[000:00:00;00] on weekdays at eight in the morning at espresso, it is the foreign affairs of russia sergey lavrov on the sidelines of the meeting of the heads of the foreign policy departments of the group 29, despite the fact that the meeting of the tet theater blinkan and lavrov was not planned, they

spoke for 10 minutes on the sidelines of the event, the last time the ministers met a few weeks before the start of a full-scale war in russia in ukraine , russian aggression and its consequences were one of the main topics of discussion among the ministers of the group of 20 , however, due to the objections of russia and china regarding the wording of the russian federation's war against ukraine's joint declaration was approved, there was no more about the ministerial meeting, we will talk with yulia yarmolenko, who is joining our studio from the white house. greetings to yulia. greetings to natasha for this hour. what is known about the meeting between state secretary blinkin and minister lavrov . what are the main issues discussed ? the spokesman of the state department said once again clarified a few details, he first said that these were not bilateral negotiations, it was not a long meeting, the meeting was short, as you correctly said, 10 minutes and in fact he said that secretary of state blinkin used this short opportunity to very clearly convey three main

messages. first, he expressed his disappointment and called it an absolutely irresponsible decision of russia to suspend its participation in the new start treaty on the reduction of offensive strategic e weapons with offensive strategic weapons, i.e. again this an agreement that allowed for control and stressed the reduction of offensive nuclear weapons, and where did you say blinkin used this opportunity to state that russia should return to fulfillment of the terms of the treaty is important not only for nuclear powers such as the united states and russia, but also for the whole world . secretary of state blinking used this and to once again emphasize that it is unfair in russia. and secretary of state blinken said that the united states made a concrete, important proposal to which russia must agree in order to release this american, and the third , most important, most important for ukraine

definitely discussed the issue of russian of an unjustified war against ukraine, secretary of state blinking i would say that he himself actually used this opportunity at the press conference to first of all say that support for ukraine will not decrease and will not waver, that the united states and partners will stand with ukraine as long as necessary, and he called on russia immediately stop the war let's listen to what secretary of state brinken actually said, i said the minister of foreign affairs what many others said last week at the un and many ministers of the g20 said today stop this aggressive war take part in meaningful diplomatic efforts, the result of which can be a just and lasting peace president zelensky proposed a 10-point peace plan to establish a just and lasting peace the united states will be ready to support ukraine diplomatically to end the war on this basis, in return, president putin has not identified any interest

in participating in this - saying that there is nothing to talk about until ukraine accepts, i cite new territorial realities, while he only doubles its brutality towards ukraine the decision of russia and china regarding the wording regarding the russian war in ukraine this happened earlier at the meeting of the finance ministers of the group of twenty in bangalore moscow and beijing were against the use of the word war in a joint statement does it make sense to continue the discussion in this format natalie this is good question and this question was directly asked by journalists today to anthony blinky to the secretary of state. he said that the two countries expressed their opposition to the joint statement condemning the russian aggression, which emphasizes the inadmissibility of crossing borders, the importance of preserving territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders, but he said this. he does not deny that 18 other countries

absolutely supported these statements and the head of the g20, who is now what india is now, in a statement issued by india's own leadership according to the results of this meeting of the foreign ministers of the group of 20, it is again about this wording, which was approved at the meeting of the leaders of the twenty countries in bali , that once again the condemnation of the russian aggression and that it is not impossible to cross internationally recognized borders, and anthony blinking believes that since the majority of countries support the wording, this is important. in my opinion, the fact that russia and china are speaking out against yulia is the way experts assess and sum up the meeting held at the foreign ministers of the group of 20 natalya, the meeting was short, therefore, in fact , they no longer summarize the meeting, but ask another question, some experts actually doubt whether there is any

