with serhiy rudenko. the kursk raid of the unknowns. while the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine maintains informational silence, russian sources report a large-scale offensive by ukrainian forces in the kursk region of russia. what could be the purpose of the audacious operation? candidates for peacekeeping. democrat kamala harris and republican donald trump are competing for the opportunity to win in the future. the status of putin's dragon tamer, whose path to the victory of ukraine is more realistic? corruption scandals in ministries. while moz cancels high-profile tenders for the reconstruction of ohmaddyt, the ministry of education contracts to print textbooks at inflated prices, will personnel changes in the government solve the problem. glory to ukraine, this is

the verdict program, my name is serhii rudenko, i congratulate everyone and wish everyone good health. for the next two hours, we will talk about ukraine, the world, the war, and our victory. let's talk about the deployment of hostilities in kurshchyna, as well as how to fight within ukraine with russian agents and with russian influence in the information sphere, as well as in the spiritual sphere. and of course memory. about all those events that shape today, that will shape tomorrow and the days to come. during the entire broadcast, we will have two studios, that is, the first studio starts right now, and our guests will be mykola knyazhytskyi, people's deputy of ukraine, general of the sbu, viktor yagun, and political expert volodymyr tsibulko. in the second part of our program, which will start in an hour. we

will have political experts viktor boberenko and ihor reiterovych. however, before starting our big conversation, i suggest watching a video of how special forces of the main directorate of intelligence landed on the tendrivska spit, in the occupied kherson region, the scouts managed to destroy enemy armored vehicles and fortifications of the russians, during the battle the invaders suffered losses among composition, their number is being specified. let's see how it all turned out.

glory to the armed forces of ukraine and death to the russian occupiers. friends, we are live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms, for those who are currently watching us live on youtube and facebook, please subscribe to to our pages, like this video, take part in our survey. today we ask you, friends, about this, do you think there are good russians useful for ukraine? yes, no, everything is quite simple on youtube, yes, no, if you have a separate opinion, please leave it in the comments below this video. if you are watching us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote for the numbers. if you believe that there are good russians who are useful for ukraine. 0800-21381, no, 0800-211-382, all

calls to these numbers are free. i would like to introduce today's first guest, mykola knyazhytskyi, people's deputy of ukraine, chairman of the verkhovna rada subcommittee on cultural policy. mr. mykola, i congratulate you, thank you for joining the broadcast. hello, thank you for the invitation. well, since we are asking our viewers and tv viewers whether there are among the good... in their opinion, useful for ukraine, i will ask this question to you as well, what do you think? this is a very general question, i am against any generalizations, but unfortunately so far, i have not seen such leaders of public opinion in the russian federation who would speak honestly, without fear of putin, answering to their conscience, answering to god, about those scoundrels who started russian aggression, about what is needed immediately for...

i haven't seen people with such a worldview yet, it doesn't mean that they don't exist, just in today's information space, among the leaders of russian public opinion of the opposition, first of all. unfortunately, i have not seen such people. thank you. well, and the most important topic, obviously, the events of the last two days in kurshchyna, in the region bordering the sumy region of the russian federation. today, after almost a day of silence, putin began to say something about what is happening in the territory of the kursk region, no one can say for sure what is happening there, because there are reports. of the ministry of defense of the russian federation, they say that the defense forces of ukraine entered the territory of the kursk region and went deep into the russian federation for 10-15 km, they are talking about 10-11 inhabited points that the ukrainians have taken under control,

the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine has not yet made any comments, and this is also completely understandable, there are only reports that there is an evacuation in the villages bordering... from kursk oblast to sumy oblast, there those that are close to the border, how do you see this whole situation, that is, the war is returning to the place from where it came to ukraine? well, i don’t know what, from where, where he is returning, obviously, this is some plan of the ukrainian military command, i trust the ukrainian military command, since the military command itself does not in any way... and does not even say that it is the ukrainian army, and the russian public writes more about it, then i think that it is better for us to remain silent and watch how dozens surrender in captured russian servicemen, as ukrainian troops enter there, and they themselves place these so-called, so-called

