and if there are no cigarettes, what will you smoke? he says , well, if there are no cigarettes, then there will be smoking, how long do you need , you need 10 days, this is what you should do, i did not come here to look at old farts who collect cones in the forest, what will yours varoman, i ask you to pray to god, i ask you to drink, and tomorrow fly to your sunny italy, never, don't spill blood on your wedding night, you don't need to, come here.

vasyl zima's big air, this is big ether, my name is vasyl zima and we are starting two hours of air time, two hours of your time, we will discuss many important topics today, two hours to learn about the war, right now and about the war.

let's talk more serhiy zgurets with us and how the world is living and now about what happened in the world yuriy fizar will talk in more detail, yuriy good evening, please, you have a word, two hours to be aware of economic news , time for to talk about money during the war, oleksandr morchyvka is with us, oleksandr, welcome, please, and sports news, a review of sports events from yevhen pastukhov, two hours in the company of your favorite presenters. thank you very much to elina chechenna for the information about cultural news, presenters that have become familiar to many. natalka didenko is ready to tell us about the weather for the day. as well as distinguished guests of the studio, andrii parubiy, people's deputy of ukraine, was also the chairman of the verkhovna rada of ukraine. the events of the day in two hours, vasyl zima's big broadcast, a project for smart and caring people, espresso in the evening.

welcome to the broadcast of the program of the ukrainian voice of america chas time and i and host oleksiy kovalenko. the biden administration on december 27 announced the last set of american military aid to ukraine in 2023. expecting that the us congress will soon approve the allocation of funds for the further supply of weapons to the ukrainian army. secretary of state anthony blinken said the $250 million package includes ammunition for air defense systems, additional ammunition for hymards mobile missile systems, 155 mm and 105 mm ammunition, and armor-piercing ammunition. blinkin also called on congress to quickly consider further aid ukraine. to advance

us national security interests, thereby helping ukraine defend itself and secure its future. meanwhile, the first group of ukrainian pilots completed basic training in britain. before flying the f-16, after which the pilots will learn to fly further f-16 fighters in denmark. ukraine is expected to receive these aircraft from western partners after the completion of the training missions. the netherlands announced that it was preparing to hand over the first 18 promised f-16 fighter jets to ukraine. and more we will talk with our european about the training program for ukrainian pilots and about the terms when ukraine can still get the first f-16 aircraft. correspondent, who joins from london, bohdan tsyupani. congratulations, bohdan. greeting. bohdan, what is currently known about the first batch of f-16 fighters for ukraine. and what of this is a rumor and what , after all, is verified information. is there any reason to say that these planes may already be in ukraine? so. well, actually, the information can

be divided into two very clear parts: from one hand, rumors, even rumors that appear in such. to a well -known, well-known press, a well-known publication such as newsweek, which published a small, factual note that the f-16s may already be in ukraine, but, uh, readers should note that the source is not named there , and even that unnamed american source, in that report in the magazine, actually says that... it is likely or possible that the planes may be in ukraine, that is , we are talking about completely unconfirmed and factually unverified information, which, for example, the spokesman of the air force forces of ukraine was forced to refute, but

in fact there are reasons that warm up, so to speak, an interested audience on the topic of summer supplies. of f-16 fighter jets in ukraine, and these are official statements that appeared last week from representatives of the dutch government, we have been talking a lot for a long time about the fact that the netherlands actually leads the european, so to speak , coalition of supplying ukraine with f-16s, and there the prime minister -minister mark rutte and defense minister kaisa olengren said last week that the approval. the official decision to start preparations for the transfer of the first batch of these planes, these fighters in ukraine, so we have on the one hand rumors, on the other hand very clear signs that concrete

steps are being taken to transfer to ukraine, in fact, the first batch of these planes. bohdana, but you mentioned the netherlands, are we still talking about some specific time frame, or maybe the recent elections? in the same netherlands, to prop up the current government, to transfer fighter jets to ukraine sooner, before a coalition was formed. perhaps domestic political schedules in the netherlands, where a lot is happening difficult, and probably, they will be long coalition negotiations. mark rutte is actually acting as acting prime minister of the netherlands, but other factors are probably more important in such a series. case, as the supply of these high-tech weapons , and there is probably a time frame, but previous experience shows us that we will not know, probably officially, precisely about the arrival of,

say, these weapons of this type to ukraine, as was the case with other previous cases, for example, with missile attacks for ukraine. whether from hymars or others, i.e. these first things in ukraine turned out to be obvious, only later, after the fact, we found out that ukraine has such weapons, so that certain deliveries took place, and there are obvious reasons for this, the military, first of all, experts very clearly indicate that the factor of surprise is very important, because ... that in particular, when it comes to long-range weapons, the enemy, the ukrainian enemy, adapts, changes, say, the location, diverts supply centers, and so on and so forth, that is