expediency from the american street for of american leaders to meet with russian, for example, peter dora on this export of the foundation for the protection of democracy, he called the fact that russia remains a member of such groups as the group of 20, for example, absurd as for the state department, the state department says that they believe that the dialogue should continue in order for the united states to promote those topics that are important to the united states, certainly even today she will get there when asked who was the initiator of this meeting . and how did it take place? why was it said before that there would be no such meeting, but it happened? of the united states as well as for the world community and definitely ukraine let's listen, we do not apologize for clearly stating that it is in our interests for russia

to resume the implementation of the new start agreement is also in the interests of the rest of the world, in our interests, that paul villan should return home as soon as possible and it is certainly in the interests of ukraine and the united states and all the countries of the world that believe in the un charter to see how the war in ukraine, the brutal aggressive war of russia against ukraine, ended on a fair and lasting basis to the allies it is necessary to act more decisively in the issue of the supply of weapons to ukraine, which will give kyiv an advantage and the opportunity to win the war already this year , said the minister of foreign affairs of estonia urmas reisalu in an interview with iryna solomko estonia consistently advocates for increased military aid and lobbies for ukraine's accession to nato and the eu, but when putin is on trial, will kyiv receive modern

fighter jets? and also about the prospects of ukraine's membership in the eu and nato, see the interview below , mr. ministers. greetings estonia from the very beginning was among those countries that helped ukraine, including with your support , ukraine created the so-called tank coalition , now there is a new task of providing ukraine with aircraft . in your opinion, how realistic is this goal? it is in fact, i do not see an alternative to this, given the fact that russia has such superiority in the air , therefore it would be absolutely logical to also supply such types of weapons that are absolutely necessary to protect our arms supplies, getting tanks without air support makes no sense, therefore it is reasonable not to remain in the psychology of the transition to other

weapons systems , russia uses all possible conventional weapons without any reservations. the number of weapons that ukraine needs to play this year over the past year, the perception of what can and should be provided to ukraine has changed radically, it took a lot of time and effort. in the world i believe that the decisive element in the psycho with only his weapons at that moment of help was practically not a significant part of the weapons or was it not delivered and it was a decisive moment and if we take an assessment of the course of the war there is one positive element is the unification of western countries and ukraine, but it happened very gradually and too slowly, and my appeal is to change this

paradigm, but as far as i understand the arguments against providing military aircraft to ukraine have not changed, the reaction of russia, or is there something else hiding in this, regardless of what anyone thinks that this can aggravate the situation and lead to this not so although russia systematically threatens especially the western capital in this regard the other element is that certain ideas of zombies are used which uh again for example last spring they said that ukrainian soldiers are not capable of handling complex western weapons systems well or it takes too much time to train them we can't change the past but we can start a new approach to decision making right now today and i think these decisions need to be made and estonia will stand firm to demand this ukraine needs a lot of ammunition and

do the partner countries have enough of it already now if you look at the proportions, the difference in the use of shells between russia and ukraine is 10 to one and if you compare the current eu projectile production with how much russia, you will see whether european military factories produce as many projectiles as russia uses per day, this is an absurd situation and we need to change it, the good news is that if there is political will and sufficient guarantees provided to the military industry, we will be able to modernize and increase our production is about seven times who supports ukraine from the very beginning and gave many of their own weapons and ammunition at the same time the threat of an attack on your country by russia i have not gone anywhere. how safe does estonia feel now? here, for a few moments, we are aware of the fact that these

russian tanks that are currently burning in ukraine were intended for a large-scale invasion of ukraine. nato, including estonia, at the same time we are actively purchasing new weapons. our defense budget has increased. two to three percent we also have a military including american high marshals and british soldiers so we maintain our security at a high level rea on the possibility of unforeseen actions from the russian side but what we give more than one percent of gdp to help ukraine with weapons and ammunition is undoubtedly our practical help and at the same time an element of friendly pressure on the allies history also has a problem like ukraine before the war a significant percentage of the russian-speaking or pro-russian population has the war in ukraine changed the internal political situation in your country, there is public

