about the war and about our victory, today in the program. 300,000 new occupiers, russia is accumulating military resources, preparations for the spring offensive of the russians, enemy ipso, or a real threat? the world is in a pre-war state. kyiv convinces allies to increase military aid. results of the meeting of the ukraine-nato council in brussels. on the doorstep of the parliamentary crisis, the verkhovna rada is losing the trust of ukrainians, why are the draft laws on mobilizing the prohibition of the moscow church and others in question? we will talk about this and other things for the next hour our guests, people's deputy of ukraine mykola knyazhytskyi, military expert valentyn bandrak and head of the board of the institute of world politics viktor shlinchak. however, before starting our big conversation, i suggest watching a video of how at night... on april 4, russia launched

several waves of shaheds on kharkiv, as a result of a massive attack, three rescuers and a civilian woman were killed, unfortunately, and 12 more people were injured , let's see how it was. ok, ok, look at me. thank you, thank you very much, windows, that's all

the glass, everything flew out, there is nothing, wow, quiet, quiet, friends, we are working live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. if you are watching us there now, please subscribe to our pages and also take part in our survey, today we are asking you about whether you approve of the activities of the verkhovna rada of ukraine, yes, no, please vote on youtube or button yes or no, or if you have your own opinion, please leave it in the comments below this video if you watch us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote if you approve of the activities of the verkhovna rada of ukraine, 0800 211 38 no 0800

211 382 all calls to these numbers are free, vote, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote. i would like to introduce our first guest, mykola knyazhytskyi, people's deputy of ukraine, chairman of the verkhovna rada subcommittee on cultural policy. mr. mykola, i congratulate you, thank you for joining the broadcast. thank you for the invitation, congratulations. well, first of all, mr. mykola, i wanted to ask you about yours bill on... regulation of the telegram messenger in ukraine, you initiated this bill, please explain how dangerous this messenger is for ukraine today? well, firstly, the bill does not regulate messengers, secondly, telegram is not a messenger. thirdly, telegram is not mentioned in the bill. the draft law concerns information sharing platforms. a signal, for example, is a messenger, because it simply transmits a message from one subscriber to another. and

telegram, facebook, youtube are platforms of shared access, where people can receive news, follow the news through a creative product, so to speak, and if video platforms in our country were regulated earlier in the law on media, such as youtube, for example, then a whole series of platforms that provide both video and text, were not regulated, it is somewhat strange, because technologies are developing and even youtube is no longer purely a video messenger, there are text messages and a text news feed, just as there is a video in telegram, so obviously all information dissemination platforms should be put in one row and demand the same from them. what does the law offer? the law essentially copies the european digital act, the european rules of cooperation with shared access platforms, and they consist in the fact that such a company, such a social network must open a representative office either in the countries of the european union or in ukraine, react. to

the remarks of our regulator, if they spread pornography, call for the overthrow of the ukrainian system, oppose ukraine, or degrade human dignity, the national council has the right to appeal to such me messengers, or rather, not messengers, platforms, you see, i also got infected from you, to such platforms, and they are obliged to take it away, in addition, they must, at the request of the national council, present who is their owner, the media property in us has to be transparent, and where are their servers, at the expense of which they are financed, if we talk about the same telegram, then this is a network created by citizens of russia, and the fact that in telegram vkontakte the only networks that are allowed for use in the russian army should already be alarmed, therefore, telegram should also fall under it. under such regulation, just as there is twitter, whatsapp or tiktok, all networks should be subject to such and such regulation, and telegram definitely too, because telegram has opaque ownership, and it is a loss-making and loss-making platform, it is not clear who finances it to

the end, in the press there is there is a lot of information about what the russians are doing, so obviously those who use telegram to transmit information or to create telegram channels were very worried that this might concern... directly telegram, maybe yes, maybe not, maybe telegram will answer positively, will reveal ownership and will respond to the remarks of the ukrainian authorities, as well as to the remarks of the russian authorities, because president putin directly said that he is grateful to telegram for cooperation, and they closed more than 400 channels before the russian elections, because ukraine does not have this, it can be related to politics and russian ipso, we see this directly, but it can also apply to other areas, for example, yesterday the lviv agency ngl media... published a large study about how closed groups in telegram engage in adolescent bullying, demand money for to make a video of humiliating teenagers, and additionally money to find out who exactly posted this video, ads for the sale

of drugs are placed in the comments, obviously all this poses a real threat to both our national security and the security of the state in general, and to leave it in such a situation as it is is in principle unacceptable, and by the way, it is a threat. the head of the main intelligence department of the ministry of defense of ukraine, general, also spoke on national security from the telegram network kyrylo budanov, let's listen to what he said: from the point of view of national security, this is definitely a problem, it must be understood, despite the fact that i am absolutely against oppression of freedom of speech, but it is already too much, so let's have it. what kind of person can make a channel, start announcing on it everything he wants, absolutely everything he wants, and when they start doing something, hide that it's the freedom of the media, but it's not the freedom of the media, it's a little different, different called, mr. mykola, in may 2017

