a place where there were only mini-fields, no cover for infantry, artillery or heavy equipment, and in these parts of the border russia also has few forces. the russian forces were represented there by border guards from the fsb and the rose guard. and in such a situation, when there are no troops, there is no line of defense, any trained brigade with western equipment can conduct a maneuverable war. and for ukraine, it was not a difficult task. so it was only a matter of political will, a political decision to carry out such an operation. we don't know how this story will end. i mean what is happening in kursk oblast, will ukraine try to expand its area of ​​activity on russian territory, and what will russia's countermeasures be? how

effective will these countermeasures be? i want to say that i would not like to exaggerate the importance of this crisis, but i would not like to downplay it either. i would say that for putin and the russian military, this is a serious local crisis, which was the result of underestimating the intentions of their adversaries. i think that sooner or later one of the russian generals will take responsibility for this crisis, but for now, and i see it from their reaction, for the russians it is a crisis. has a more local character on the front line, which is more than 1,000 km long, that is , it does not go beyond the tactical zone. the russians do not believe that the ukrainians have the resources to seize, for example, the russian regional center of kursk or belgorod, so it seems that the russians do not yet believe that the ukrainians can seize the kurdish nuclear power plant.

will kursk be the beginning of the end of vladimir putin's rule and will the head of the kremlin be able to use the offensive of the armed forces to unite the nation, so to speak, in the face of the threat, for example, to announce mobilization. in principle, what options are left for putin to save himself and his regime? the higher russian military leadership knew about a possible border breakthrough, but ignored intelligence reports about the accumulation of forces of the armed forces near the border of the kursk region. this was reported by bloom. with reference to a source close to the kremlin . intelligence warned about the preparation of the offensive two weeks before ukrainian troops entered russia. but the russian general staff decided not to inform putin about this, believing that intelligence reports, they say, are just panic. well, as the moscow times writes, the leadership of russia considered it unthinkable that ukrainian troops would dare and be able to capture russian territories, let alone capture soldiers. after breaking through the border , putin became nervous about it. including

because of concern about his reputation in the power and military apparatus, the moscow times also writes about this with reference to sources in the kremlin. well, the afp edition with reference to an unnamed ukrainian official, reports that after the offensive of the armed forces of ukraine in the kursk region, ukraine is preparing for a massive missile attack, in particular on government buildings, we already talked about it today, and just now ihor riterovych, political scientist, candidate of political sciences, joins our broadcast. igor, my congratulations. congratulations. today. we already had two military experts on the air, and they kept trying to pick up your whine and tell us about the political consequences of this operation, so i think this question is right for you at the address of the political consequences for putin, do you share this opinion, that the chair wobbled very seriously under him, that kursk will be the beginning of the end of his regime, as volodymyr zelenskyi said the day before, or are these too optimistic forecasts, knowing that it still seems that putin was not faced with such challenges, well, i would not say , that...

the chair wobbled directly under him, and this is, for example, the beginning of his end, but the fact that this is a very serious, really reputational political blow, is a fact, and actually, when you were doing the line-up, yes, that was footage of the meeting was shown on the screen, and the faces of the people there were visible gathered, and these are the faces, in fact, that characterize the situation very well. russia has received some very loud slaps, and these slaps, they will have a long-lasting effect. and the effect, which is still very difficult to predict, but look, one simple example, according to the results of the operation of the armed forces of ukraine, a huge number of russian conscripts were captured, i saw different numbers, different numbers, there was a number called thousands of prisoners, but well perhaps more real are several hundreds, at least some of them are russian they were able to identify at least about a hundred resources, and these are all people who did not sign their own contracts, that is, they did not go for... well, for money, these are mainly,

mainly conscripts, well, except for the representatives of akhmat there and, for example, the fsb there, yes, who actually stood on the border, or were stationed on the territory of the kurt region, and it is clear that... that the attitude towards conscripts in russia is very different from the attitude towards those who signed a contract and went to fight in ukraine and kill essentially for money, maybe right here, well, relatives of these conscripts, they will start turning to the russian authorities and will somehow try to change the situation, demand exchanges from them, demand some kind of quick reaction, although according to the law, according to the law, well, the russian authorities have the full right to send conscripts anywhere. including for the war, but they did not do this, because there was and was such, you know, a kind of informal agreement between the russian authorities and part of russian society, which was precisely about these conscripts, and actually served there, now this agreement has been violated to a certain extent, it is not