support for ukraine and understanding of russian threats , as well as a consensus regarding resistance to this plan of russia , but within the russian-speaking community as polls show that some people support the russian version of the development of events, but we very clearly stated that russian citizens cannot live in estonia. recently, we also passed a bill in the parliament according to which teaching in schools is conducted in the estonian language. it is also symbolic that we are now removing old soviet monuments. we have also adopted a law that prohibits citizens of third countries from possessing weapons, and already in february the general assembly will vote on a resolution on the creation of a special tribunal on the crime of aggression this did not happen, or is this a sign that russia's influence in the un is quite strong? i believe that this resolution on the creation of an international tribunal is extremely important

. there is no alternative to the creation of a tribunal, and estonia , along with many countries, firmly believes that the tribunal should be initiated by the mandate of the general assembly the un should be comprehensive, this means removing the immunity of not only putin and lavrov, but also other high-ranking officials, because otherwise it will be just an illusion and a munition, is it possible in your opinion to calculate that ukraine after the victory of a hundred do you believe that this year the war will end and ukraine will win and how will it change the world order, firstly, there should be no grays and this means that ukraine will be able to choose its security system, secondly, the aggressor must pay reparations that victory

will be zelenskyi this year, but for this we need to act decisively on the issue of the supply of weapons to ukraine, this is a conditional doctor for ukraine, an advantage on the ground and the opportunity to win this war already this year. thank you for the conversation, you watched interview with the minister of foreign affairs of estonia, urvas reisal estonia is the largest provider of aid to ukraine relative to its gdp, this small country provided kyiv with $400 million in military support, and this is more than one percent of its gross domestic product, estonia, along with other nato members, is also actively preparing for possible aggression on the part of russia , nato allies recently practiced scenarios seen in the war in ukraine at joint training exercises in estonia. voice of america correspondent

karlabab attended the exercises from iryna shynkarenko introduces the report, this is the closest to the border with russia, a group of american soldiers on training in estonia, a nato ally, they learn with live fire how to seize territory from the enemy, as a result, the platoon captures a key area of ​​the terrain, that is, the line of the enemy's spears, american soldiers from 101 conditional scouts and the enemy's defense this is a training ground less than 50 km from russia, papa, we hear the language that invaded neighboring ukraine a year ago, and these are real scenarios, you see how it happens on the battlefield in to ukraine, during the training of various types, we want to create as realistic a training environment as possible for our soldiers in order to better prepare them and our leadership for any challenges in the future

, jump into the trench ahead. in an open field, we expected enemy reinforcements, as well as a bmp-2 infantry fighting vehicle , we coped with the task with the help of at-4 weapons similar to javelins, which destroy real armored vehicles in ukraine, but the challenges real because soldiers who have been used to military operations in the desert for the past 20 years are moving to a new level of readiness, many of these soldiers have never seen snow in their lives , so getting into such an environment can be difficult almost 200 kilometers to the northwest with the 1st infantry division on guard there are american highmars multiple rocket systems surrounded by pine trees we can fire in russia and stay in

camouflaged positions in very well hidden and closed places for a long time after we open fire within seconds a missile or projectile is able to hit the target mayor and their operators arrived in december to reinforce the us military presence in the baltics at the beginning there were approximately 600 us troops in the three baltic countries now there are about 1500 colonel richard and kena the commander of the forces artillery of the 1st infantry division says the american himers operators used to undergo training in estonia but now the situation has changed now they are part of the collective defense of estonia for a long time we are working here according to a scenario that shows in real time what is happening in order to react and be as ready as possible. the heimers team provided long-range firepower for annual exercises, a winter camp in which

