not publicly known to the authorities. on may 13 , 2023, the armed forces of ukraine brought the patriot system to the border and flew two mi-8 helicopters and two su-34 and su-35 combat aircraft over russian territory. there were no more such campaigns. a year later, the german edition of bild reported that washington and berlin were angered by the actions of the ukrainians and threatened to stop the supply of missiles for the systems. air defense, there is hope that this time there will be no intimidation, it seems that while the allies are watching the development events, perhaps they should finally reflect on another aphorism of the chinese thinker sunzi, who does not want to be defeated, defends, who wants to win, attacks. new week on espresso, weekly summary. information and analytical program,

a clear understanding of the key events of the past week, analysis of the causes and consequences of these events from experts, forecasts of the development of the situation for the current week, the opportunity to ask your own questions and join the discussion, spend the final monday evening with us and confidently step into the new week. project a new week with khrystyna yatskiv and andrii smoly every monday at 8:00 p.m. on espresso. maria gurska meets with the head of the committee every week. in the foreign affairs of the polish sejm by pavel koval, the representative of the polish government for the restoration of ukraine. as always, we talk about the most important things that happened this week in poland, ukraine, and europe. what is being said about ukraine in the eu, how should we perceive the statements of european politicians and what will our accession to the eu look like. in the project close to politics, close to the world with maria gurska. every sunday at 15:30 with a repeat at 22:00 in cooperation with au sisters. today i

am visiting a person who is extremely dedicated to her work, this is oleksandra balyasna, she is the head of the board of the association of parents of premature babies, early birds, and she is also a member of the advisory board of the european foundation for the health of newborn children. sasha, i congratulate you today. here in this studio, hello, thank you very much for the invitation, it is a great honor for me to be on the air, on your program, look, i want to talk to you today about your experience in the war, we understand that from february 24, 2022, although the war has been going on for more than 10 years in our country, but it was this date that changed the lives of many ukrainians, and that's what i want. today

to hear your experience, because it is very important, because also during the war , children continue to be born, and especially children in a hurry, who do not ask anyone and are also born, and they need even more such, let's say, specific medical care, so i want you shared your experience today, told our viewers about all this, and let's start with this date: what did you do that day? where was your family and how did this date change your life? for me, february 24, as well as for all ukrainians, was quite a shocking change, we did not prepare for this in our family, of course, there were many conversations about it, there was a lot of contextual information, but at the same time , the suitcases were not packed, because no believed that it could happen in the center of the city, in the center of the country, and in any case , crisis decisions had to be made. on this day, and for the whole

team to ensure first of all safety, security, so that everyone moves to a safer place place, for each family it was the right decision for someone, for someone not so much, and they ended up in more noisy areas near kyiv, but in any case, it took a certain amount of time, a few days, a few weeks, for everyone to be more stable we felt, we also worried about our colleagues in mariupol, when the green window did not light up for a very long time until now. in march, we were very worried about our colleagues in dnipro, those who had not been in touch for a long time, we tried to arrange them, to find them a plan b, where they would be able to feel better safely, protect yourself and your children. actually, for the first time, they were engaged in this chaotic process of moving people, and at the same time they tried to dig out all the messages, which were completely different in nature, because there was a lack of drugs somewhere. somewhere there was a lack of some kind of

vaccine, somewhere it was necessary to help with logistics, that is, the requests were of absolutely different calibers, and because of this, on the one hand , it united us more around the clock on... tried to do it, on the other hand, it was very discouraging, because when you run in different directions at the same time, then this also does not help you to orient yourself, but i think that this is what most people did at that moment in order to help as many people as possible, but it is good that this period later transitioned into more organized processes and there, where we can be more efficient, organize our work more systematically. i know that my next question... will be so-so for you, because you don't really like to talk about it, because you love your country very much, and you understand how much you are needed here, but nevertheless, your help to your country did not decrease, but only increased, and this is a new experience that you got, because you

