their heroes the capital, as of the end of 2023, is 98% free of colonial signs and figures. in particular, several high-profile and long-awaited demolitions took place this year. motherland lost the soviet coat of arms from its shield, and pushkin finally disappeared from bagryany park. they even dropped the rider shchors, for whom leonid kravchuk once posed. they promise not to stop there. miss potona. there are a few more that need a long time there, and we have several dozen more plaques that will be removed in just a few days after the decision of the city council. in order to preserve the memory of the atrocities and colonial policy of russian leaders, they planned to create a museum of monumental propaganda, but later it was forgotten and incomplete. each, even an overturned plinth, has its owner, mostly local authorities. so a demon'. workers, stakhanovites, soldiers and

poets are in temporary storage, after the victory they still plan to implement a museum of totalitarianism or the soviet regime. today, as there is no such museum of totalitarianism there or by any other name, indeed, there were thoughts of creating it on the territory of the former vdnkh, but this is the site i mentioned, namely the museum. organization of such a space, and it is possible that after the end of the war it will be organized there. for 10 years after the fall of the soviet granite leader in the center of the capital, his so-called greatness finally dissipated. during this decade, ukraine gained new, real heroes, who now have to fight with the new russian leader. kateryna galko, oleksandr purlevich, andriy versk. espresso tv channel.

you are watching the program of the ukrainian voice of america chas taay. my name is maria ulyanovska. congratulations. the working visit of the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi began in washington. this is his third visit to the usa since. the beginning of a full-scale invasion. this time, the president came at the invitation of joe biden at a crucial time for ukraine, as the discussion of the agreement on additional financial and additional financing for ukraine in the congress reached a dead end. last week, republicans in the senate blocked a bill that, in particular provided for 61 billion dollars to support kyiv. republicans have said they will not vote for such an aid package unless it includes their demands for protecting the us border with mexico and changes to immigration. legislation in order to save

the necessary funding for ukraine, zelensky will meet with the head of the white house and congressional leaders. my colleague andriy borys is following the visit of the ukrainian president. let's talk about it in more detail with him. andrew, hello. congratulations, maria. please tell us what is known about president zelenskyi's program usa and with whom he will meet. well, maria , the president of ukraine zelenskyi has quite an active meeting, starting today at noon. in these minutes, as for us. it is known that he has to meet with the president of the world bank, later with representatives of the defense companies of the united states, where they are expected to talk about the future possible joint production of weapons in ukraine, and also with representatives of analytical centers , he has to meet, literally in a few minutes, for half an hour, approximately before this inclusion, the president had a meeting with managing director of the international monetary fund. kristalina georgieva, and

the details of this meeting are currently unknown, because this meeting, like all subsequent ones, is held behind closed doors, it is only known that this meeting is taking place against the background of the fact that today the international monetary fund is to approve another tranche of aid to ukraine in the amount of 900 million dollars, within an hour, as it is expected, this should be reported to the imf. thank you andrei, i also know that you were personally present during the president's speech at the national defense university, which were key messages of zelensky, what was he talking about? yes , maria, in fact, it was a meeting at the national defense university of the united states, it was the only public meeting of the president of ukraine today, it took place, the university itself is located on the territory of a military base in washington, the president together with... the secretary of defense

of the united states lloyd austin spoke today to the students of this university, the students are officers of the armed forces not only of the united states. of the armed forces of the armies of various countries of the world, including those studying there, in particular, officers from ukraine, these are officers with whom we also managed to communicate with the sso and air defense forces , they are future generals, and they received the president there quite warmly, several times during his speech, his speech was interrupted by applause, the president, in particular, stated that he hopes that in this university. soon they will study not just the war in ukraine, but how ukraine won, and for the victory of this war, the help of the united states, military aid, is critically needed. as he stated, ukraine from the beginning is full-scale invasion, aa recaptured 50%

of the territory previously occupied, captured by russia, largely thanks to american help, american bradley, artillery. shell, austin, on the other hand , the secretary of defense of the united states emphasized that the united states will try and will continue to help ukraine, because it is in the interests of the united states. please listen to what austin and ukrainian president zelensky said. if we do not oppose the kremlin's aggression today, if we do not resist, others will become the aggressors. we will only allow more aggression, more bloodshed and more chaos. america will be safer if we stand up to putin's increasingly aggressive russia. america will be safer if we stand up for our core values. and america will be safer if we make