hundreds of soldiers took part, somewhere like that estonia is preparing for war, but because the country is a member of nato it's not doing it alone nato allies are fully engaged in exercises estonians are defending trenches trying to capture french forces british troops are clearing the way to break through the stimulated defenses for danish leopard 2 tanks similar to those that will soon appear on the ukrainian battlefield, nato allies hope that the leopards , together with the british challenges, will give the ukrainians more strength and protection than the soviet tanks, where the passport of battles in ukraine will be slow and you need such a heavy tank as the challenger is capable of sustaining a blow unlike the t-72, which can be destroyed with one shot , the challengers are able to take several hits and stay in battle, however,

the ukrainians will not be able to learn how to use these tanks effectively in one night war is very much expected, we know it and i really hope that we are not too late with this, even though russia has lost more than 2000 tanks, all that remains is thousands of tanks in warehouses that can come to ukraine , they still have missiles and this means that ukraine needs our maximum help estonia spent one percent of its gdp on supporting ukraine and almost 3% of gdp on self-defense we have a clear understanding that every tank destroyed in ukraine is minus one tank outside our border how much are you concerned about that that russia can attack and here we must be ready estonia latvia lithuania we are like the front door to nato and when the front door is locked it is safe to be inside the house and everything is simple in view of the strengthening of defense nato allies take it seriously iryna shynkarenko

karla bab voice of america tapa estonia western partners, including the united states, should have provided assistance to ukraine sooner, says congressman republican of the union support group for ukraine in the house of representatives and member of the intelligence committee brian fitzpatrick about mistakes and achievements during 2022 and also about the strategy of american aid to kyiv for the current year, see the interview of kateryna lisunova, let's go back a year, a few weeks before february 24, what did you know about the full-scale invasion of russia at that time, what were your expectations and what were your forecasts. in short, many experts said that the russians will overthrow the government in kyiv in a week or two, quote, it is obvious that this did not happen, they were also wrong about afghanistan . they thought that the events there would take more time

, but everything happened very quickly. it is possible for the united states to withdraw from afghanistan was fueled by experts' forecasts about ukraine, but ukraine proved that these experts and the whole world were wrong . if there is any moral of history in this, the world saw what ukraine is and who the ukrainian people are. many people, even among my colleagues , probably would not have found ukraine on a map. until february 24 last year now everyone knows where ukraine is and what kind of people live there and with anything surprise deere personally did you find something surprising in the ukrainian defense in the ukrainian reaction to the russian attack because of this human nature when the forces against you prevail and you lose heart, the very fact that the ukrainians almost survived another winter, they are experiencing constant shelling, genocidals and other things that would make many people give up, give up everything, but not them, the ukrainians refuse to give up. i say this from the first day, they really inspire the staff second you were in ukraine so why did you decide

to come i was there twice after the invasion and also shortly before the invasion in september the first visit after the invasion was somewhere in march and the next one probably in may i went to kyiv and then to odessa and saw and talked to many people many soldiers just to get an assessment of the situation what they need because their needs have changed along with the change in strategy and position of russia military aid to ukraine has evolved from food to air defense systems and now tanks many ukrainians wondering why the united states and allies do not provide everything at once to avoid unnecessary casualties what is your answer to this question this is a very good question and it is a valid criticism of the biden administration i i'm glad they are finally delivering the necessary things i would like to emphasize that we are grateful for this but this aid should have come much sooner if you analyze the year of this war and the decisions that have been made here in

the united states of this administration you will see that everything is better late than late never, but there is no help , being late, at first almost everything was forbidden to supply , they did not want to give mig planes, then they did not want to give s-300 missiles, air, land, air , the administration was worried that it could be provocation by escalation, but an honest question should be asked, isn’t it vladimir putin who is the biggest provocateur, he invaded a peaceful loving state that has done nothing wrong, that has not threatened anyone, including russia, but now aid has evolved yes 8 months ago in the biden administration, there was no question of supply something like the petri systems, i would never have thought that they would dare to provide them, but they did, although they should have done it much earlier, better late than never, but