very clear how the russian authorities will react in the future, i think that in the near future they will definitely not carry out exchanges, so the situation will definitely escalate here, and one more very important point, of course, that in the eyes of many... representatives of the so-called russian elite, even which is very loyal to putin, and mostly it is, this situation is absolutely pessimistic from the point of view of prospects, that is, putin has put a lot of effort into forming a certain image of a self-confident russia that will bring the war to a logical conclusion, and this will be an end on the terms of the russian federation. in the kurdish region, we see a completely different picture, which is not clear, when it will be resolved, this is... the key point, by the way, even the russian soldiers or some representatives of the authorities there are talking about this, which will not happen quickly, so we will have such problem, and this problem, well, clearly will not contribute to increasing enthusiasm or optimism in putin's entourage, because he was promised that the war would soon end on

favorable conditions for us, and you will again be able to do business there and so on, but this did not happen, and the third political moment, it is foreign policy, pay attention, on the seventh day only china woke up with... a statement, what are they, what is china made, well, this is a statement, like all the previous ones, it is about nothing, well, about everything and nothing, yes, that is, we are for peace, let’s negotiate, there should be no escalation, and that’s it, not a word more, and that’s what it’s about again still says that russia formed one position for china, that we are strong, we let's press, to be on our side, now they see a completely different picture, they see a very dangerous precedent, first of all for the russian federation, and they see the confusion of the russian government, which does not... know how to solve this problem, well, i am silent there in general, about the local regional level, it turned out that there is no power as such, but the central government does not understand what and how it should be done and how it can end, even after so many days after the start of this operation. but look, igor, for years putin has been scaring the russian population about what

some ukrainians over there, with the support of the west , are threatening russia, here the real threat is happening right in front of his eyes, the ukrainians over there with western equipment... broke through the russian border, and it seems that this is what he has been telling the russians about for years, can it become so a unifying factor, to unite, on the contrary, to announce a large mobilization there, which he did not announce before, the kto announced very modestly, now i saw such jokes from the svo in the kto and so on, or did the train leave and more he can't do anything anymore to do with it, and nothing will happen, there will be no rise up country is huge, they are writing about it, listen, they are writing about it. frankly , people who are absolutely loyal to the russian authorities, people who hate ukraine and want its destruction, they write that we have failed this case, nothing will happen. look, in the kurt region, including, they invested millions of rubles in the so-called teroboron, which they faked with ukraine, the ten-tero defense, yes, they

write down an appeal under the kursk: vladimir vladimirovich, help, there are no people who oppose what is happening, no, because patriotism, you see, it is pretended with... to a large extent, for money, some part is ready to go kill and fight, this is a separate story, and those who are not for money, they are not ready for this, there is no unity, there is no, you know, such a surge that let's support the people who are evacuating there, they have already evacuated almost 170,000 people there, and they want to evacuate in the territory of temporarily occupied ukrainian and russian cities , an announcement appears that we are apartments in natives of the kursk belgorod region. do not give up this is about the unity of, let's say, russia, about what is happening there, that is, this story also showed that the myth painted by putin, that we are all here together against the west and so on, it works very well when the situation is more or less under control, when you tell on television that you captured another

village in ukraine, this is a great victory, and there they destroyed a certain tank that was handed over to ukraine by a nato country, and when everything happens here, the war comes, returns, or rather , to the territory of the russian... federation, well it turns out that the russians especially do not want to fight, they just want no one to touch them, and this is also a big failure for putin, with whom they do not know what to do, and they will not fix it in any way, because. .. the train left, it had to be done in the first two or three days. igor, the last question i have: the press writes about the fact that the intelligence did not report to putin, they saw that some kind of gathering of troops was taking place, but did not report to him, because they said, either they did not believe, or they thought that it was just a panic of intelligence officers, or they were afraid to tell him do you not admit that they did not tell putin, well , not because they were not afraid, but because they wanted to impersonate him, remove him from office as a result, or are these too conspiratorial versions? no, look, it's not a conspiracy version, i think it's actually a combination version here. on the one hand, indeed, some