it clear to potential aggressors around the world that they have no right to decide which countries live and which die. now, despite his crimes and his isolation, putin still believes that he can...last longer than ukraine and america, but he is wrong. russia targeted not only ukrainian land, but also our people. it will not be satisfied only by a part of ukraine, or even all of it. ukraine is just a stepping stone for russia, a way to act like the old empire that died in 1989 and challenge the leader of freedom wherever the russian tsar wants. putin must lose, must lose, so that everyone... everyone else who sees russia's war against ukraine as his personal lecture at the so-called university of aggression gets the message loud and clear, putin must lose. president zelenskyi also stated and emphasized that that despite the fact that ukraine is waging a war, it

is carrying out reforms, in particular in order to join the european union. obviously, addressing all the critics who blame ukraine for corruption, there are none. reforms, but as you correctly stated at the beginning that the main meetings will be tomorrow, in particular with president biden and in the congress, and here the president, speaking at the university, announced that one of the main talks, what they will talk about, actually in the following 24th year, ukraine achieved an advantage in russia, in relation to russia in the air, extremely it's important to get it from. american f-16 and means of radio electronic warfare. mary thank you, andrei. i will also remind our viewers that you can watch the most current information about the visit of the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi to the united states on our social networks and on

our youtube shows. andriy borys told us about zelenskyi's visit, thank you. i will also say that on the eve of his visit to the usa , volodymyr zelenskyi attended the inauguration of the newly elected president of argentina. he talked with the prime minister of hungary, viktor orban, who is known for his pro-russian position. meanwhile, amid intense debates in washington about the future of ukraine, orban's allies are conducting an anti-ukrainian campaign in the us, the guardian reports. at a closed two-day meeting with conservative republicans at the heritage foundation think tank, associates of the hungarian prime minister are trying to get the united states to end its military support to ukraine, the journalists write. could this conference have negative consequences for of ukraine, my colleague natalia robert asked atlantic council expert doug klein. the guardian quoted a diplomatic source as saying that orbán is certain that aid to ukraine will not be approved by congress.

what is the basis of his confidence and whether this two-day conference can have negative consequences for ukraine. orbán and russia's other allies now feel empowered. they saw a signal in congress blocking aid to ukraine, and they think it's all downhill from there for ukraine and usa. they saw the signal that now was their time. orban plays ob'. so, at this conference at the heritage foundation, with the participation of republican legislators, they will try to determine strategies to end aid to ukraine. eu leaders will meet later this week and orbán is expected to block eu aid to ukraine and ukraine's bid for eu membership. orbán feels encouraged, he is working to help russia, to help putin win. and all these steps of his are not in the interests of ukraine, europe, the usa, and frankly, not in the interests of the hungarian people. the guardian also quoted a republican party source as saying there would be

closed-door meetings with republican members of congress. in your opinion, what is happening and does this mean that the bipartisan support for ukraine in both houses of congress, which has always been talked about, is decreasing. what is important to remember when we hear that fond heritage is working with hungarian sources in an attempt to stir up anti-ukrainian sentiment. in washington and the usa, and stop american aid to ukraine. it is important to remember that they are completely out of step with the american people and the majority of members of congress. there is a strong bipartisan consensus that the us cannot end critical military support to ukraine. this is the position of the majority. it is a very extreme and marginal position to try to stop aid to ukraine. however, they use this delay in approving additional funding. for ukraine. republican senators have blocked aid to ukraine for the first time since

the full-scale russian invasion. and despite the fact that they may hope to agree and approve aid to ukraine, this was an outrageous step. it sends a signal to putin and other dictators that the american will is breaking. putin's strategy is to wait until we fall prey to our differences and distractions. putin wants to use this to conquer ukraine. we cannot allow that. this week is decisive for ukraine and in europe. on december 14-15, european leaders will discuss the next steps regarding the european integration of ukraine at a summit in brussels. heads of state and government will focus on the latest developments in russia's war against ukraine and further eu support. in addition, the agenda will also include... the issue of the expansion of the european union. as you know, hungary opposes the opening of negotiations