i would have liked it to have happened much earlier attempts to identify russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, this initiative was put forward both at the level of a resolution and at the level of a bill, but so far neither congress nor the white house seem to want to accept this decision. what do you think, why? during the last session of congress and we are going to introduce it again in the current session russia is a state sponsor of terrorism they are committing genocide in the worst possible way so you have to call a spade a spade here you just mentioned about your work with the congresswoman democrat marsicaptor of which legislative initiative support for ukraine should be expected this year from you and your colleagues, in particular from the ukrainian congressional corps, we must put strong pressure on russia by all means , recognizing it as a state sponsor of terrorism , expelling it from all international organizations that give it a place at the table or they do not deserve the right to vote, this is an exiled state and

they should be treated accordingly, and putin is a war criminal, besides, i believe that sanctions should be strengthened to the extent that maybe even despite the fact that we can also suffer from this, because we now see how europe, which trusted russia in energy matters, learns the same lesson as the united states, which trusted china in economic matters, if you make a deal with the devil, sooner or later you will have to pay for it just as i called on american companies to abandon everything related to the chinese communist party, the whole world should abandon everything related to russia , investment, employment or employees it will strangle their economy - this is an internal struggle. this is how you defeat russia from the inside, and as for the struggle from the outside, we must continue to provide ukraine with all the necessary weapons, which the combined state of nato and other allies should have done

differently. indeed, there are challenges that need to be realized . a large part of the necessary equipment was simply not ready. we do not accumulate such a large amount of weapons. we use so quickly because we are not in a state of war. europe, more precisely, western europe is also not personally involved in the war, but provides for ukraine. and this provision must be produced for them. they also need to maintain a certain level of their own reserves to defend their country, so this is understandable, but despite everything, i think that a large part of the necessary aid could have arrived much faster because every second of delay costs ukraine additional lives what are your expectations from this year in congress regarding the russian war we should not allow that from the war when the invasion just happened it was a shock for everyone these events were broadcast on the news 24/7 people were very involved everyone

was following the situation but it is human nature that people get tired over time these events no longer attract the same attention they are no longer on the front pages newspapers, this is exactly what i want vladimir putin and we have to prevent this, and this is my job together with congresswoman democrat marsicaptor and other co-chairs of the ukrainian focus, as a member of the intelligence committee in the house of representatives. i also have direct contact with committee on foreign affairs and was a member of the delegation at the security conference in munich, now i have become a member of the nato parliamentary assembly, so i will also visit brussels in matters of the alliance on all these platforms, i will be a constant and consistent advocate and voice of ukraine what would you like to say to the ukrainian people today everything stay brave america will cover your back there will always be announced regionals of the extreme left or right they are unfriendly but their number is very small the vast majority

of democrats and republicans in the chamber representatives and the senate supports ukraine and it was clearly visible when president zelenskyi came to us, it is the warmest reception i have ever seen in this hall in all the years of my work, besides every time the us president mentions ukraine in his speech about the state of affairs in the state, it unites our own country and it is amazing that ukraine unites even offensive in the united states so my message to ukraine is the following be strong and we will cover your style on this we will say goodbye did you watch the ukrainian program voice of america service time thank you for trusting the ukrainian voice of america service. i am nataliya lounova. good luck, we are looking for 17-year-old liberty bodnar, who

disappeared again in the capital. that's right. recently, i started a program about the search for a girl and asked you to help find her . to all who care. those who have responded, i have great news. liberty bodnar has been found , she is all right and now the girl is completely safe. we are very grateful for the fact that society responded very quickly and tried to help us and help us in every possible way how can we find it as soon as possible, well, in the end, we found liberty in the capital, and at the end of last week, fortunately, everything was fine with the girl , no illegal actions were committed against her, the story of liberty bodnar is very difficult, we have already joined the search for the girl more than once, the first time she disappeared in january 2020 when she was 15 , then the search lasted almost a year and a half , the name liberty is not very interesting, that's why she can sometimes call herself leika angelica, eh, sometimes