we really hope for your support, support and distribution, let's not let the occupier take a step further and accelerate the victory together, glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes, the number of dead military... servicemen from the ukrainian side may be 80,000, the american press writes about it . to what extent such data can be true, we will talk about it today in svoboda lai. my name is vlasta lazur, but we will start with the front, which is moving closer and closer to the key cities in donbas, pokrovsk and mirnograd. there are only a few minutes until the store opens. residents mirnograd is already in place, but today no bread was brought from pokrovsk. the day before

, the russian military destroyed the bridge between the cities. currently, the logistics are disrupted. of course, it's sad. of course, it's sad that everything worked, but now the infrastructure is gone. therefore, we are like a cut off slice. and on the neighboring street a few days ago, as a result of russian shelling , the market caught fire. when the rescuers arrived, the shelling started again, three dozen pavilions burned down. which are still smoldering, well, without a market, people need something, but animals there is nothing to buy, not even heads, some paws were there, there are so many dogs running around, hungry dogs, is that possible, now next to the closed market they sell from wheels, the selection is small, onions, potatoes and plague, i don’t buy much, because it takes a long time don't lie, it's thanks that people come, and valentina came here almost from the other end of mirnograd, not for vegetables, but where the 25th house is, yes, thank you! a woman

is looking for the house of distant relatives who recently moved out and allowed her to live there, and then valentina goes to see if their house has survived, oh, there's such an arrival here, oh, what a horror! it was a bomb, it wasn't a rocket, the rockets hit us near the house, then they were small, but this bomb, that's right, landed near the neighboring houses, not the relatives' yard... there is a cellar here, from such a bomb there is also a cellar will not save, valentina wants to move to a private house before the onset of cold weather, we still need to stock up on coal and firewood, because it is difficult to winter in her apartment without heating, and she does not want to leave myrnograd, i was born here, i want to stay here, we have a lot of such people here , and valentina cannot leave u her older sister in a front-line city, she survived the second world war, she never

thought that she would reach old age, she will be 90 next year, and i will be 80, she says, i never thought that i could survive another such war, such a war , valentina returns to her apartment, all the houses around are without windows and there are traces of arrivals, there are not many residents, natalya comes out of the basement and calls her spaniel, who just ran away, come here. natalya and her husband live in an apartment, but with the approach of the front, they started spending more time spend here in shelter. in the apartment , the walls are filled with smoke, it somehow muffles us when we are here. will get better, after all

, they promise that there will be some changes in november, there will be elections in this america, or what will happen there? the curfew here lasts 20 hours, just like in pokrovsk, but even before its arrival , the streets change right before your eyes, it is not easy to find any of the local residents, everyone bought what they could and do not go out again. in a minute we will talk in detail about the situation in the east and whether it makes sense... to the people who remain there to hope for something in november, as, for example, the woman said in this article, and in general, won't mirnograd or pokrovsk, for example, be occupied cities by november? well, another topic that i announced at the beginning is losses. the number of people killed and wounded during the russian-ukrainian war has reached one million people, writes the wall street journal with reference to ukrainian sources and western intelligence data. according to ukrainian estimates, on which the uzs publication relies. the number

of dead is 80,000 people, and wounded 400 thousand. data on the losses of the russian army differ. according to some estimates, cited by the wall street journal, the number of dead russian... military personnel reaches 200,000, and the wounded, as well as on the ukrainian side, about 400. the publication separately notes that it is very difficult to estimate the losses. both sides do not publish official data on the number of dead servicemen. such large losses will have a devastating long-term effect for both ukraine and russia, the publication notes. at the same time, ukraine will receive more significant damage, because its population is much smaller than the population of russia, the publication states. the authors of the article write that russia's attack had catastrophic consequences for the demographic situation in ukraine. i will remind you, it is also mentioned in the publication of the wall street journal, that at the beginning of 2024, in february, during a press conference, volodymyr zelenskyi said that the losses of the armed forces in the war amounted to 31,000