russian soldiers from the country of the aggressor, since we are silent, i guess why we are silent, because first of all, you and i do not know this plan, secondly we saw that kirby. the spokesman of the white house has already said that they will find out with ukraine what is happening there, that they do not support the use of foreign, in particular, american weapons on the territory of the russian federation, that their position here has not changed. unfortunately, we do not have full understanding from our allies, although they help us a lot, for which we are very grateful, but it is still our responsibility and our decisions. if the ukrainian military command made such a decision. it means that they have some kind of plan, why are they doing this, i i hope it's not just for pr, as it used to be, and it's also sometimes necessary, for the sake of a strategic plan, we saw that they occupied this gas distribution station, which is a small facility, but still

depends on it for supply gas to europe, russian gas, which continues to be supplied, there is already a nuclear power plant, putin himself was absolutely nervous, demoralized and scared. this, because he did not expect this from the ukrainian army, we saw it directly from his reaction, this means that this operation of the ukrainian army already has certain advantages, and we will see what happens next, trusting the ukrainian command. russian officials and putin also, mr. mykola, quite often say that we can consider various options there to discuss during the negotiations, but we have to take into account the realities on the ground. now it turns out that... the realities on the ground may be completely different than what putin thought when he expressed this thesis, shoigu this week, just two days ago, said that ukrainians, unfortunately, nothing did not respond to putin's proposal, well, regarding the four regions, and the withdrawal

of the armed forces of ukraine from the four regions and the subordination of these regions to the russian federation. in these conditions, zelenskyy is talking about preparations for the next... peace summit, peace proposals and the possible participation of the russian federation, you do not know what the peace plan from zelenskyi should be, because we have already seen one peace plan, these are 10 points that were being prepared to the first peace summit, three of them were considered, or it is clear now, what other proposals there may be in order to to discuss, including with the representative of the russian federation, at the next summit. peace, you know, i would really like to be wrong right now, because i want peace, like most ukrainians, and i am ready to support any efforts of the ukrainian authorities to achieve peace, but i still do not see any desire on the part of the russian federation

to talk about any peace, the fact that the ukrainian authorities send some signals, hold these peace summits, it seems to me that this is more of a pr campaign for ukrainian society and... for the outside world, which is necessary, because we need external support, i have nothing against that, the fact that so many countries continue to stand with us, realizing that ... we are dealing with enemies, so it is of course extremely important for us, but together however, i do not see any, i hear that everyone is talking about the upcoming elections, about negotiations, but i still do not see the grounds for them and do not understand how it can be solved, i do not believe that the ukrainians will agree to, well it's not even putin's proposals, it's putin's bullying to destroy ukraine, no matter who it is, zelenskyi or not zelenskyi, i do not believe that the ukrainians behave in this way, and most importantly, i do not believe... that our western allies who support us, who have already invested a lot of

money in our defense, and this means investment, will agree to this to our future, to our future in the european union, to our future in nato, no matter what anyone says, but i am convinced that western support is very important, and why do these conversations take place, there is a lot of conspiracy around these topics, that someone somewhere has agreed , putin is already falling, i would like that, i tell you sincerely, but even then, as he calculates that... it is true that putin wants some kind of negotiations, but in reality i do not see it. while the war continues, and this war also continues in the information sphere. mr. mykola, in march 24th, you initiated the adoption of a bill on the regulation of the information platform or the telegram platform in ukraine, nikita poturaev, head of the verkhovna rada committee on information policy, literally. the day before yesterday, in an interview with rbc ukraine, he called the government's use of the telegram platform for

communication with society a mistake and spoke in favor of regulating the activities of this platform, as poturaev says. i see no other option than not to lose, not that the information war, but the war in general, except to write a fairly simple bill, the essence of which will be that either the networks or platforms establish a dialogue with the ukrainian authorities, or the state simply closes them down . in other words, mr. mykola, mr. poturaev supports your bill, is that correct? he supports his ideas, because he completely lists everything that is said in our bill with him, where he is is a co-author, but says that it should not be written, it was written a long time ago and is in the committee. well, nikita and i are like-minded politically, geopolitically, i would say so, because he belongs to the party of the government, and i belong to the opposition, and the government has such an attitude towards all its de. so that no draft law of the opposition, at least of european solidarity , is considered and passed in the hall, it

