so that the whole country already in this tradition had a minute of silence, as we saw it in israel, when the whole nation stops for a minute. we will remember all those who died in this russian-ukrainian war. let's observe a moment of silence in memory of the ukrainian military and civilian citizens of ukraine who died in the war started by russia.

results of the year from president zelensky, the us congress is on vacation, when to wait for help, ukraine and poland? agreed to unblock the border, about this and more in today's issue. greetings, in the studio iryna koval, and this is the news, summaries of the week on the espresso tv channel. the counteroffensive in the south did not achieve its goals, however , there were victories in the past year, as the president told journalists for two hours in a row at the final press conference. how our soldiers continue

to hold the defense, despite the fact that most of them have been fighting for 22 long months. the security service of ukraine is actively engaged in moving the war as close as possible to the kremlin. where in russia was on fire this week. the final divorce from the moscow church. this year the majority of believers of ocu and ugk will celebrate christmas on december 25. the results of the second year of the war from the president - this week's top topic. volodymyr zelenskyi's third major press conference since the beginning of the full-scale invasion caused a lot of emotions, discussions and again disagreements in ukrainian society. as expected, the main topic was the situation at the front. on one of the most painful questions about rotation and mobilization, the president emphasized that he needs pain. a strong argument to

support this decision. a comprehensive plan which includes issues of rotation, demobilization, business trips, vacations and finances, because the mobilization of such a large number of people is an additional 500 billion uah from the budget. a lot of attention was paid at the press conference to issues of international relations and assistance to our state. more about this in our material. two hours of communication with the magazine. fatigue, irritation, jokes, good and bad , three-quarters of all questions about the war, the results of 2023 and plans for 2024, the counteroffensive in the south did not achieve its goals, but in the past year there were victories, the president claims: everywhere, in in ukraine, who knows, abroad, everyone highly appreciates the deprivation of the russian fleet, their almost total, total dominance in the ukrainian black... sea and the imposition

of a constant what to us, what to do, what to export, what, according to zelenskyi , russia has not achieved any goals in 2023, the assumption that ukraine is likely to lose, which can be found in the western press, zelensky rejects: no, i don't think so, we were in the most difficult situation, and we were... completely occupied, at least at least the central regions of our state, we were in full we got out of the blockade, people, god, partners , i don't know who else, all this helped, now we have a different situation, plans for 2024, this is the construction of fortifications and the increase of... production of weapons, in particular

drones. the president is talking about a million drones of domestic production next year. but in addition to weapons , people are needed. there are plans to mobilize up to half a million more people. parliament is preparing amendments to the relevant law, the document is planned to be adopted at the beginning of next year, mobilization will probably start from the age of 25, but women will not will call, the most painful issue is demobilization. what will happen to the million-strong army of ukraine, which is very powerful, i believe, what will happen to those guys who are there every day, at least what will happen to those who have been there for two years defending our state, i have not seen demomobiles there yet. these, although i believe this is the number one issue. the president's relationship with the head and another point of tension: valery zaluzhnyi recently became the object of regular attacks from the people's deputy from the servant of the people maryana bezuglai. when zelensky is asked about this, he does not defend

head of the committee, and familiarly equates him with the scandalously famous deputy. as for maryana, valera, and they have several other people there. very difficult, they all love to comment, like, on facebook , they often communicate there, they have a dialogue, they have been together since the first days, then they go to the front together, then they quarrel, these are difficult issues, to be honest for me, support the west, in particular the united states, here the president radiates confidence, despite the fact that congress was unable to pass an aid package of more than 60 billion dollars this year, zelensky has no doubt that the americans' decision will be positive, and this will be a signal for the european union as well. i am sure that the united states of america will not betray us, and that what we have agreed upon in the united states will be fulfilled, in full. i think i found

an understanding with president biden and the senators, and we met with both parties. the question, again, is in the dates. finally, the question which. what worries ukrainians the most, when will the war end? in the 24th year, will the war end? i think that no one knows the answer, even those respectable people, commanders, our or western partners, when they say that this is a war for many years, they do not know. zelenskyy emphasized once again that ukraine will not give up its territory, therefore the issue of negotiations with russia is not relevant today. so, president. confidently declared that the usa will not betray us and will fulfill its promise of support. meanwhile, the us congress went on vacation. senate democratic leader chuck schumer asked to extend both houses of congress for a week to catch up