part of those who knew about it, perhaps they did not run straight there, did not hit the nabat, did not say that it was necessary to prepare, there would be some kind of offensive from the side of ukraine and so on, and on the other hand , listen, i am convinced that putin knew about certain such reports, but he has he has his own picture in mind, he thought, probably, that ukraine would never dare to do such a thing, why, because in his understanding, ukraine is not a subject. state, we were forbidden to do this, i don’t know who to do, the british, the americans, the anglo-saxons, by the way, the british said today that they allegedly did not give permission to use their missiles, but you understand, in putin’s understanding , i thought that they did not forbid at all even enter the territory of the russian federation, that is, when you treat the country and do not consider it a subject, then you get very bad news, and here most likely everything coincided, this is the position of putin, you know, he is like stalin in the worst version, who did not fully believe that... hitler will strike first, yes, will overtake him and there will strike the first blow, in putin has a very similar picture, and it

goes all the way down, and some part says, well , he will never believe it anyway, so what are we going to talk about it, we are going to do some of our own things, someone really, perhaps , watched it from the side. the situation will get out of control, so maybe then they will actually start talking about the fact that it is necessary to end all this and somehow get out of the situation in which we got into, that is why there are a lot of complex such things that merged in... space and time, and we got the effect which we can observe on the screens, which, by the way, we will continue to observe for quite a long time, because i will repeat myself once again, already in so many days it would seem that the centralized authoritarian system that has been built still does not know how to react correctly and how, in principle , to respond quickly on the fact that takes place on the territory of the russian federation. we will definitely return to this topic and call you igor. thank you very much, ihor riytorovych, political scientist, candidate of political sciences. we talked about political ones. consequences for putin and his regime as a result of this kurdish operation. thank you very much. and against the background of the attack on kurdistan in

the sumy region of ukraine, which actually borders kursk, restrictions have been introduced for the movement of people in a 20-kilometer zone on the border with russia. the reason, as explained in the general staff, is the increase in the intensity of drg battles. the day before, the local authorities announced that the evacuation of 20 thousand people from the border area of ​​sumy region was carried out, or is planned to be carried out. a week ago, after we entered the kurtsk region of russia from... the evacuation zone to sumy oblast was increased from 5 km to 10 km in sumy oblast, the people who are leaving say that shelling has really increased, listen to them, since that moment when these actions began, russia increased its aggression and began shelling the border areas, yes, of course, the number of people leaving, evacuating, they increased, and more, even more shelling, although they... and before that they were shelling us all the time, we have everything there, we have artillery flying, and hail, and cabs

falling, and artillery constantly, drones are now in half a dozen constantly above our heads, well, they from everything they have, what, as i understand it, they are pulling closer to the border, probably from everything and we just don't understand what it is, what they are shooting from, we were leaving, nothing happened in the center, they fly every day, you can see how many. also, they don't shoot down planes, they don't shoot down anything, they just kill us and that's it, the operation was secret, therefore, accordingly, no one expected this, and let's say that this is a shock for people, but it's unfortunate that it was an operation on our part and they didn't come here, because... well , it would be worse if it were the other way around , good feelings, joyful, what is joy, well

, let them find out what, what it is, they do not understand that this is such a war, what is it, let them smell it. that's all we have for today, i urge you to subscribe to the radio liberty page in ukraine, we are monitoring the situation, like this broadcast in this way you support our work until tomorrow. there are discounts until independence day on karsil tablets 10% in psylslynyk, bam and oskad pharmacies. in the august issue of the magazine, the country will tell about the return from captivity. how ukraine is looking for its own, will we return all the children abducted by russia.

the country touches on painful topics for all ukrainians. we talk to experts, listen to the stories of soldiers who were in captivity, ask about the country at the points of sale of the press or pre-pay online. the book women at war, a joint project of the espresso tv channel and the duh i litera publishing house. the book that is based on the reports of the presenter of the espresso tv channel khrystyna parubiy. 20 stories, 20 fates, 20 women who defended the country. the book is dedicated to women who chose the path of fighting the enemy in the ranks of the military. women at war, look for it in bookstores of ukraine. with the support of the konstantin zhivago charitable foundation. there are discounts until independence day at valeriana bolgarska. 10% in psyllany bam and oschad pharmacies. there are discounts until independence day on normaven pills. 10% in

pharmacies plantain, bam and oschadnik. do you suffer from heartburn? i recommend izoto. isoto reacts with acid. that in the stomach, which leads to a decrease in the symptoms of heartburn, isota your water, if heartburn bothers you, there are discounts until independence day on citramondarnitsa, 10% in pharmacies plantain, pam and oskad. vasyl zima's big broadcast, my name is vasyl zema, this is a big broadcast on espresso tv channel, two hours of air time, two hours of your time. my colleagues and i will talk about the most important thing, for two hours, to learn about the war, about the military, frontline, component, serhiy zgurets, and how the world lives? yuriy fizar already in front of me, and it's time to talk about what was happening outside of ukraine, yury, good evening, two hours to keep up with economic news, time to talk about money during the war, oleksandr morchavka field with me and sports news, i invite you to yevgena