is enough to put any other name there and it will be considered, and from european solidarity they will not, and obviously nikita, supporting what is written in my draft law, i cannot put it to a vote even in the committee, unfortunately, so just as it happened with the church, when i initiated the prohibition of the russian orthodox church's activities in ukraine, then, unfortunately, my draft law was not put to the vote, it was submitted without a tooth... we have already finalized it together, in principle i am also in favor of the result, i am not against everyone working on it together, but before it comes to that, first of all, the ideas that my colleagues and i will propose for the protection of the information space will be implemented in life and will come to power so that it supports them, rewrites and passed off as hers, a very long time passes, in the conditions of war, from my point of view, it is unacceptable, unacceptable, mr. mykola, to delay the decision regarding the regulation of the activities of the moscow branch. churches in ukraine, two weeks ago, the verkhovna rada of ukraine was unable

to consider this bill in the second reading, ruslan stefanchuk announced the work, a break in the work of the verkhovna rada until august 19, will we stop today, august 7 , 2024, or already it is known whether this draft law or the law, or rather, the draft law will be considered in the second reading. 19 or 20 august and the dots will be placed? we will do everything for this, we blocked the tribune, we will continue to block on august 19 to demand consideration of the draft law, they throw in huge money from the supporters of the russian orthodox church who cooperate with novinsky there, with other pro-ukrainian-pro-russian, ukrainian oligarchs, pro-russian or russian, anti-ukrainian, i don't know how to say, some of them are sitting in the verkhovna rada, they are fighting so that... the bill does not pass, our goal is for it to pass, because here it is a unique situation that a large part of the government

also supports it, and i am grateful to every representative of the government who voted for it, stood with us near the podium, or how nikita peturaev defends this draft law at all conciliation councils, so i hope that we will have enough together to the representatives of all factions, because here you see these representatives of freedom, and the servant of the people, and the voice, and for the future, and obviously european solidarity for... that we all stand together here, there are not only former opz parties, and i think we have enough, we had enough votes, and we will manage to do everything to get this bill passed, this does not mean banning the uoc. tomorrow, but this means banning ties with the russian church and a gradual process of severing those ties, and then banning those who did not want to sever those ties with the moscow church. if this does not happen, then suddenly this draft law will be postponed again for consideration, how does this threaten ukraine and the national security of ukraine? well,

listen, they continue to act as a fifth column inside ukraine, we are fine with that we see every day, the security service of ukraine, well, not every day, but every week definitely arrests some russian priest who surrenders our positions, not to mention the huge ideological struggle they are waging against ukraine and ukrainians, and the fact that sometimes our sociology is not very pleasing, when we talk about patriotism, lately, it's all the underground work of the russian church in ukraine, and the sbu directly writes about it, calling it a threat to national security, we think the same, and we want to support the special services here. and all patriots of ukraine who believe that it is simply immoral for gundyaev's russian church to continue operating in ukraine. another thing is that anyone who breaks all ties with it and wants to be independent is obviously not in danger, they pay money and lie to the west, as if ukraine is fighting christianity here, there is nothing like that, ukraine is fighting the russian church.

which is a subdivision of the russian church itself, the fsb of the russian army should be banned, as it admits. and the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe, and many other organizations, as they did in latvia, in many other european countries, it is absolutely unacceptable that, in fact, a branch of the russian army continues to kill us spiritually from the inside, when our children, in the literal sense of the word, fight and sacrifice his life in the east of ukraine. a few more scandals or scandals with such a corrupt flavor, which we observe continuously. in the last few weeks, this is the story with ohmadit, when they tried to give the collected money to one of the companies whose offer was one of the even more expensive for 300 million, 307 million hryvnias, after a public outcry , the minister of health announced that the tender would be canceled and