to approve additional funding for ukraine before christmas. but the speaker of the house of representatives , mike johnson, did not support such a proposal. they have vacations. will end on january 8, and, as the reuters agency points out, difficult tests await after returning to the us congress. lawmakers must decide on funding military aid to ukraine, israel, and taiwan, as well as agree on changes to immigration laws. this week , the representative of the white house on national issues also spoke about assistance to our country security john kirby. he told reporters that ... the white house plans to provide another military aid package to ukraine by the end of the year, but warned that it could be the last until congress decides on additional funds. the white house once again emphasized that they understand the importance

of aid, since it is impossible to liberate the territories occupied by the russians without it. the situation around avdiivka, which is in donetsk region , is difficult. battles for the city continue. the occupiers have changed their tactics and now it is extremely difficult to evacuate the civilian population in a day. the removal of residents from the city was forcibly canceled several times. ukrainian positions are shelled hundreds of times a day by the occupiers. they continue to carry out active assault operations with the support of armored vehicles. increased the number of airstrikes and artillery fire. since the beginning. in october, the russians stepped up their assaults in the avdiyivka region. they are trying to surround the city and take it under their control. for these few months, ukrainian defenders have been defending the city and preventing the plans of the occupiers from coming true. read more about

the situation at the front. see further. operative the situation in the east and south of ukraine remains difficult. in the kupyan direction, they are united. forces repel enemy attacks in the area of ​​senkivka settlement, kharkiv region, where the invaders tried to break through the defense of our troops. settlements near the contact line. the slates are covered with artillery and mortar fire. over the past few days , invaders in the bakhmut region have almost constantly attacked klishchiivka. they are trying to break through from the north and in the direction of the road from ivanovsky. the sections remain the most difficult front near avdiivka and maryinka in donetsk region. this week, the russians entered the avdiyivka industrial zone and consolidated their positions. there they entered the fortifications that our ukrains used to receive. the military continues to try to move towards avdiivka itself, but

in the last two days of this week, i can talk about a certain, let's say, situation where our military received reinforcements, and these intentions of the enemy to secure the encirclement of avdiivka did not come true. in the zaporizhzhia direction, the defense forces of ukraine repelled all attacks west of verbogo and robotyn, where the enemy is tried to dislodge our units from the occupied borders. in the kherson direction , kherson, lviv, tyaginka, ivanivka, and ochakiv of the mykolaiv region were hit by artillery fire. the enemy also carried out an airstrike near the wells in the kherson region. the invaders tried to knock out our units from the left bank of the dnieper. however , the ukrainian troops gave a decent rebuff and inflicted significant losses on the attackers. during the last weeks ukraine goes on the defensive along most of the front. this

happens in response to calls of the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyi, to speed up fortification works in key sectors. at the same time, the enemy conducts aerial reconnaissance, which makes it difficult for ukrainian fighters to build a defense line. we are talking about the lines of the second there and the third, which are, let's say, behind our troops in certain directions, because we can take into account different. combat operations and there may be scenarios that, in particular, in areas such as avdiyivka, there, maryanka, bakhmut, there, in particular, kupyansk, there may be situations when we will have to withdraw to positions that will be more advantageous from the point of view of defense, and there we must have sufficient protection. our soldiers continue to hold the defense steadfastly, despite the fact that most of them have been fighting for 22 years now, hard and long. months according to the dictator putin, the russian army is improving its position at

the front, and kyiv did not succeed in counteroffensive. the president of the aggressor country also recently held a press conference on the results of the year. his main message is that there will be no peace in ukraine until it happens denazification and demilitarization. there will be peace when we achieve our goals. - he said. so it is clear that despite the heavy losses of soldiers on our territory, putin will continue the bloody war. also, in his characteristic manner, he once again blamed the measure, which, in his opinion, applies a strategy of containment in relation to russia and sets aggressive goals in ukraine. therefore, we are not going to give up our goals of the svo either, putin said. meanwhile, the security service of ukraine. does not let the invaders relax and hands them over surprises it was hot this week in

bryansk, rostov, kalusa and moscow regions. so , see our review for more about cotton in russia and the temporarily occupied territories. where did it burn in russia? on the night of december 17, the security service of ukraine and the armed forces struck a russian airfield in the rostov region with drones. the russians traditionally lied that all the drones were shot down, but our forces inflicted significant damage on the enemy's equipment. it is known that there were up to 20 su-34 aircraft at the airport at the time of the attack, three radar stations and other equipment. the bomber aviation regiment of the refia aerospace forces is also located there. moscow airports were covered with a plan. cavyor, allegedly due to mass attacks. pilots on tuesday, departures and arrivals were not accepted at three airports of the capital of the russian federation.