are now living with your daughter abroad, and there are a lot of women like you in the public activists who were quite active in our country, when they found themselves... there abroad, they suffer incredibly and talk about the fact that they do not have the opportunity to fully realize themselves, how are you with this, what do you feel, and tell about this of yours experience? this is really a difficult topic for me, because i have always felt and still feel very much connected with my native country, but i am very grateful for the times that have taught us to work remotely, almost the entire team has changed their place of residence, but this does not prevent us from having calls every week. every day to work with colleagues, wherever they are, so the processes remain as active when necessary, i go home and try to do it as often as possible, and i build my, let's say, additional strength and advantages from my stay abroad in such a way in a way that i just learned the language,

for example, at a level that i could understand the local population, i build social contacts and a bubble that helps send aid, that is , a charity fund was opened this year, which we are engaged in. in order to send humanitarian aid to refugee aid centers, we have several partners in ukraine, respectively, i believe that this is such an additional aid mechanism where we can be useful, where we can be helpful, and this is a building international partnerships, the involvement of donors is advocacy so that there are no questions, and you are still at war, when i hear these questions, i understand that we still need to talk a lot so that other political processes in the arena do not interrupt. the voice of ukrainians, and for us this is an important topic of advocacy, that our children, our doctors, hospitals, continue to work under sirens, under terrible challenges and at the risk of life every day, and it is important to me that this voice sounds truthfully, with maximum quality on the european arena, i 'm trying to do it the way i can

do it, bringing in partnerships and help, and we're going to need this help to rebuild when the war is over, we 're going to need this help for a long time, so i think that... it's mine, you could say, maybe it wasn't always my choice to live where i am, but i am trying to transform it into, say, a positive channel and use it in this way, well , if we are talking specifically about aid and difficulties, if they have to explain to europeans that the war is still going on in our country, this aid, it somehow it may have decreased, you need to tell them more, need more but to do it more often compared to each family, i believe that it needs more publicity and support, when i go to international forms, i see that there is a block about war, and there are no fresh statistics, or there is no impact of war on the health of newborns children in the perspective of someone there, if we

talk about the future, about the cut, then i want it to be there, and we understood what generation we will get in 5, 10, 20 years, it is important to think about it today, sasha, well. .. you are talking about the fact that the birth rate is actually fell by 30%, and if we talk about children born prematurely due to the fact that there is a war in our country, has there been an increase in such families in which children appear in a hurry, or can you still say that in comparison there since 2015-16, everything is the same as it was, it is difficult for me to rely on any statistics, because they must be official so that i do not name any incorrect data, i know from various sources that the statistics are increasing. early births, but somehow the ministry of health does not name a specific figure, respectively it's hard for me to rely on it. from conversations that i know from the medical category, well, let's say, when i talk to doctors, that i hear that the condition of pregnant women has worsened a lot, they get examined untimely, sometimes they

are in very bad conditions, there are not always logistical possibilities to reach the base just to hospitals, because, for example, the roads are broken, or it was some, for example, an occupied territory and... cannot receive this help in time, the child receives screenings in an untimely manner, for example, during or during pregnancy, or already after the child was born, accordingly, any such delay is precisely from our category, from our nosology, it is... very important, and it will later affect the quality of life as a whole, therefore also the psychological state of the pregnant woman, about it is also not worth forgetting the psychological state of pregnancy, i would say that even childbirth, when there was no war, is premature, it is very stressful, just recalling my experience, or my colleagues who found themselves in various stories, where children also had some difficulties after apologists, but now it's time of a full-scale invasion, where there are also sirens and, for example, there is no partner nearby, if the partner had to go... the husband goes to fight and cannot be at the partner's childbirth, because god forbid there are, unfortunately, such situations when

news comes and this the woman is pregnant, and unfortunately, the information comes that there is no longer a partner near her. these cases are extremely difficult to manage such a pregnancy, and there are many such cases, that is, requests for psychological support and for financial, for example, help, because it is such, let's say, strongly affects stress, these requests it became too much. is there any psychological help in your organization, perhaps for women who live in ukraine, yes, perhaps in the de-occupied territories, perhaps somewhere in the front-line territories, who call and want advice, to be told what to do, where to go, and what words do you actually find, because it is probably very important and very difficult now in such conditions. i would say that the international community helped us a lot, because i would separate here our women who went abroad