, it is too early and too detailed to tell what is happening in issues of arming ukraine, it is obviously not beneficial for either ukraine or its partners. if we talk about basic training, then... it took place precisely in great britain, what is the role of london in the aircraft coalition? e, as for great britain, britain does not have f-16 aircraft in service. but the british offered to train as experienced pilots and in a message dated december 26, the british government announced that experienced ukrainian pilots, six, were undergoing training, in particular to improve the relevant english language, namely specialized when it comes to military, military aviation. completed a certain training course and were sent to denmark for

a training flight, so to speak, and also there are beginners, they say there are 10, undergoing more thorough training. thank you very much, bohdan, our european correspondent from london, bohdan tsyupan, was in direct contact with us. and we will continue. ukraine cannot do without additional mobilization, according to a ukrainian military expert and senior analyst of the ukrainian charitable foundation mykola bilizkov is alive. according to him , mobilization is associated with the ability to mount organized resistance, and if ukraine is not ready to continue fighting, it will be much easier for skeptics in the west to promote the idea of ​​ending aid. the voice of amer correspondent talked about this and the challenges of next year with mykola biliskov. the security and defense sector met the war, its

number was about 350 thousand, maybe 400, the defense sector was increased by 2-2 times, that is, mobilization took place in one way or another, another thing is that the reserve of those who are ready to join the defense forces has been exhausted, and we are not unique in this, this was the situation in the first world war, when the war also began with a mass such... asm of willingness to voluntarily join the armed forces forces, and then in the conditions of the fact that the weapons are very deadly, the battlefield is very deadly, such readiness decreased, that is, we are not unique in this, such dilemmas already existed, and we have no other option how to mobilize, that is, of course, the continuation of the war of the ability to do organized opposition to implement the military strategy that we see now, it is related to mobilization, another matter is that... this decision does not find such universal support, that is, there is a segment

of the population in which it does not evoke positive emotions, and it is clear that in the conditions of this skepticism it is very, very difficult to quickly make decisions that do not cause such complete total approval, and as a result we see various discussions within ukrainian society, between various subjects, let's say, decision-making. that's why these are those the realities in which we exist, but without additional mobilization it will be difficult for ukraine, the military leadership made it clear that it will be very, very difficult to maintain the existing front line and to rotate those who are fighting, they also deserve to be rotated, therefore we see such a difficult situation, i hope that in the end this discussion will move in the direction that if... there is no alternative to mobilization, because if, if there is no mobilization, it will definitely

not get better, and the situation it can get worse, respectively, but at the same time it has to be to improve the very process of mobilization and preparation, and so that there are no such different assessments of polar opposites in society, it is probably necessary to reduce the loopholes that some people use to avoid actual mobilization, that is why we have exactly such a discussion that ukraine will not be ready to continue .. .. you fight, it is clear that it will be much easier for skeptics in the west to promote the idea, and why should we allocate additional amounts of aid if ukrainians in principle do not want to fight anymore. it is the second new year that anti-tankers have met at the front lines from the 80th separate amphibious assault brigade named after danylo koroi. their main task is the destruction of the enemy's armored vehicles with anti-tank missile systems, which helps to endure the hard days of war for 20... months in a row , anna kostyuchenko and pael

sukhodolsky talked to the soldiers of this brigade. such hits are the work of a 23-year-old anti-tanker on a pseudo-rock and his brothers. a native of ternopil region , he signed a contract in 2021 to defend donbas as part of the united forces operation. protection of ukraine during a full-scale i started the invasion in the... dream direction, i saw this exit, how the projectile was flying, and at that moment i really never believed in such a thing, i think that it only happens in movies, life is just like that, well, it was all in verbiage, i see him slowly flying towards me, my whole life is before my eyes. the father is rolling, i think, well, that’s probably the end, well, he’s flying like that, and he was so thin, he missed a shot, well, he’s flying and flying by further, i’m like that, phew, no, we’re still fighting, next was the kherson direction, the liberation of mykolaiv oblast, protection dnipropetrovsk region, and then donbas, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes, during this time his unit had many direct clashes with

the russian occupiers, come on, good, good. the skala unit operates the ukrainian stugne anti-tank missile system and its modified skif variant. tanks, they are all tanks, no matter what modifications they have there, no matter what they are called , there is no analogue, the best, these are their strongholds, it doesn’t matter to us at all what kind of tank it is, if we just see it, we just see it we destroy, regardless of the marking, that is, whatever they are they didn't mount their tanks there, the protestors , they don't have any absolute protection , go somewhere on the road in... the direction where the anti-tankers are standing, especially ours, yes, then they understand that this is death for them, there is no way out for them, countryman skali, a 24-year-old ternopil resident with the callsign sapsan, also started his military career as a contract worker in 2019, in donbas he already spent his second winter and even his own birthday in combat positions, this is just the beginning, just the beginning,

