of pushing the ukrainian troops away from donetsk, there is 10 km to the donbas arena in a straight line from avdiyivka, and by and large it is no longer a city, it is a location, there is so much fighting there, nothing has been left there. and they will be happy that they took the ruins, as it was in pakhmut, as it was in other cities, and i

am sure that even if, god forbid, no one in russia will restore these locations, they will say, well , it is not subject to restoration, and the last thing, of course, is the election, well, the election is important for russia to show what we have, if not this victory, then they will not show it, and if god forbid it succeeds, then of course they will disperse and all christmas holidays will be dedicated to this victory in the benches. that is, in fact, in your opinion, this is such a propaganda victory, well, yes, it gives a big account of something like this, you know, they took everything, the ukrainian defense is sitting, yes, everything is here, here they are zaporizhzhia, they go to zaporizhzhia, or to the dnipro , yes, or to kyiv, well , of course not, because there are other lines of defense there, that is, they press like an asphalt paver, yes, they just press, they press, press, they put a lot of people , they put a lot of equipment, but for them there is a main political goal, and by the way, an interesting map, they need to take avdiivka, they have 5-6 km left there, which they count, and in the most narrow

place, if our communication is interrupted and everything , as they say, the avdiiv garrison will be surrounded, they hope to capture a large number of our soldiers, if possible to destroy them, and of course, they are interested in western equipment, many samples of western equipment, ammunition, ammunition, that's what they are want to seize if we talk about another important thing... in place of the russian activity about marenko, this is also a multi-month epic, i would say why it has become more active now, because look, most likely it was my assumption. the task has been set, well, it's election day again, it's already clear, and maybe at a low level the team has been set the task in this way, whoever can take the result here, here here here, he will receive there , i don't know, an early title, but there i'll star a hero, i don't know the medals, the order there are badges, what anything can be there, and this is precisely what is connected with such an actualization of these directions,

by the way, for example, you faked it so quickly... they said, the zaporizhia region, the russians, there, too, aim to cut out this ukrainian protrusion and return to the state to this territory, as it was in june 23 , as soon as the ukrainian offensive began. what do you think might happen in the south, to what extent will the ukrainian armed forces be able to maintain a bridgehead on the opposite bank of the dnieper and thus create conditions for a safer life in kherson? it is a difficult question, it is difficult to predict something, because the russians are making really serious efforts there, they have transferred there, well , there were different estimates, someone called 50 thousand, someone called 60 thousand troops, they called the airborne troops, that general teplinsky, the commander of the airborne troops of the russian federation, he is also there in the south, but there were complaints from the russians themselves, that he does not think flexibly, yes, he is not

flexible, he is here, here, here, directly parallel, here, here , here he is, here he swears, that's all... classics, as was the case in the soviet army, they, well , the russians, themselves say a lot about him, that this leads to significant losses, to the contrary , the advancement of the ukrainians, but we keep our fingers and fists for our guys, because here it is difficult to forgive, predict, on the one hand, there is an advantage of our troops in fpv drones, i will not get tired of talking about it, the russians whine a lot about this topic, they say that in the best case for them there is one drone for one russian soldier, yes it is in the air, in the worst case ... three to one three three ukrainian drones for one soldier or there for one unit of equipment , there is a constant hum in the air, but on the other hand , our three protrusions are on the left bank, they are quite small, and the russians, unfortunately, can destroy our small boats on which our soldiers are transported, on sunday