vnukova, damadedova and zhukovsky. also, a kamikaze drone was shot down in the morning over the bryansk region of the russian federation. on friday, unidentified drones flew to kaluga. flights were temporarily not accepted at the local airport. the propagandists reported that all the drones had apparently been shot down. friday the 22nd december pleased with good news. in particular. in the south, ukraine destroyed three russian su-34 fighters at once. there are dead people among the occupiers. the wastes of guided air bombs, which they considered as ranges. that is, the planes did not approach the air defense zone, but did damage by sending these guided air bombs, today they received a strong signal that this distance of 50-60 km, from which the kabys were launched, is no longer safe for them. also, on friday, unknown drones

were spotted in several regions of the russian federation. in... they allegedly attacked an oil storage facility, the russian media wrote about it. of course, the occupiers cheerfully announced that they had shot down everything, but later drones were spotted in the rostov region, in particular in taganrog. ukrainian intelligence is not told about the targets, but they assure that all the birds arrived as intended. over the course of a week, almost every day , the bases of the invaders burned down several times in the temporarily occupied cities. explosions rang out in donetsk, dzhankoya, sevastopol, simferopol, and karchi. on december 20, a drone struck a border post of the fsb near alushta. one man was injured. damaged equipment and satellite antenna. that morning, a rocket hit the center of long-distance space communication in the village of vityne, saksky district. at the beginning of the annexation of crimea, the occupiers

kept powerful equipment there. space communication center for russia. is a strategically important base, the destruction of its center of long-distance space communication can lead to a return to the previous accuracy and loss of orientation of missiles that will fly to the territory of ukraine. there were powerful means of detecting seismic events on the surface our planets, which means that they cannot now accurately track the points on which they hit, where they aimed. the security service of ukraine is intensifying its work behind enemy lines in order to move the war as close as possible to the kremlin. among the priority targets are warships of the russian federation, military bases, logistics corridors

for the supply of weapons. the head of the sbu, vasyl malyuk, told the publication about this. the special service is already working to push the black sea fleet of the russian federation out of crimea and is doing it with the help of naval drones, those that were previously struck the crimean bridge, as well as several russian warships. vasyl malyuk emphasized: the sbu is always looking for new solutions and promised that bavov will continue to attack. ukraine and poland reached an agreement on blocking the border. at a meeting in kyiv on friday, december 22, representatives of the polish ministry of infrastructure and the ukrainian ministry of community development, territories and infrastructure agreed on an action plan and promised to solve the problem in the coming days. meanwhile, according to the state border service on

more than 4,000 cars are standing in line at the ukrainian-polish border. four directions were blocked on saturday morning. ravaru kraków, jagodin and shahyny. the blockade of the polish border slowed down the growth of ukraine's gdp. according to the ministry of economy, the growth of the ukrainian economy slowed to 4% in november 2023, compared to 10.5% in october. a few days earlier, on wednesday, polish president andrzej duda held a meeting of the national security council, where he emphasized. that ukraine's accession to nato is also important for his country, because such a step will push nato's eastern flank away from poland and increase its security. ukraine's possible membership in nato, as well as joining the european union, is fully in poland's interests, duda said and emphasized the need for joint actions with the new government

to implement ukraine's intentions to join the eu and nato. representatives of the new government of poland headed by prime minister donald tusk were also present at the meeting. and already on friday in kyiv, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky met with the new head of the polish foreign ministry, radoslaw sikorsky, where he said that the polish side is preparing an official visit of the head of the polish government, donald tusk. and this obviously increases the chances of unlocking the western border for ours. the vast majority of ukrainians are going to celebrate christmas in 2023. according to the new church calendar, that is, december 25. this is evidenced by the data of public opinion polls. the prime minister of ukraine, denys shmegal, said that in 2023