on ukraine's accession to the eu. as reported by the guardian, a diplomatic source close to the hungarian embassy, ​​viktor orbán is sure that the aid to ukraine will not pass in the congress. therefore, he is also trying to block aid from the european union. meanwhile, the head of the ukrainian foreign ministry dmytro kuleba reported that the european union supports the start of negotiations on ukraine's accession. however, this question is still open. and the struggle will continue. i believe that the stakes are very high, both for ukraine and for the european union. for ukraine , for the ukrainian people, this would be a very demotivating decision, but for the european union and for the whole continent, it would be a signal in the matter of enlargement, and even more, that the european union is not capable of approving decisions of historical importance and fulfilling its promises so i think that if this happens, it will be devastating for both, but... the wheel of history cannot be stopped. on monday, december 11, the minister

of foreign affairs of ukraine, dmytro kuleba , met with his hungarian counterpart, peter sijarto, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war. he announced this on his instagram. the ministers discussed the decision of the european council regarding the opening of negotiations on ukraine's membership in the eu. during the conversation , dmytro koleba emphasized that ukraine and hungary have a common future in europe. but - said the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of ukraine, we need a little time in turn, peter sijarto said that the decision on ukraine's accession to the european union is historic and will affect all eu countries. however, the minister says, the european commission has not completed the preparatory work that could guarantee ukraine the continuation of accession negotiations. he also emphasized that hungary expects to expand the rights of the hungarian national community in ukraine. and to other news. the dutch government allocated an additional 2 million euros for military aid to ukraine for the next year. the netherlands is one of the main donors of weapons for

of ukraine in the eu, and at the same time, in the last parliamentary elections, the right-wing, far-right opposition party freedom, whose leader repeatedly criticized the current government for supporting ukraine, won. will it be able to reduce aid to kyiv? oleksiy kovalenko learned the details. the victory of the far-right freedom party in early parliamentary elections in the netherlands shook the whole of europe and put under. the question of whether the position of the netherlands regarding ukraine will change. according to the kiel institute of the world economy, the netherlands ranked eighth in terms of volume military, as well as humanitarian and financial aid. after the european one. union, usa, germany, great britain, norway, japan, canada and poland. the netherlands also led the training mission of ukrainian f-16 pilots, becoming the first country to announce the provision of these fighters to ukraine. in addition, the netherlands provides ukraine with stinger missiles, anti-aircraft missile systems, armored vehicles and tanks. i am grateful to the netherlands,

grateful to you, mark, your government, your team, and all the people of the netherlands for your continued attention. to ukraine, extremely strong support for ukraine, our people, and on this, on this difficult path. the winner of the parliamentary elections in the netherlands, the freedom party, unexpectedly won almost 24% of the vote. the leader of the party, geert wilders , has repeatedly taken an anti-ukrainian position and opposed aid to kyiv. immediately after the victory of wilders' party, officials of the current dutch government received a number of calls from european colleagues who worriedly asked whether the dutch position on ukraine would change. i hope and i expect that the situation will not change in the new parliament, but the party for freedom is now the largest party, they were never happy to support ukraine, at times they were even pro-russian, so this worries me. wilders' victory is not the first challenge in

the history of dutch-ukrainian relations. thus, in the 2016 dutch referendum on the eu agreement on the association and free trade zone with ukraine, more than 60% of the population of the netherlands voted against, wilders also campaigned against the agreement, then mobilize the ukrainian crisis media center in the netherlands tried to get the dutch to support ukraine. it was such an integrated campaign, in social media, we made a number of videos, part of the video was dedicated to...our ukrainian children who read poems in dutch, sang songs in dutch, i think that these are the things , you know, they brought us closer to the result, when already in the 17th year the dutch senate voted for the accession of ukraine

to the association agreement. according to gennady kurochka, a member of the media center management, the mood of the population, which in... voted against the association agreement, already in 2022 , overwhelmingly supported arms supplies to ukraine and tough sanctions against russia, was significantly influenced by the court's verdict on the downing of the mh-17 plane and russia's role in it. the beginning of the great aggression, dutch people, the dutch government has already provided more than 5 billion dollars in aid, and more than 2 billion is planned for next year. dollars of military aid, the main results of yart wilders were related to, let's say, stopping such illegal migration, i.e. well, ukraine does not belong to this category, i think that this support will