, some of the ukrainian prisoners of war took part in a large all-ukrainian action: keep the prisoners silent. kills, these are people whose relatives have been in captivity for quite a long time, and here the question arises, to what extent the ukrainian authorities can do anything now, to free our citizens from russian captivity, in a situation where moscow has effectively blocked the entire exchange of prisoners, how to get this exchange to thaw again? look, i will explain why this is happening, i have an understanding, i have knowledge, this is not an assumption that... the russians do, first of all, they do not exchange individual categories of our prisoners, because they are still being investigated yes, or there are significant torture interrogations, well, it's as usual in them, and they are somewhere of individual people they are trying to punish publicly, do you remember these pseudo-courts of the dpr, lpr, when our

soldiers are given 20 years in prison there, that is, it is all public, that is all... they are working on a separate one in this way, the other side of this story - this is a deliberate attempt to delay the exchange in order to create great tension within the country, once again this is not an attempt to somehow protect the honor of the ukrainian uniform, or i don’t know where to stand in defense of the ukrainian government, no, it really is, it is an indisputable fact, they deliberately kept in the captivity of certain separate categories of our citizens, especially those who were captured in the first days, and even the first missions. and in this way a great tension is created in the society of these relatives, such indignation is understandable, just a second, our relatives, all our relatives are there, they are in captivity from the first days, they are there, and those who are in captivity conditionally in june 23rd, they have already returned, as it is, it is all the ukrainian government, it is not doing anything, and there it is necessary to force yermak zelensky,

whoever is there, let them do something, yes, that is, in this way, the russians are really trying to artificially here in this case. to artificially create this conflict and show that the ukrainian authorities are not doing anything, but i can say without a doubt that the russians themselves also simply stop any communication without explanation, they simply turn off these phones, they do not communicate, a week or two passes there , a month, and then they start to come out, yes, who do you have there, what are you there, who do you want to give us and what would you like to take back from us, this is such a conversation literally, that is, in fact, it is part of such actions to destabilize the situation. well, of course, it is not very significant, but if there are many of them, several such actions of various kinds, then of course it really affects some people, when our relatives, our parents, sons, they are already there... there for almost two years captives, they are not returned, this means that the authorities are not doing anything, the russians are deliberately keeping them, indeed, and what else do you think the russians can do for such destabilization, what are the possible directions of such

agent propaganda work? well , trying to recruit our military, that is look, they created a few, but at least one such unit, i forgot its name, inside the russian federation from ukrainian prisoners, that is... military prisoners, they show that i was a border guard in ukraine, i was thrown at a tank with a machine gun , i was not appreciated by the command there, now i have joined the ranks of the armed forces of the russian federation, i will fight against the fascist kyiv regime, this is all a classic, and they disperse such things, show, you see, not only in ukraine there are rdk, the legion of freedom of russia, and there is also russia, and archangel seems to be there. i don't remember the name, it doesn't matter, that is, there are such things, they recruit our military, they try to break them inside , to convince them that the authorities have abandoned them, that their relatives have forgotten about them, that we will now send you for

exchange, but you, you ours, you ’re a native russian, yes, and when you come back , don’t forget to let us know where you are, in which part, yes, what you saw, that is, then it’s a job for the ukrainian counter-intelligence to check, unfortunately, all the prisoners, which returned from captivity to their subject. participation or consent in the work of the russian special services, we ourselves do not create certain pretexts for such russian work, when we have political strife, mutual accusations, and the western media also talk about this crisis that is happening in ukraine , every day we read these texts , the russians can also act with the help of such narratives, so wonderful, and it was wonderful to see, look, a large number of problems, well, i say so cautiously, there are 90 vysotkov yes, which the russians use, these are all our problems. these are not artificially created, they are all ours , when i start there, i always start, eggs, jackets, some kind of purchases, incomprehensible, there are drums for shrines for some crazy money, yes

, some stadiums in the middle of the field, a stolen humanitarian aid, well, these are our excuses, russians they simply use them competently, not always really competently, but qualitatively, but they use them, that is, they do not need to invent some crazy things, they simply took it from the ukrainian information space, for example, what? one people's deputy, who is just a member of the military, is worth it she's just clicking endlessly, it's been a month and a half already, yes, she's already blaming them and somehow insulting them, well, the russians are using her, well, in fact, if we sum up the results of our conversation, we can assume that in 2024 the russians will try to create they will try to create some new such agency situations if they cannot do so through military means. these are to