people, but then zelenskyi did not name the number of wounded and missing soldiers of the armed forces of ukraine. shortly after the president's statement, narodna mp from the defense committee maryana bezugla stated that the total losses of the armed forces could reach 50,000. the woll street journal, in its current publication, calls the president's statement at the time an understatement. it is noted that in this way the president may have wanted to calm the society and that it is the disappointing demographic outlook that does not allow him to intensify mobilization, for example, at the expense of younger men, despite the calls of western partners to do so. several former fields. them officials and security officials said the underestimation was largely intended to reassure the public and help continue the mobilization of much -needed recruits, a spokesman for zelenskyi declined to comment. according to former ukrainian officials, one of the key reasons zelensky

refuses to mobilize a key cohort of men aged 18 to 25, usually the bulk of any fighting force, is that most of these men do not yet have children. "if conscripts of this age category die or become disabled, then further demographic prospects will be even more obscured, say ukrainian demographers. therefore, ukraine resisted the calls of its western partners to throw more people into battle and carried out only a partial mobilization. according to government and military officials, the average age of ukrainian soldiers now exceeds 43 years. i will also add that radio liberty has now contacted the office of the ukrainian president and also the general staff. to comment on this wall street journal post, but we were declined comment at this time, referred to there is not enough time, or maybe government representatives, representatives of the president, representatives of the general staff will somehow comment on it in the next broadcasts, or just comment separately. yehor firsov, a serviceman of the armed forces

of ukraine, joins our broadcast. egor, good evening. i wish you good health too. for our audience, i will say that you are now approximately in the direction of pokrovsky, i will start, let me start with this publication, because now we will also talk about the front, but the american press writes that 80,000 dead are on the side of ukraine among servicemen, does this figure sound plausible to you personally, well, actually , i heard your broadcast, and we are also thinking about how many of our brothers died, moreover... well, you know how to say, there, or before the war , or after the war - this is a debatable question, but still we should know these, the price of this battle, the price of this war, and how many of us died, including taking into account those guys who are not considered

dead, are considered missing names, in including those who were wounded, but for well due to a number of circumstances. after all, he died and not on the battlefield, in hospitals, hospitals, or even at home, so these numbers are worth knowing, and of course, i think that plus or minus these can be fake, inserted numbers, but frankly , well, it’s hard for me to say, i can only judge by my own, by my brigade, for example, whether it’s a battalion or a company, whether i understood you correctly, do you think that... what should you tell society about the numbers of losses, don’t you have one final answer to this question? no, well, well, well, look, i have, i don't have final answer to this question, whether to speak right now, tomorrow, conditionally speaking, but absolutely, we have to know

this number, that is, it is not subject to any discussion at all, we have to know this number and the surname of each person who died on this war, but... you know, there is, well, as i understand it, a consensus and a rule, while the war is going on, you don't talk about the losses of the sides, you are not only a soldier, you were also a politician in the past, and still. while it's going on, no, let 's see, let's, let's, let's go again, you're talking to me exclusively now, like from the military, i am now at the front, performing my duties, and you don't need me to try, you know, to talk to me as if to some people's deputy, i clearly expressed my point of view to you, we must know this figure, when we should know it, today or tomorrow, this is precisely the question that is debatable. of course, probably, in the conditions, well , quite crisis for us now, maybe

it shouldn't have been announced today, but we definitely need to know this figure. you just know what i thought, i don't know, i don't think it's good when ukrainian society will learn such, well , such information and such figures from the american western press, what do you think about it, and how can you say it frankly. i don't think about it at all, well, i mean i don't read the western press, of course, every day, i'm telling you now without exaggeration, every day we think about our own losses, because one way or another we see wounded guys , or guys who disappeared in the blink of an eye, or guys who died, or who suffered, let's say, on the shield, as they say in army language, here, but as for... well, it's a kind of guessing on the coffee grounds, according to which formula they

calculated it, who calculated it in the first place, and how did they do it, well, frankly, well, i have neither the time for this, nor the desire to analyze these numbers , here we have respected experts, analysts, you can call them, find out their point of view, i am now in the pokrovsky direction and 100% of my time is devoted exclusively to how my unit should fight where... the next operation and save the main personnel alive, so that our losses are not replenished. we, we are waiting a comment, of course, from the general staff and the president's office, now let's talk about the front, then, you said that you are in the pokrov direction, we just showed a video from myrnograd, and there a woman said that they hope for november, this is an ordinary woman, a local resident , they hope that there will be presidential elections in the usa in november, they are watching it and... maybe she expressed such a hope, something will change, is there any hope for these people who live in the cities of mirnograd,