and gave birth prematurely abroad, because this such an additional emotional layer of problems, because in addition to the fact that a woman gives birth abroad without support, without understanding the language very often, without understanding the system, where to go, what to do with such a newborn baby in any country in the world, for example, there or in switzerland, whether it is poland or whether it will be spain, very often they turned to us from other countries. countries in order to receive information in their native language, and that is why we are very grateful to our international community, which has acted as partners in this in order to transmit quickly provide this information or distribute booklets, this informational and psychological help also worked in ukraine and works in the same way, the only thing is that it is often not calls, but it is still messengers, which are more convenient, also because of the fact that , first of all, it is not always possible for such mothers to speak out during the day, they are quite behind... in hospitals with various procedures, and it is a traumatic experience when mothers find it difficult to express their emotions, because

they are usually in a state of stress and on the stage when they need to talk about their own specifically this situation, that she just gave birth to a child prematurely, there is, as they say, the trauma of a sense of guilt that she did not deliver the child, that the child has difficulties, and our psychologist works with this sense of guilt, yulia oleksandriv is referred to the psychological service . all our partner organizations that work with us, and when we do not cope, we send to more professional help, and when we need help with crisis communications, we also know where to go, so i am very grateful to colleagues and partners that this pool will provide consultations, and i will not name all of them now, so as not to forget anyone, but in fact, this pool of partners helps us cope with difficult situations when they arise, therefore, for us, informational psychological assistance is... the basis of the basics, because it is the layer, when most problems can be solved at this level. sasha, well, actually speaking,

about the impact of the war on families with prematurely born children, you and i have already talked before the broadcast, and you told me such stories, what these families faced, what are the main problems, and we are talking now it's not only about medicine, because these families, where a mother and a child return home and in... certain problems also arise there, they have to somehow solve them during the war, can you tell about it and what you advise in such a situation? in fact, we can advise you to be proactive, learn about your rights, and that is why this year is very important for us, we are releasing a lot of information products, because very often parents simply do not know about their rights, for example, we recently conducted a survey, do they know parents about guaranteed without guaranteed services in the health care system? and we were a little shocked that 80% of parents do not know about their rights, i.e. they marked, for example, from

the category to mark from one to five how much information you have about services guaranteed by the state, then 80% marked one, that is, they do not know , or, for example, only 10% knew what to do in the event that rights are violated, what should be done in such a case, and when we say, this is our project called guaranteed with our partners, patients of ukraine, and when we we are talking... about what is important to do in this or that situation, it is important for us that parents still know where to turn, be proactive, have this clear position that it depends on me, how i will develop further. mine, for example, there is my medical history, where do i receive this service, who can i turn to, don't be afraid to ask, so look, this topic, it is actually very important, and therefore you can say, what rights are you talking about so that women and men, families, in general, who will hear us now, they could understand what rights they really have, what are you talking about? when we conduct trainings, we even start with the following question: do

you know what nsu is, and very often we have such answers that we do not know what nszzu is, and this has been since 2016. medical reform is underway in ukraine, and there are 44 packages of medical guarantees, these are packages, one might say, classified by various diseases, by various problems, now i am not talking only about prematurely born children, or only about pregnant women, or about the topic of rehabilitation of children, this in general, all the problems are strokes, which also affect many families in ukraine, and cancer, and even now four packages have been added about, for example, artificial insemination, about, for example, or organ transplants, that is, any disease, which can fit into any of these packages, and these packages must at least be understood, whether there is a disease or a problem that concerns this or that patient, whether it is on the list of those concerns this or that patient, whether it is on the list those packages, before running to a private clinic and deciding for yourself, that you need to solve this issue quickly,

understand your rights, and we teach this at trainings, we hold consultations on this, we explain in detail. to do so, if the service was to be provided by a state body, a state clinic, for example, there, or, i don’t know, a women’s consultation or a perinatal center, but was provided for a fee, how to compensate for these costs, and such cases also exist, that is, it is our standard practice, how we advise, help, because we manage to convey the main idea now, if families they know that the services are covered, that the pregnant woman can count on the fact that they are guaranteed by the state, this is from... tests, management of a complicated pregnancy, this includes childbirth, and management of the child after discharge, then there is no such stress and level of worries that for all this must be paid out of one's own pocket, let's imagine a situation where the family had to leave the de-occupied territory, has to rent an apartment, for example, the husband went to the front and there is no stable income, the mother has a prematurely born child with a million questions, because this is