let's say, the first streets have already entered it , 15 july is my birthday, and we are away. and just a new position and for that change, it seems that three of the three targets worked, two of them , it seems, were tanks, we did not have them, the 80th brigade was formed not only from contract workers, a 39-year-old resident of the city of dnipro on a call sign for a full-scale the invasion of the russians professionally engaged in wood design. the man also sings professionally under the creative pseudonym mister jesus. now is the time. sings to the guitar for his brothers. almost six months since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russians, phishik was lining the thresholds of the military to sign up as a volunteer. they say there, i don't want to go and die, but i don't know how to fight,

you can learn, if you want to learn, you can learn everything, that's fast. but you can learn, and you have to learn quickly, because there is no time. your comments? fishik himself mastered the stugna atgm in less than a week. in the summer of 2022, he underwent his first combat baptism in the kharkiv region. there were two tanks there. and they controlled 180° just the space, covering two landings and giving just us, our guys to go forward. here, plus their artillery, plus their infantry, plus theirs, unmanned vehicles , there, as they say, it was hell, anti-tankers work at the rate of two to five people and hit the enemy at a distance of up to 5 km, wait for a dose, wait for permission, wait,

come on, come on , take it a little lower, take it a little lower. what is flying, no, is, is, the main goal is to expel our enemy from our land, protect our sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, everything, this is our only goal, we are not going, we did not join the army and we do not go to war as fanatics , or which acquaintances to kill, because we gain from it adrenaline, excitement, absolutely not, we are going only to protect our land, protect our people, our families, well, children. these units have been fighting for about 20 months in a row, the enemy, when he has already decided to go, he has some goal, and, lo, and that goal was announced, then denazification, yes, what does denazification mean, sorry, you want to destroy my

nation, we ukrainians, not russians, and russia will not be able to turn us into russians, it tried and tried for a long time, but we can see that we are still surviving, that's all language survives anyway, traditions survive anyway, people survive anyway, and what those traditions carry, well, let’s destroy the enemy , it’s simply impossible, we turn off the power, in total, on the account of anti -tank soldiers from the 80th separate amphibious assault brigade, more than 70 of enemy tanks and battleships, including at least three new russian t-90 tanks. anna kostyuchenko, pavel sukhodolskyi for voice of america from donetsk region. right now, moscow is conducting a psychological operation. influence, and putin is trying to play games with our consciousness. about this in in an interview with voice of america , brookings institute employee fiona gill, who served as senior director for european and

russian affairs at the us national security council and was a us national development official for russia and eurasia, said in an interview with voice of america. she warns american politicians not to repeat putin's narratives. details in a fragment of gil's interview with danylo halperovych. what is happening now is a psychological operation, and it is ongoing right now. yes, of course, everything went wrong on the battlefield from the ukrainian perspective as planned in the counterattack, but that doesn't mean it's over. and you know, people should stop categorically asserting that ukraine has lost, or that there will be a quick victory. it's all part of a military campaign, there are failures, if we look at the totality of the first and second world wars, not only that... there were wars of attrition, but the ups and downs, we see that any other conflict similar to this, but again it's all narratives, it's psychology and putin is now

trying to play mind games with everyone us, and it is very important for us to talk about this conflict in the opposite way, in order to present other positions, as well as to repel all those in europe and other countries who claim that everything is over, when absolutely nothing is over, it is not. .. wants everything to happen on the battlefield, but also in the world of diplomacy and in the political dimension in which we talk about it, we have a lot of opportunities to change the way we talk about things. we really need to flip the narrative scripts because we all know from ours of russia studies and from working with russia, that putin is a master of narrative construction, and you know, that was evident, for example, in the fact that he didn't hold his big press conference until recently. for most of the war, he refrained from speaking publicly about the war, which was actually a sign that he felt that things were not in his favor, and now he feels that

the situation has changed, and so he is now going with the flow, trying to to adjust the narratives and when you mention the external relations of the european council and you know their reports and some other european think tanks, this is what they call narrative hijacking. you know, we have to emphasize... that ukraine was really able to achieve a miracle, and this in the context of other warriors. there are many warriors in history to refer to. during his visit to ukraine , us defense secretary lloyd austin warned that if russia succeeds in ukraine, the kremlin's next targets could be the baltic states. head of voice of america in eastern europe myroslava gongadze visited the estonian military base, where american and estonian forces are improving their skills and expanding. opportunities to confront potential aggressors. in the town of virub, estonia, near the russian border, is the taara army base, which is a strategic training ground for nato