achieve what they cannot achieve, precisely by means of propagandism, precisely by means of agents, precisely by means of some destabilization of the situation with the help of military actions, i will say more, they are now working, they are now working, actively using, somewhere they are creating, as they say, заделы, yes, that is, some foundation for long-term work there for a certain period of time, but here it is necessary to note the work of ukrainian counterintelligence. not only that, in this case all the special services are working, and the national police, and nabu, and the security intelligence service, and intelligence, that is, everyone is trying to catch such information through their own channels at the stage when it is just being planned in the russian federation and neutralize it, because for any agent work requires a person or a group of people, and these people are watched and information about them is obtained in advance. thank you, thank you mr. ivan, ivan stopak, military expert, former employee of the security service of ukraine was in touch with us. and now we're going to talk to our next guest, political analyst, blogger, karl volokh, welcome mr. volokh, hello, so let's start with the fears

of europeans that the rise to power of donald trump, if it happens at all, could lead to the collapse of nato and exit from organization of the united states, you allow that possibility, when it comes to trump, i can allow almost anything, he is not too fed up.' too impetuous, too impulsive and so on to be predictable, on the other hand, well , there is quite a lot in him on certain issues, well , there is quite a lot of ratio in him, by the way, his recent speeches do not cause any concern at all, that is, that he said, i am a dictator in two issues, i remind you, these are his words. that is , as far as the border with mexico is concerned, that i i will strengthen it and will not allow this uncontrolled migration anymore, which means

to develop, and the second is to drill, because... to fight and fight, well, this is a matter of economics, that is, the impression is that, in principle , he felt, felt certain moods in society and in his party, here before, by the way, it would be possible to talk about what is changing in trump's party, er, and it is even better to start even with the fact that suddenly biden, who has never been... conditionally speaking, a korshan and too tough person in politics, suddenly in the issue first of the ukrainian war, then israeli, that is, the israeli war , took such a hard line, and supports both of these wars, both, both of these struggles, i would say, uh, well, it's quite obvious that this, well, maybe not the reason, but ...

the pretext for this , the victorious exit of the americans from afghanistan would have been enough, and the impression about him was formed in society that he was a weakling, that he was a weak leader, and besides, they talked about the fact that he was too too old for this position and so much so that he is already half-asleep there, and he also felt the electoral problem and... he started to show that he is actually a strong leader and knows how to stand up for principles, and that's how he started half a year before the large-scale russian invasion, he started warning us and even giving us some weapons and so on and so forth, well then everyone understands what happened , at that time the republican party was looking for itself, they could not decide how to behave in relation to...

the country, well, agreeing with the ruling party when you are in the opposition is not accepted in politics at all, so they were looking for what they , which means criticizing biden, was found in favour the fact that he gives money without counting , without checking, ukrainians are here, that means corruption , etc. the changes are connected with the fact that the situation, that is, on the russian-ukrainian front, is no longer so complimentary and pleasant for us, and suddenly a group of very influential american senators gathers and publishes a program in

which there is talk of... the fact that in fact the aid to ukraine is not enough, that biden a weakling, is not fighting well enough in ukraine, that it threatens the interests of the united states, and therefore they propose to strengthen , so this direction is extremely good for us, and i have the impression that this can affect trump, quite that, that his position on ukraine will be more reasonable, i would say, in addition to everything else, that means trump in general, you understand, trump is such an actor in general, he promised something regarding, regarding the fact that he is there, as soon as he becomes the president , he will put order in this, in this war, it could very well happen that if he becomes president, i wouldn't really

want that, but if he... put the president, he could very well go to putin, get some kind of not-so-positive response, and react in a completely wrong way, as we expect from him today, i.e. to suddenly change his point of view to the opposite and take a tougher position and so on, so that the processes are very non-linear in this policy, president biden talks about a new world order, but the question arises as to how far it is possible in general to build in the conditions in which we are now with... the demands of the incapacity of international institutions, russia's willingness to continue to violate international law and local conflicts, which are simply increasing in geometrical progress? there is such a problem, but i want to remind you that in fact, the un was created in an even worse situation, stalin was there with a huge army.