a normal situation, what questions a lot, exactly that's why we guarantee guaranteed... we tell you, so that at least there is this support, to reduce the worries and stress for this family, and therefore it seems to us that the information front of our work, of our organization is now important, and we are trying to keep it, also this working with peer-to-peer groups, when families who have already gone through a difficult stage of coming out can share their experience of coming out with other families who are going through this experience now, for example, we had a survey... the family was asked about those cases when families had to swaddle, i.e. hold a baby weighing less than 2.5 kg skin-to-skin on the chest, without separating moms or dads, if the mother could not swaddle the child for physiological reasons, to what extent this process occurred in different regions of ukraine under time of the full-scale invasion, more than 90

families have shared their stories with us, some of them very moving about those first bonds. that happened to each family, how touching, important, and for some painful stories where they did not have opportunities to touch the child, where they were not told about this method, how important and useful it is, especially now during the absence of stable electricity, so for us such information products, projects and the opportunity to unite families, make groups equal, they are now are for us tools that, in our opinion, can fulfill well... dreams for children to be born healthier and to give them the best start in life. well, if we are already returning to the families in which the premature was born baby, that in this package from the national health service there is something for them that they should know about this free on a free basis, and when they were discharged, i understand that when they

are in the hospital, it's one thing, but when mom has already returned home, she has to, again, as we said, alone on... be with the child, what does she need to know? well, as i already said, there are 44 packages, several of these packages that concern our families, they concern, for example, the management of pregnancy, this is the birth itself, this includes cesarean sections, or natural childbirth, this is at the stage of even giving birth to a child in a postnatal center or in a maternity hospital, for example, we even have banks of breast milk, then even lactation consultation, they also go there, it's all really psychological. support within the hospital, they also enter there, now, in fact , families are not obliged to buy medicines according to the lists, as it was several years ago, literally because it was enough. such a widespread practice, now most questions, most questions, not all questions, of course, if it is an improved ward, or some special services, of course the family pays for it on their own, but all basic

issues should be covered by medical guarantee packages, and in such a case, for example, when the family is discharged and rehabilitation centers or catamnistic offices, this is in order for us to provide a review of the child's condition already after discharge at the stage of three, six, 12. months and watched how it develops, that is, the child comes to the center and is examined, are there any developmental disabilities, if you need specialized help from a narrow specialist, then everything is received by electronic code, that is, in order to receive these services for free, it is important to receive this code, and then there is a referral, for example, a pediatrician, or, if that, for example, from a perinatal center, then such a service should be provided free of charge, it is important for us that parents know this and, accordingly , the family can rely on it. and get such financial stability, such a guarantee for themselves, which would give them a feeling too peace in these troubled times, and guarantees with guarantees, but we understand that

, again, in the de-occupied territories, in the pre-front territories, women also continue to give birth, and very often it happens that there is no infrastructure there, because hospitals, medical centers, they were destroyed by the russians, bombed. how to be in these situations, do such women come somewhere safer in the region, or do they refuse, and what happens there? in fact, it is really a problem that you cannot equate the centers in kyiv and lviv or you can say in big cities to small destroyed areas, where the infrastructure is damaged, or mothers do not have the opportunity to get even to this institution, yesterday we talked, for example, with doctors from kherson, who... for example, had to freeze part of their institution, but at the same time, medical care continues to be provided, but of course, the emotional state and infrastructure and capabilities

of such a hospital cannot be compared to others, so it seems to me that there should be more help in such institutions in such locations from government structures in order to give them more support and, where possible, some administrative help with documents, in particular, logistics with medical drugs, where possible, i know that mobiles work. gads for pregnant women and help with mobile crews to get there, i'm not sure if that's covered in all regions, i wish it was in all regions, but actually we 're seeing from our information that it's often those areas , where mothers do not receive full medical care, that is, i still want this one these issues were prioritized so that there would be more support for these mothers, for these families, so far there is a feeling that these families have to do their own digging, well, you can say. to solve these issues independently, where the financial burden falls on them, because they have to rent housing and find services for themselves in the places and do not have anyone they know in these