pastukhov talks, two hours in the company of favorite presenters, about cultural news, alina chenina, our tv viewer, is ready to talk, good. presenters, who for many have become as if one day already next to me, ready to talk about the weather for this weekend, as well as distinguished guests of the studio, mustafa dzhemilov, the leader of the crimean tatar people, is in touch with us, mr. mustafa, greetings, good day, events of the day in two hours, vasyl zima's big broadcast, a project for smart and caring people, in the evening for espresso. 15-year-old dmytro povalyaev is on your screens. the boy lived in kharkiv oblast, in the border town of vovchansk with russia. when a full-scale war began, the settlement was immediately occupied. and already in june 2022 , information appeared about dmytro's disappearance. in september of the same year, vovchansk was liberated

soldiers of the armed forces, but no details about the boy's possible whereabouts will be found out. it didn't work. perhaps the child managed to be taken to the occupied territories of ukraine or even to russia, which is why it is important to learn even the smallest details of the boy's disappearance. if suddenly someone has seen 15-year-old dmytro povalyaev, or has any information about his possible whereabouts, call us immediately on the hotline of the magnolia children's search service at the short number 11630. calls from anywhere in ukraine. the operator is free if suddenly there is no connection or the possibility to call, write to the chatbot of the children's search service in telegram. i also want to remind you that the search for ten-year-old artem kholodny, who also disappeared in kupyansk , kharkiv oblast, in september 2022, is ongoing. his mother asks for help in finding the boy.

imagine, a woman has not seen or heard from her son for more than two years. i am appealing to everyone who can... or knows any information about my child, my son, the cold one, artem andriyovych, if anyone has seen or heard any information, can provide it, i am asking you very much to do this because the mother's heart is breaking, and the fact is that artem kholodny's parents are divorced and live separately, so it happened that when the war began, the boy was with his father in the city of kupyansk, kharkiv region. on the third day of the full-scale invasion , the city was completely occupied, and later communication was cut off there. for almost six months, mrs. olena did not have any news about her son and... in september 2022, they received a short message from him in viber. it was september, around september 10-13, 22nd. i remind you

that on september 22, ssu fighters almost completely liberated kharkiv oblast from the occupiers, and it was during this period that mrs. elena's son got in touch. of course, the woman tried to call artyom. i wrote him more than one message in response, but all attempts turned out to be in vain. contact with the child mysteriously broke off again and it is still unknown where artem kholodny is now, so your help is very important, look at the photo again and remember the boy's face, he is a very active boy, fair-haired, so active build, light-eyed, gray-blue eyes, active, kind, good boy, if suddenly anyone has seen artem kholodny or knows where he may be now, do not delay and immediately call us on the hotline of the magnolia children's search service at the short number 11630. calls from of any ukrainian mobile operator are free. if it is not possible

to call, write to the chatbot of the children's search service in telegram. any information is important. i have told you only two stories of missing children. since the beginning of the war, we have already received thousands of appeals for help in the search. the vast majority of children succeeded from. to search, but the fate of many remains unknown, especially in the temporarily occupied territories, where the work of the police is paralyzed, where it is impossible to leave and there are problems with communication. sometimes people who cannot find their own children do not even know what to do or where to turn. if you suddenly find yourself in a similar situation and have no idea how to act, call the short number 11630 or write to the chatbot of the children's search service in telegram. here you are will provide all the necessary advice. in addition, everyone who sees me now can already help in the search for missing children. visit the magnolia children's tracing website. here you can

view all the photos of the missing. perhaps you will recognize someone and eventually help find them. we have created a resource where you can report any crime against a child. in any city, at any... time, just go to the site and report, and we will launch all possible mechanisms to punish the criminal. stopcraim ua. congratulations, the voice of america is on the air in ukrainian on... the chas time program, my name is ostap yarysh. western media continue to actively discuss ukraine's operation in the kurdish region. many publications draw attention to the fact that the war has moved to russian