continue. like other european extreme right-wingers, in 2022 he condemned the open invasion of russia. should support ukraine only politically, without providing it with money or weapons. rne kuru, an analyst of european global politics, calls the netherlands' continued support for ukraine an open question. so, there were certain connections between the party of geert wilders and the putin administration, but they are completely... ukraine and he says that russia is waging an aggressive war against ukraine. so, here he has sharply changed his position, but he says that he wants to support ukraine politically, but not financially or militarily. the victory of the wilders party does not mean that it will become part of the ruling coalition, the party's political views on

supporting ukraine and eurosceptic appeals may become an obstacle. yes, geert wilders and his party say that... what the nixites want, that the netherlands should leave the european union and that we should go back to the guilder instead of the euro, and no should support ukraine, but he understood that he was alone in this. experts note that the results of the elections in the netherlands once again demonstrate the strengthening of the position of the far-right in european countries, which may affect the future of the whole of europe, as well as future support for ukraine. oleksiy kovalenko, oleksiy osyka, voice of america, washington. meanwhile, russia's large-scale war against of ukraine has been going on for over 22 months. that is how many children continue to be born in the evacuation, whose families cannot return home due to russian aggression. a mother of many children from the luhansk region. a teacher from kherson region and a successful manager from kherson. these women are the heroines of our next story. forced to wait because they had to flee because of the war, they found refuge in

odesa. since the invasion, odesa has received more than 227,000 officially registered forced migrants. many of them have already started building their future here. anya kostuchenko and pavil sukhodolsky know more. municipal enterprise of heat supply of the city of odessa. this is the main state organization that provides the city with heat - says its manager hanna pozniakova. the company has more than 150 boiler houses on its balance sheet. last winter, because the russians were constantly shelling the substations, odessans suffered without heating and hot water. however, this year, the united states agency for international development usaid provided 100% of the boiler houses with generators, says hanna. this will not stop the supply of heat during probable shutdowns due to new shelling. "last year we didn't have that many generators, we were forced stop, however, this winter, especially during the low temperatures, we will

be sure that our systems, our houses, our highways, they will be intact, and we will be able to resume full work after the energy companies restore the power supply. the cooperation of the odesa utility company with the american agency for international development began in 2020. last year, usid provided odesa with excavators, emergency vehicles with modern equipment, and even the necessary fittings for rapid recovery heat supply in total , more than 4,000 generators were provided to schools, hospitals and communal enterprises in ukraine, - says the ambassador of the united states of america to ukraine, bridget brink. the embassy of the united states is sure that russia will continue constant shelling of critical infrastructure and... this year, and therefore helped ukraine to prepare for this in advance. we see the 400 generators provided are still in use

today, and we continue to provide much-needed humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable ukrainians. this will help ukraine not only this winter, but also in the future, because it strengthens local power generation capacity and will contribute to ukraine's energy independence after ukraine wins and reigns. peace. this odesa polyclinic decided to insure itself against possible power outages due to russian shelling with the help of solar panels, says director of the institution serhii horishchak. here , firstly, the generation of electricity and the possibility of its accumulation are combined, because in many projects there is, or only when the sun is there, and it works, or only there are batteries, they give, well, if they are charged. we have a combined model, and therefore... the sun charges our batteries, and the batteries then, if necessary, provide electricity to our facility, this project worth about 75 thousand euros was

implemented in 2023 under the grant program, as part of the concept of energy security of odessa with the support of german partners from the federal ministry of economic cooperation. now the polyclinic actually does not depend on the supplies of the regional energy company, which means. and from possible power outages in the city, from the network from our oblenergo, we receive only 0.16 w, that is, we do not need to take anything from the city at all, well, from the city, and that is why we now need 24 kw for polyclinics and this it is enough that the sun generates all these things, and it can be seen either not directly here, or by opening the application. it is synchronized and we can literally get the same information in real time as it is generated, we have a clear understanding there, when it was