re-run, now our colleagues, journalists are writing about what the ministry of health has set. cash register, as they say, on printing textbooks at a super inflated price, and we are talking about uah 180 million in the same printing house that once existed during tabachnyk's time, that is , three publishing houses were merged into one, called the atlant publishing house, and at inflated prices it is trying to print textbooks there, again , journalists write about it, why so many of these stories and why these stories are about these stories. journalists tell us, not anti-corruption bodies? uh, well, i think that the anti-corruption bodies are also telling, they are doing their job, we can see it, maybe obviously not the way we would like, but journalists are doing their job the way we would like, or at least we would like even better, but they work hard and fulfill their duty, this gives us hope for a good

future of our country, all this arises because of what the journalists wrote about it. as far as i can see, you look like me tell the portal like this and it is obvious that the journalists are just doing their job and this is happening because there is no rule of law in the country, but it was possible to turn off the channel with espresso from the air with one order without any reason, just like the other direct fifth channels there and please wanted to disperse the parliament, please wanted not to implement the law, please wanted the law contrary to the regulations, please wanted not to vote for the laws of the opposition or command the cabinet of ministers from the office of the president, you know, all this or have everyone in their positions these advisors of the president's office, who do not work anywhere, do not report to anyone, but teach everyone how to live, teach everyone, go immediately to the army, say these dozens of advisors, who

are hiding without the army, without any reason , go for a ride, rest in the southern seas , that's how it works, unfortunately. this is the absence of the rule of law, and if the rule of law is absent on the mountain, then obviously it will be absent in every official who works in this or that ministry, in this or that fund, for him human money is nothing that is, he lives like the last day, because the government lives like the last day, because the government doesn’t care about the law, and to care about the law doesn’t mean that zelensky himself or yermak himself carry the money they earned in their suitcases, maybe they do , maybe not, i didn't catch them, i don't know and i don't have such data. but the fact that the government is built on a monopoly, on the violation of the principle of distribution of powers, obviously demoralizes the whole society, because it means that everything is possible, then it is possible... and this is the biggest problem, which is certainly shameful, because it is , it is shameful from an international point of view, we talk about european integration, we talk about international aid, we ourselves give a reason

to the enemies of ukraine to say that there is corruption everywhere here, to all these american, anti-ukrainian figures who all the time say that we do not we need to give weapons, and there are many of them, because russia finances them all, these petty, completely irresponsible petty officials of ours, who really do not steal... they contribute to all this and thereby destroy ukraine, but in order to preserve ukraine for us first of all, it is necessary to establish the supremacy of law and responsibility, starting from the president and ending with the last public official, then it will work. thank you, mr. mykola, for the conversation, it was mykola knyazhytskyi, people's deputy of ukraine. friends, we work live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. for those who are currently watching us live on these platforms, please subscribe to ours. page, like this video, and participate in our vote, today we ask you about the following: are there good russians useful for ukraine? yes, no, everything is quite

simple on youtube, either yes or no, write your opinion, if it is separate and distinct from these two unequivocal answers, in the comments under this video, if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote 0800 211 381 if you think that among... good russians are useful for ukraine, if there are none, then in your opinion 0800 211 382, ​​all calls to these numbers are free, vote, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote. next , we have viktor yagun, major general of the reserve sbu, deputy head of the sbu in 2014-15, director of the security sector reform agency. mr. general, i congratulate you, thank you for joining the broadcast. yes. good evening, let's start our conversation with the situation that is currently developing in kurshchyna, because the russians have already made many statements and

the ministry of defense of the russian federation, today putin commented on the situation, told that this is some kind of provocation by the defense forces of ukraine, we do not have a clear answer from the ukrainian side yet, but we understand that it is obvious... there are also reasons not to speak and not to comment officially, what are these reasons for your opinion well, the reasons why we cannot, just as the russians once tried to enter the kharkiv region and did not know what achievements they would have, tactical or strategic, are the same with us now, we have entered the enemy's territory, and it is necessary to understand whether did we tactically execute our plan, that is, distract the enemy's attention? managed to ensure the withdrawal of some of their reserves, distract, diverted attention from the more serious tasks they