pokrovsk, who can be situation in in the near future? let's do it, first of all, we all live in hope, not only this woman, but also the armed forces, including us, we hope for the best, we hope for each other, because the armed forces are a big unit, which from small units, let's say, i don't... see if you can hear me or not, yes, yes, i can hear you very well, yes, yes, yes, so, so, here, but, well, dear resident, i must, probably, well, somewhere a little disappointing in that the following months, especially autumn, that in pokrovsk, that in myrnograd, it will be very, very difficult, in general, i want to say, i just watched this morning. this is a nettle and i looked not only in our direction of pokrovsk, in general under the possibility of being

occupied, i counted somewhere around 10 cities, significant cities, these are silidovo, and kurakhovo, and uglidakh, and pokrovsk, together, together with mirnograd, and here, therefore , that i can say for sure that now, it seems to me, the connection between us has deteriorated completely. zsu, i hope we can get back in touch now, so you can hear me, something happened with the connection, you said that you counted about 30 cities, no, not 30, 10 cities that could be, ten cities that could be occupied, that is, fighting is going on near them , this is pokrovsk, this is mirnograd, this is ughledar, this is kurakhovo. well, one more thing, let's say, let's say this, it's that next to us, and in these cities

it will definitely not be easy, the enemy will do everything to take them, we will do everything in our power to protect them, especially pokrovsk and mirnograd, because as you can see on the map, if the enemy takes these cities, then further a corridor opens for him in the form of seats for exiting to central ukraine. the propetrovs'k region with pavlograd and then with the dnipro, so everyone will do everything they can to ensure that there is no occupation, but it's easy for sure... it won't happen, i honestly wouldn't hope for any elections somewhere even in the united states of america , because believe me, as long as the enemy is successful, let him be tactical and advance, sometimes half a kilometer a day, sometimes a kilometer, well, no matter what negotiations our enemy, unfortunately, won't go, but that's why negotiations are theoretically

possible only if a war of maneuver, unfortunately, a war of maneuver has started now, the front is constantly changing, changing, will change to a positional war, and the enemy will suffer inevitable losses, that is, they will advance with columns, small infantry groups, and so on, and we will break them with artillery, drones, and so on, and when the enemy suffers inevitable losses and a stable front begins, only then can we count on some conditional geopolitical, let's say, negotiations, and now i wanted to say, i recently returned from a business trip in kyiv and from an international conference, i was there for three days, and now i realized that now is the time when the company commander, a certain mykola from near vinnytsia, has much more leverage than the conditional minister of some western european country, because mykola himself determines the

agenda, where exactly the totalitarian world will advance, where exactly we can protect... protect the free world, it depends specifically on the armed forces of ukraine, directly and from infantry and from other combat units. i read the abstracts from your speech at the yalta conference, i also saw your interview with cnn, and you mention that you state that just a short time ago, six months ago, pokrovsk was in the deep rear, now it is actually before it the front line is getting close, and you compare this city with avdiivka and with bakhmut, you suggest... that there may be a similar situation there, and you also say that now they should draw conclusions and realize what mistakes were made and not repeat them, who and what conclusions should make and what mistakes are you talking about, look, i am not saying that i am not saying that now we have to draw conclusions, something someone has

to draw these conclusions from minute to minute, i called that we have to draw these conclusions, otherwise we will be very hurt. who and how is everyone, starting from the leadership, ending and including the military leadership, listen, it so happened that it was 60 km from pokrovsk to the line of battle, now let's say it like this, let's call it, let's call this figure 6 km, well, that is, we made some mistakes there were some blunders, and let's do this analysis and summaries, it's not for that, we need to sit down in some political studio, sprinkle our heads with dust, ashes and so on, but no less we must do these and draw certain lessons from these summaries, but also to understand that we also need mobilization, we need to protect the trenches as much as possible, because people