, christmas in ukraine will be an official working day on december 25, and it will be a holiday and a day off only after victory. as for the date of christmas itself, discussions have been going on for years, only in the current year, in the second year of the full-scale invasion of russia in... ukrainian churchmen reached a joint decision. how the leading christian churches of ukraine took a historic step, changing the church calendar, and how for the first time the majority of believers will celebrate christmas on december 25, my colleague natalya stareprava will tell. this year, believers of the orthodox church of ukraine and the ukrainian greek catholic church celebrate christmas together for the first time on december 25. a few years ago... the question of transition to the new calendar remained at the level of discussions, this year it is a decisive step not only of a socio-religious nature, but also of a geopolitical nature, because it means a final

divorce from the moscow church: there are several reasons why ukrainian churches decided to leave the julian calendar. first, it is astronomically inaccurate. the earth revolves around the sun 12 minutes slower than the ancient romans thought. therefore, in 1500 years, the julian calendar fell behind by 10 days. concerned about this, pope gregory 13 decided to reform the calendar in in 1582. therefore, from october 4 , the 15th came immediately, and the new julian calendar was accordingly called the gregorian. before the bolshevik coup, the russian empire followed

the julian calendar, at a time when all of europe had long since switched to the gregorian calendar, as had the ukrainian people's republic. russia did not take such a step due to religious and ideological reasons. and the orthodox church, which at that time remained the only orthodox denomination in ukraine, also... followed only the julian calendar, and it turned out that society long ago switched to the new style, and the church stuck to the old one, so the julian calendar is currently delayed by 13 days. since 2014, ukrainian churchmen began to actively talk about the transition to a new calendar. thus, in 2017, the verkhovna rada added a non-working day on december 25 for those ukrainians who celebrate christmas according to the gregorian calendar. in december 2000. of the 20th year , metropolitan epiphany of kyiv noted that the orthodox church of ukraine will switch to a new calendar only when the faithful themselves agree to it will be ready not long after this statement

, his beatitude svyatoslav noted that the ukrainian greek catholic church will switch to the new calendar only from the orthodox church of ukraine. christmas should be celebrated together, together with your parish, together with your church, because... christmas is not a private event, it is very personal, although it has a personal dimension. christmas is a holiday for the whole people. russia's full-scale war against ukraine accelerated transformations in society. therefore, the issue of transition to a new calendar acquired national and political features, as another way get rid of the russian fraternal myth. therefore, from 2022 until now, many religious communities have changed. go from the moscow patriarchate to the orthodox church of ukraine. the transition to the new julian calendar was announced at the synod of the ukrainian greek catholic church in february

2023. the orthodox church of ukraine started talking about it in may, but the final decision was made at the local council already in july. therefore, the transition to the new calendar became the decisive step that had not been taken for decades. generally more. ukrainians support the transition to the novylyan calendar. according to the opinion poll of the razumkov center, more than 80% of greek catholics and more than 60% of orthodox have a positive attitude to this. the statistics are somewhat lower in the eastern and southern regions of ukraine, however, even there more than half of them feel good about it. and even the parishioners of the moscow patriarchate are also preparing to switch to the new julian calendar. not january 7, but why, why don't you switch to the 25th of hrydnia, well, because that's how my parents celebrated, that's how my

grandfathers-great-grandfathers celebrated, all grandfathers, and i celebrate that way, now we will celebrate twice, because the children want this year, and we, our generation , will still get used to it, i think that it will change someday, but it will take time, there should be one holiday, so december 25, every second no, it's about christmas. the transition to the new calendar this year is not yet mandatory. the ukrainian greek catholic church has given time for adaptation until 2025. the orthodox church of ukraine did not set time limits. instead, it is known that 120 orthodox parishes out of 8.5 thousand remained on the julian calendar. one such community is known in lviv. well, a festive service with the participation of the heads of the greek catholic and

orthodox churches will take place. december 25th. despite russia's full-scale war against ukraine, our military also celebrates christmas on the front lines. and for the second year in a row, they do it on december 25. the day before, our soldiers recorded a touching video where they reminded that the transition to the new church calendar is the right choice. this is really powerful stuff. this is how our team saw this week, despite the fact that there is a war in the country, ukrainians are preparing for christmas and the new year, but during the preparations, do not forget about our military, who need help every day, and

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