faced there in the donetsk region, in the kharkiv region, and whether we can achieve some strategic tasks, in particular, i don't know, to take control there, for example , the kursk nuclear power plant, and why, why can someone take control of a nuclear power plant, why can't we? but we wanted to, you see, we just need to stop playing don quixote and tell that we we go within the framework of the geneva conventions and do not cross the border, here we have a state border, we do not cross the state border, i said a long time ago and this was not even in the 22nd year, but even earlier, that in russia security rear towns. at a distance of 15-20 km simply does not exist, and ukraine can repeat what we saw with prigozhin’s column, when his column calmly,

without any tension, took control of the city in which the entire headquarters of the rostov military district was located, and the column almost it reached the tula, so i think that if ukraine set itself the goal of a combat raid of a combat brigade. behind enemy lines, it would be great, mr. general, judging by putin's reaction, he did not expect such a development, and this means that they did not prepare at all for the fact that the territory of the russian federation, the war that they started in ukraine in 2014 , after 10 years this war has already come there. do russians feel and understand what is happening in their country, well , as of the present moment, well, except

, of course, the residents of... dzhansky district and in the kurdish region in general, or whether it can have a psychological effect on russians in other regions, or whether they will understand what is happening? unfortunately, no, unfortunately, they do not understand anything, and apart from those who were directly there in some unpleasant situation, someone's building burned down there, or someone was hit by drones. artillery, all the rest will simply ignore , on the contrary, they will say: these are your problems, there is no public society in russia, there is no mutual respect and support from region to region, there everyone is for himself, so i think that everything will remain as it is , that is, only those people who saw it

directly, or ... received something there from ukraine, others will simply ignore all these events, the head of the main intelligence department of the ministry of defense of ukraine, general budanov says , that by the summer of the 25th year , russia will face a dilemma, either to end the war against ukraine, or to announce a large-scale mobilization, i quote mr. budanov, who delivered a speech to the graduates of the kyiv school of economics. khorog understands that if the protracted war continues, then no later than the summer of 25, russia will face the dilemma of whether to stop it all or to announce another large-scale mobilization. do you, mr. general, think that russia will have enough time to fight in ukraine for a long time, and on what, on what factors will it depend? well, they have enough money until the end of the year, that's for sure, because all the decrees

that were signed by putin. or his henchmen in the regions, they concern the provision of funds for mobilization, well , until the end of the year, everything else they really do not have money, the economy is in the 25th year will begin, maybe stagnation will begin, this is the end of the 25th year, and some decisions must be made regarding mobilization, because volunteers and those who are paid for money are graduating. and the replenishment, which can not only fill the gaps that exist in the troops, but actually switch to the accumulation of reserves there, maybe not even tactical but strategic ones, and there will be an offensive in certain areas, this is all simply absent now, they are just operating by those units, moving from one part of the front to another, and in this way they try to hold

that... intensive feigned offensive that they are carrying out at the expense of meat assaults, it all had to end sometime, listen, since october , in fact, they have been at this pace for almost a year, well, no army simply can withstand it. mr. general, the main directorate of intelligence has confirmed the ukrainian operation on the tendriv spit in the northern part of the sea. according to intelligence data, on the night of august 6, an amphibious group... a group of special forces landed on the spit and destroyed enemy armored vehicles, and there were losses among the russians, before ukrainian drones attacked the russian morozovsk airfield, su-34s and ammunition depots were destroyed there, information published by forbes also appeared that ukraine lost the chance to destroy dozens of su-34s due to. the prohibition

of the united states of america to strike on the territory of the russian federation. how do you assess the deployment of these hostilities on the territory of the russian federation, but the special operations that we conduct. to what extent are they successful, how are they sufficient, how far are they improving, you, as a professional, how are you looking at this? well, look what they are perfect. this is clear, because we saw what happened in morozivka, we saw the quality of the strikes and that indeed not only equipment was destroyed there, but also ammunition, i hope that the strikes that we carry out on the oil refineries of the russian federation, they are the same are being improved, the last information was.