are very, very tired, to put it mildly. almost three years of war do not pass signs, if the enemy has a constant rotation, and the enemy because he suffers more, there is more a soldier dies, they are renewed, our infantry is forced, forced to sit constantly in the trenches, without rotation, sometimes even the guys sit in positions for 20 days, 30 days at a time, i once again, i lost my mind, it is much easier for us to work, but we work in positions where the guys from the infantry are sitting, and we look into their eyes and see a certain, let's say, fatigue and sometimes a certain confusion, to put it mildly, that's why we need these changes, including that they affect the depth of the trench from there , so that they are not somewhere there at the level of changing the conditionally sodal to some other person,

and that specifically the quality of the infantryman, including his attitude in general. ecological condition, it has significantly changed. yegor, i have one more question for you, and from your point of view: the kursk operation, which is still ongoing, how did it affect the situation in the east, in your direction, maybe you can already make some, i don’t know, interim results ? i want to tell you this, of course i can't draw conclusions, but if we speak subjectively, let's say this is my point of view, and i supported this operation. and it, let's say, as an idea, in the war, you understand, there is none some panacea and some, well, let's say, ideas that you are 100% in favor of... no matter the result, the enemy was definitely forced to draw up reserves, definitely we were forced to

shoot, well, we achieved a certain tactical result, because we took a significant part of the territory on kurshchyna, if even the enemy reserves did not remove the pokrovsky direction, well , then he weakened some other direction, in us, excuse me, somewhere... minus 11-10 hot directions on the front line, not only pokrovsky, there is also kurakhivskyi, there are more and from selydivskyi, it is lower there pokrovska, there is more and chasovyarskyi and so on, somewhere the enemy was forced to take reserves and send them to the kurshchyna, and this means that somewhere it became a little easier for our guys, so i think, well, in general, i say that i supported this operation and i really hope , that similar and... ideas, deep, deep ideas, thoughtful ideas, will also be implemented by our armed forces. yegor, i have one last question, you rarely visit us, so i want to

ask a lot at once. you talked about the need to strengthen the infantry, the infantryman, you talked about the condition of the infantrymen, but i also want to add here that in recent days i have often seen reports from war correspondents, from the military, that the front is also experiencing a shortage of shells, which is difficult and difficult with... changes, which are sorely lacking , do you know anything about it and can you confirm or deny it? it seems to me that something happened again with our connection, maybe we will try to redial now, i will voice my last question to yehor firsov, because we will talk in more detail in the future and that including about the shortage of ammunition, and about the situation with weapons, and including about... about weapons from western partners, which ukraine expects, but it is obvious that it will receive them in a timely manner and not in sufficient quantity, as the front needs. it was yehor firsov,

a serviceman of the armed forces of ukraine, he contacted us from the pokrovsky direction, and i understand that there is no contact with him so far, maybe my colleagues will tell me now, there is no contact with him. i will also add that several people also wrote about the lack of mines. them correspondents, observers, active servicemen even wrote about it, let's try again now, no, they tell me that we won't be able to contact yegor firsov, well, then we'll wait for him in the next broadcasts, so they wrote about the lack of mines several people who are connected to the military at once, well, for example, the serviceman of the armed forces of ukraine ihor lutsenko reported this to himself on facebook, he said in particular that one of the reasons for the rapid advance of russian forces in the pokrovsk region is precisely the shortage of min. he also states that ukraine can manufacture these mines in large quantities, but at the same time he rhetorically asks why there is such a problem with mines, the war

correspondent yulia kirienko also writes about the ammunition famine, such a situation with changes, as it has never been before, she quotes her interlocutors in the army. what does it all mean, we will talk about it until now, oleg katkov, the editor-in-chief of the specialized publication defense express, joins our broadcast. i greet you, good evening. thank you for the invitation, we are glad to see you, oleg, and what is the big problem with the changes in to the ukrainian army, you know something about this, you are observing this trend, i am actually quite limited in the matter of commenting on the activities and situation in the armed forces of ukraine, i am a weapon specialist, and you have to understand that such passages, they say, can easily be produced in ukraine, well, it is difficult to comment, because when we talk about the ukrainian... military-industrial complex, the defense-industrial complex, it is immediately necessary to note a very important detail, the same one that is under the methodical blows of the enemy, and to me if in this situation already if