cloudy, when, how it was charging, then all these things, well, statistically, they even show how many trees we saved. solar panels, even in the first six months of use , helped the hospital save significantly on electricity, says director horishchak. we can already see that this is a saving on electricity, and in a short period of time there are already, well, about 100 uah, this is savings, direct savings, and most importantly - independence, this is very important at the moment, because it is the hybrid station where there is and storage and generation, all this allows us to be independent of different stories. now the odesa polyclinic can become another point of invincibility. where odessa residents can charge their phones or warm up if necessary - says its manager. and the american embassy emphasizes that the main protection for ukraine against russian shelling is the provided

anti-aircraft systems. defense, the most important thing is that we provide ukraine with the means of air defense necessary for self-defense. together with our partners and allies, we provided ukraine with a whole range of air defense equipment. protection by air defense systems and support by generators just in case shutdowns are the means that can reduce the challenges for the city of odessa due to regular russian shelling in the winter time. anna kostyuchenko, pavel sukhodolsky for voice of america. from odessa and kyiv. it was a story about how the united states helped the ukrainian city of odesa to prepare for winter, and a story about how internally displaced people live in odesa, watch on our voice of america ukrainian youtube channel. this will be the end of the story from new york. another one appeared there in the very center of the quarter called ukrainian village a reminder to the world about the war in ukraine. an almost twenty-meter photo mural depicting the cemetery

of civilians destroyed by the russian military. cars in irpen. it was depicted by the american photographer and artist philip buhler. iryna solomko spoke with him in new york. philip buhler, an american painter from brooklyn, always brings sunflowers when he comes to his photo mural in mengeden. it was these sunflowers that ukrainian artists painted around nivychyna and the cars shot by the russian military, in which the inhabitants of rpiny tried to escape from practically surrounded city. after the liberation of kyiv region, the cars were taken to one place , which became... when i arrived there, i was very moved, because these are civilian cars, they are not tanks, and there were children in these cars, and people left toys and flowers for them, and to be there, walking around them, it's really impressive. i wanted to bring it here, because residents of new york will not go to ukraine. this is not the first photo of philip buhler's morality in new york. in 2020 , on the eve of the us presidential election, he installed a thirty-meter installation, which

he named. the price of lies. he collected 2000 on it presidential candidate donald trump said at the time. when a full-scale war broke out in ukraine, a photographer with no ukrainian roots decided to use his art to support ukraine. i felt terrible because 10,000 civilians had died. and i wanted to do something to bring attention to it, but in a different way, through art, to do something to notice, to make people stop and think. and in a strange way... the bigger you make the work, the more intimate it becomes, because you can see bullet holes, toys and flowers, and it attracts people's attention. bühler and his wife only returned from arpen in october. it was his first trip to a country where hostilities are taking place. everyone was very friendly. we drove north, there were several checkpoints, then on the side of the road we saw signs saying that the area was mined. that

was the moment i felt...danger, i wanted to go further to take a picture, but realized there might be booby traps left by the russians. when he returned to new york and saw the controversy surrounding aid to ukraine in the us congress, decided to urgently make a photo mural. so that i would have time to send a message to congress, because american aid is extremely important, without it, you know, ukrainians would not have survived. for his photo morality, the artist combined approximately 40 detailed photographs. zwintry of cars, creating a single and realistic canvas from them. i was passing by and saw this wonderful installation, read about it and was extremely moved by the fact that the artist is trying to encourage people not to forget about events in ukraine, because it's been going on for so long and i feel like we don't have enough quality coverage, it's too easy to forget. for some americans, they will, too. on

both sides of the installation, the artist has placed reference material so that passers-by have the opportunity to read exactly what is depicted on the photo mural. while the townspeople get to know the installation, philip is working on a new project. by the second anniversary of russia's full-scale invasion of ukraine, he plans to create a cyclorama with photos of destroyed houses in borodyanka. when you're in there you are practically inside. house, as well as near the playground. in one of the destroyed apartments, my wife and i found several things: dolls, video recordings, we want to use them as well, this will make the project even closer and personal for the audience. impressed by what he saw in ukraine, the mother definitely wants to return and plans to go east next time. iryna solovko, voice of america, from new york. the united states does not forget about the war

that still in ukraine, we will be on it.