territory and emphasize that for the first time since the second world war, a foreign army entered russian territory. at the same time, journalists make guesses about the goals of such an operation, but draw attention to the fact that ukraine has not yet provided an explanation for this. spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs of the ministry of foreign affairs. heorhiy tykhy of ukraine stated that ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the kursk region, but wants to protect the lives of its people who were subjected to shelling across the border. meanwhile, the operation of ukraine was commented on by american senators who visited kyiv. they called it historic and called on the biden administration to provide ukraine with more support for success on the battlefield. what do i think about kursk: a brave, brilliant, beautiful operation, keep it up? putin started it. give him kicks. in general, i am addressing the administration of the president of the united states. i appreciate your support, let these people fight. give them the weapons they need to win a war they

can't afford to lose. the breakthrough of the front in kursk region is historic. this is a seismic breakthrough. this is good news, big news that promises even more potential breakthroughs. we want to send a message to the administration that it must give ukraine more flexibility and authority to use the weapons provided to strike beyond the lines that currently exist. there are limitations and permission issues that we hope to overcome. ukrainian troops took control of operations in the kurt region at the strategic suja gas measuring station. suja is the only way... russian gas goes to europe through ukraine, oksana bedratenko asked the british gas market expert aurus

abedus about how the operation of the armed forces in the kurdistan region can affect this transit. the ukrainian government recently confirmed that it controls the suja station, which accounts for russian gas transiting europe through ukraine, how significant is that? the accounting station is an important part infrastructure, which means that ukraine now controls it. the problem is that one measuring station has been destroyed, as far as i know, there are four meters on... pipes entering ukraine, one of these stations has been destroyed, but currently the gas flow is in principle in accordance with the contract, so there are absolutely no issues with supplies to europe, the gas transit system of ukraine fulfills its obligations, as usual, european consumers do not suffer, it did not affect them. is there a big risk that russia will deliberately attack the station to stop it gas flow there is always a risk, and we have seen

russian attacks on ukrainian infrastructure, power grids or storage facilities. i especially doubt that they will attack because they will eventually realize that these pipes are vital to their own interests. they make money by shipping this gas to europe, and they even want to extend the transit agreement, which expires on january 1, 2025. therefore, i doubt that it is profitable for them to destroy these pipes, and even if the hostilities continue. i think critical infrastructure will have some protection. in general, are you worried about the situation around the station? for now , everything seems to be going well, if other measuring stations fail, there is a risk that we will not have complete information about how much gas is entering ukraine, and there may not be a match between the volumes that russia claims and the gas passing through ukraine, and

this... cause legal problems. i hope this will not happen. the financial times writes that because of the shelling, western companies do not want to store gas in ukrainian gas storage facilities. how big it is is this a problem? shelling is a risk, and the relevant departments of the trading companies usually take this into account, but another factor is the prices. currently, the price of gas is quite high due to geopolitical instability. usually companies buy. gas now, because the price of gas in summer is less than in winter, and then they take gas in winter when the price is high, but now we do not see such a gap between prices in summer and winter. summer prices are high enough, and there is no incentive for these companies to buy gas and pump it into ukraine. for example, the difference between prices is a year was about 20 €. that is, the winter price was €15-20 higher than the summer price. it's close now.

euros, so it is mathematically unprofitable, if this difference is large enough, companies will be ready to accept this physical risk of shelling and place gas in ukraine, because that is what they did last year, but this year the economy is not exciting. does the change in control of the suze affect gas prices? this is a combination of many factors, and although demand in europe is lower, geopolitical risk is also influencing. it is not only about ukraine, yes, events in ukraine has a big influence on the gas market, as well as other markets, but there is geopolitical instability in the middle east and the combined effect of events in the middle east and ukraine is putting pressure on prices, i think geopolitical risk will remain in the future. moving on, we talk about other news: the magate mission could not establish the cause of the fire on the territory of the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

agency experts. examined the site of the ignition and found neither the remains of ukrainian drones, as russia had said, nor the tires that, according to ukraine was deliberately burned by the russians. at the same time , the report states that the representatives of magat were not given full access to all necessary places at the station. maria prus asked western experts about the probable causes of the fire and its consequences for the safety of the armed forces. the fire at one of the military facilities on august 11 did not affect the radiation situation in ukraine. according to the report of the international atomic energy agency, however, although the ignition in the cooling station occurred at a sufficiently large distance from the reactors and the fire did not spread further, the fire in general is one of the most dangerous events, that can happen at a nuclear power plant, experts say. a fire can disable electrical equipment, the safety of a nuclear power plant still fundamentally depends on the availability of electricity to power the

cooling pumps. which continuously circulate water through the radio.