there must be an understanding of producing something in mass quantities, especially when it comes to explosives, and when we talk about mines, be it mortar mines, which are also probably well supplied, and anti-tank mines. as well as the anti-personnel mines that are used, well, there is a question of where to produce them, so that, well, understanding that these are explosives, and you collect all the explosives , explosive devices and a rabbit rocket flies past you, well, if on this background, you can end the conversation if you want, you can not to talk about something like it can be easily produced, it can be easily produced, but not in the conditions... it comes to you regularly, that is , of course it can be produced somewhere in europe, in the usa, in canada, but obviously in ukraine. well, if the option

was somewhere else for ukraine... would it be difficult to set up production outside of ukraine? to establish the production of weapons outside of ukraine, this is work directly under the jurisdiction of another country, and so will the enterprises, if they were western, that is, well, i don’t know, in what world of pink people is this pony, you can just move there, for example, to banal poland. and say: we will make mines in your place, and they will tell you, okay, where is the license of your enterprise, let's first, let's register the enterprise, after that you will receive the appropriate licenses for production, or work with explosive materials in general, after that you will to obtain a license for the production of weapons, dual-purpose goods, and if this is

a problem objectively and... and it exists, and in the end, well, now all of europe, and in general is the western industrial complex trying to overcome such a thing as a shortage of explosives? i think that now i ’m just trying to explain this to our audience in detail, and not all of our viewers are familiar with the military and understand this, but the obvious question arises, how is it that the entire western world, which supports ukraine, in including shells and... this initiative cannot provide ukraine itself, and the entire western world, which supports ukraine, cannot provide ukraine with weapons, and russia, which allegedly is under western sanctions, at times - prevails in the production of weapons, or is this a mistaken judgment? this is not a false judgment, because at least it prevails or does not prevail, these are specific numbers, but directly in the first approximation, and

in europe, it is said that the russian federation is ahead in the production of weapons, the difference is quite simple and serious: the russian federation is in the civil war and spends twice as much on the war, well, roughly according to some sources, spends on the war twice as much as the budget of ukraine in general, at the same time the country in the west, they are not at war, they are in the pre-war period and are balancing on the border with being in the greenhouse conditions of such a socially oriented society and the threat of war, and because... there are a lot of initiatives that are currently in place, in particular, in the european union charged with increasing the production of ammunition, there is an excellent report, recommendations of the european commission regarding the scaling up of production, specific ways, steps, 10 of them, everything is written there, there is a huge document, it is actually quite interesting, and there with more than hundreds of pages of just what to do, that is , a report on this issue and how to do it and when to do it and who should do it, but it

remains a recommendation. because it needs quite significant steps, including the reorientation of just industry, the accumulation of orders, that is, everything is written down, but nothing is done, because the country is once again in its constant internal political processes, and currently, unfortunately, the request of society, where where are our tanks, where are our airplanes, where are our shells from the germans, french, and spaniards who are conscripted there. you can't hear them, everyone talk about other problems, and that is why politics is focused on them, at a time when experts, including the defense industry, the military, the chiefs of staff, the ministers of defense, are shouting about how many years are left, and now the debate is about how many years are left to the attack of the russian federation on the european segment of nato, when in fact everyone has already come to the same denominator

that it will happen, and because... everyone also came to the denominator, that in these conditions the european union does not have time to produce in weapons, as is done by the russian federation, which, first of all, now has hot production lines of weapons, while in europe they have been shrinking for ten years, because after falling, well, here you must always remember such a banal thing, defense business is business, defense industry is industry, and what is happening with business and with industry. when there are no orders, it is reduced, both the enterprise and people are reduced, this is the volume of production, and when you do not order weapons for 20 years, it is quite difficult to expect that give me 100 tanks per year, no, sorry, maybe 50, but you could produce 350 leopards there in cold times, the second, well , the production of leopard 2 tanks is gray numbers.