places, these are families who turn to us, for example, from the de-occupied territories, they move and have to organize everything on their own, i have a feeling that it is extremely difficult for these families, and therefore i would like to have more assistance programs specifically for families who had to move with small children. so, what are the basic resources that families who have a newborn baby, prematurely born, yes, these resources, for example, when we talk about hospitals, is our medicine able to cope with all this, because we also spoke with you pre-ether about, that there is an air alarm, there is no light, and doctors do not leave such children, these children remain in the intensive care unit, and there is no way to transfer them, for example, to a shelter, i would say that now it is extremely important to support the medical front. first of all, during the implementation of the reform , i also hear a lot of questions so that the reform

also covers the basic needs of the doctor, so that there is a decent payment, so that the packages are balanced so that the doctor's conditions are decent. let's say, in this partnership, we are very much waiting for the rights of the patient to be realized and fully covered, as well as the rights of the doctor. our organization. does what it can in terms of burnout training, this is usually a block of our rights training patient, because we understand that where there is no burned-out doctor, the best medical services will be provided there, so we understand that it must be balanced 50 by 50 in order to provide the highest quality services, and therefore we are only in such conditions, where the dignity of the two parties will be respected, there will be dialogue on the same level, comfort will be provided and there will be in... there will be this trust, there will be this dialogue and the best services will be provided, so returning to the question, it is important for us that the review of the reform and its

the implementation calculated two sides. there were no distortions in which direction and that the funding was in full for such babies from basic pregnancy care services to supporting the child at the stage of leaving, as well as after providing catamnastic observation of rehabilitation of early intervention until the child stands on its feet and is socialized, this is actually a long process , respectively packages which exist they help to rely on it they must have on our legal basis under it all. protocols should be written and then we can know that this system works, it's a big process, it's a long process, but i'm inspired by our medical teams, who are still holding on, working, incredibly fulfilling the mission, despite all the challenges that are around, that is, we believe in it, we work together, we are trying to do what depends on us, but you are talking about this long process, and at the same time, we used to communicate with you, and you told us how they came to us from abroad.

doctors, they were simply shocked at how professionally they could work during the war our doctors, and how much our help for ukrainian medicine has gone up, in fact, i will not go far, i was this morning and yesterday i was at the pediatric congress, the largest pediatric site, in which people stand on the sides, they are a lot of students, there is a lot of talk about the construction for... the future, the medical community, which will work for the future of this country, and it is very inspiring that the people who are here, they care about every child, about every, well, the pediatric community, in general, it has such a holy mission in order for the future of ukraine to be as healthy as possible, and for these ukrainians to be free and healthy, that is , there were still two sides, and this is very inspiring, sasha, i know that you actually know a lot of

stories that.. during the war, can you briefly tell the success story of one of the families of prematurely born children? we have quite a lot of stories, which yuliya oleksandrova tells us, we have a parents' chat, and very often there are such stories that inspire us, because, for example, pregnancy said that there are no chances, this pregnancy, well, it is definitely necessary to abort, but for example, mother says: i believe in this child, i believe... this pregnancy, yulia, for example, accompanies her, and then we celebrate with this family for a year, then we celebrate with this family when the child is gone, in fact, such stories, when they tell some guidelines for a certain child, for example, this child will never walk, this child will never hear, or this child has no chance, they are always an element of faith, love and a lot of work for this, our comrades, we see many such

stories that inspire. and they actually help us to get up, sometimes, even when there is no strength, to believe that if this child walked, when they told him that he would never walk, then there is definitely a chance, and such stories, well, believe me, you can simply have them whole to collect an album, there are many of them, and i can still dream of publishing such a book someday, because it is very inspiring, in fact, each of these stories. sasha, and about your personal experience that you received during the war, which you would never want to receive? and a difficult question, eh, i would never wouldn't want to say goodbye to my family not knowing if i'll see them again, oh, i was asked, an unexpected question, uh, because we never know when we'll be telling people to say hello again, because we said goodbye to them, and it was difficult to see people at the border, when mothers said goodbye to their husbands and did not know if they would see each other again, and in fact everyone...