and an important component of the defense of nato's eastern flank. us troops are on rotation here, joining their estonian nato counterparts. part of the us army's famed 101st airborne division, the 1st battalion, 187th infantry regiment, arrived here only a month ago. commander, lt. col. jered wagner says the troops' arrival and acclimatization went well. we continue the work of our colleagues, so these first few weeks have been a great experience as we join our partners. and the mission is great, you know, we're going to train and build readiness and interoperability with the estonian defense forces. in response to the russian invasion of ukraine , about 20,000 american troops. were mobilized throughout central and eastern europe. currently around 100,000 american servicemen are stationed in europe in support of nato allies. the mission of our battalion is to be here and

cooperate with the estonians. us army europe conducts multinational exercises across europe. and our position here is this strategic location in the baltics that allows us to deploy forces anywhere as needed. one of these. us troops are conducting exercises in potentially combat conditions. we want to be able to strengthen our combat qualities, act faster and in the most severe weather conditions. so now in estonia in this weather is a great opportunity for us to train with estonians who understand combat conditions in this cold weather in this area. security conditions in europe have changed dramatically over the past two years. currently, nato defines russia as the most significant and direct. threat to security, peace and stability. estonians are determined to improve the capabilities of their armed forces and establish cooperation with nato colleagues, says colonel mati tikerpu from the

estonian defense forces. estonia was building up its defenses forces over the past 30 years. we know our neighbor and we know that he is unpredictable. we are constantly building our readiness and reserve forces, and we are constantly training with allies, consistent with our wartime plans. he says that according to their assessment, russia is preparing for a bigger conflict. if there is no political change in russia, it is only a matter of time before nato allies face their adversary. the russian invasion of ukraine clearly showed that our eastern neighbor has ambitions and is a threat to its neighbors, they want to restore their influence in our region, and they are not afraid to use military force for this. the kremlin repeatedly hinted at encroachment on poland and the baltic states, estonia, latvia and lithuania. such rhetoric and aggressive actions by russia against its neighbors and the transatlantic community as a whole

are an incentive. nato to strengthen its readiness to defend all allies. myroslava gongadze, voice of america, tara, estonia. khmelnytskyist alla uchyk is a folk craftswoman of ukraine. her products made of japanese beads won hundreds of victories in various competitions. first full-scale war, but uchyk sold more than 200 pieces of jewelry. all funds were directed to the ukrainian army. except. uchyk is engaged in volunteering, drinks nets, and kimora and buys the necessary equipment for the front, and the story is in the plot of tetyana kukuriyka and serhiy rubshinskyi. you have to be very attentive when you see what beauty is emerging in you, and you sit there at two o'clock in the morning, 3 o'clock in the morning, and you look and think, well, one more row, but the flower is already running out, i was buying.

of ukraine, her jewelry won more than 200 awards at all-ukrainian and international awards contests when the full-scale war began, the craftswoman did not take up the beads. for two months, i didn't have enough hands to weave, but when volunteers started coming and asking me to give something to charity auctions abroad, we need to buy something, we need to buy ammunition for the boys, we need to buy, well, buy medicine, buy clothes and. .. and i saw that they were very, well, they began to use it as a demand, during this time ala uchyk gave more than 200 pieces of jewelry to charity auctions, all the proceeds go to help the armed forces of ukraine. my sister and i have a husband who is fighting, our nephew was caught and taken prisoner and he is still a prisoner, so we

must survive all this, for sure. i say, until the end of my days, i will have it in my head, it will not end, volunteer as much as i can, as much strength as i have. ala uchyk does beadwork at night, during the day she weaves, but not beads, nets at the local volunteer center. on the 26th, we already opened our point for weaving nets and weaving again, everyone laughed, they say that they gave you master of the people's master of ukraine in bead weaving, who will be given masking light. volunteers buy materials for weaving camouflage nets in ukraine, greece and turkey. guys, they say that the best nets are ours, they're light, they don't burn, no, they start to smolder, but they don't blow up like this, and they don't get wet, and they're super-super light. to date, we have already sent 117 km.

in the spring of last year, today she is a strong woman who alla uchyk founded branches in khmelnytskyi and oblast, between more than hundreds of volunteers, whom ala gathered around her, teachers and children, we need it , first of all, so that our descendants will ask us: mom, dad, where were you when the cerebral palsy came to your land, what did you do besides moreover, even more so if you work with children, we, yes, we teach children to love their homeland, we give examples from the bible, yes, but in one word... you will not do anything, because children need an example. olena lysenko and her family left occupied kherson under shelling. in in april last year, she stopped in khmelnytskyi, in may she already joined the local volunteers. this is my country, my, well , myself, i don't know, the land that is my own, i do it for my children, for myself, and well, for everyone, and first of all for the defense'.