, russian social media was banned in ukraine the vkontakte network and classmates, and actually one of the... creators of vkontakte is now the creator of this telegram, and as you rightly pointed out that in russia they praise and praise this network that exists, and why is the reaction of ukrainians not quite adequate during the war, when they talk about the fact that, oh my god, they want to close the telegram, and we learn the news from the telegram and everything else, that is, it is a lack of understanding that the russians can work. with this network and through this network to influence ukrainians as well? well, first of all, i must say that it was also high outrage when the council of national security and defense, then without a law, by the decision of the national security council, actually blocked the vkontakte network,

the vkontakte network was also used by an extremely large number of ukrainians, but nothing, they switched to facebook and nothing terrible happened, in this case we do not even suggest anyone ban, we want this network to not distribute anti-ukrainian content, so that the state can regulate it, there is no direct ban in the law, although this way of ban through the nsdc is certainly possible, well, we have a catastrophic situation, because 73% of ukrainians get their news from telegram, in fact it is a monopolist, because if you have someone who controls more than 50%, they are already monopolists, or if two of them together control 75% or three of them, they are also monopolists, such is the ukrainian anti-monopoly legislation, this is a direct violation. of antimonopoly legislation and the antimonopoly committee should also react to such a situation, and why do they receive this information, this messenger quickly broke into our information field thanks to pro-russian channels, well at least the sbu calls them created by the army of the russian federation, all these residents are legitimate and many other channels, they

appeared first, wrote alleged gossip about what is happening in the president's office, who looked askance at whom, who wants to persecute whom, who is stalking whom, and people in principle... love rumors, without thinking about how verified and true they are, and these anonymous pro- russian telegram channels actually gathered a large audience, the ukrainian authorities decided to take advantage of this, because they... here the same bought or created a large number of ukrainian channels of anonymous millionaires, through which they often spread false information against their political competitors, and therefore they are very afraid of losing this tool, because all the tools they have left are telethon and telegram, and telegram is in the first place, and youtube has only 16% of people get information from youtube, if we talk about social networks, even in russia 48% of russians get information from telegram, we have 73, despite the fact that... this is a network created by russians, although they say that they are located in dubai, but there is no

evidence that there is no russian money among the founders, and that the servers are not located in russia, people do not even realize how dangerous it is, and the state authorities support it , because criticizing telegram, all these ukrainian state services, including special services, have accounts on the telegram network, and ukrainian banks that collect personal information have accounts on the telegram network, obviously they have access to all this information access by the russians, and this is really... extremely dangerous in the conditions of war and extremely threatening, so you just have to be conscious citizens here, the network really has a convenient interface, and then we are all used to finding out from there when something flew and where it flew, part of this information is true and some is false and there are many other ways, what is the way to provide people with such important information for them, other sharing platforms , and viber, and whatsapp, and facebook, and instagram, and many others, where at least it is clear who their owners are, that they are not controlled by the russians in principle, although

some of them can also obviously have some complaints, people just don't realize it, very often people don't care, because people don't care that we don't have enough soldiers at the front, and many people oppose mobilization, it is obvious that the process itself looks idiotic to say the least, but we all realize that mobilization is needed simply to protect the motherland, we must also realize that... we must adhere to information security, well and with information security, in particular , the decision of youtube is connected, which at the request of the ukrainian side, in particular the center for countering disinformation of the nsdc on the territory of ukraine , blocked the youtube project of panchenko, she is a former tv presenter of the medvedchukiv tv channel of the sanctioned news one, who went outside ukraine and spread mud on her own ukraine, well, we see how e... cooperation or, let's say, interaction with the management or with the youtube group allows

you to do this, i understand that this is impossible with telegram, that is, the ukrainian side does not have such contact with those who administer the big telegram channel, and well, if something like this story can arise in the telegram channel, i understand that we, we cannot help it in any way, or am i right, well, they are on... they don't respond, someone, some person called an official, who is unclear, says, says, let's take it into account, think about how to do it and nothing happens, many call it freedom of speech, so obviously a telegram in such the method is not responsive, and that's the difference between these messengers and telegrams, especially these large western messengers, they also have a system of self-regulation, if you call for international conflicts or humiliate someone, then the network itself will ban you, or citizens can go there if it offends them , such

mechanisms do not exist in telegram, so it does not work in telegram. another network that continues to operate in ukraine is the network of the branch of the russian orthodox church, and at the end of last week patriarch kirill gundyaev announced that a special military operation on the territory of ukraine. this is a holy war, well, in fact, he once again blessed both putin and the russian army for the killing of ukrainians, explaining it by the fact that, well, russia has the right to this, including as a spiritual component of this, well, if you can call it a spiritual component of a special military operation, so-called, people's deputy yevgenia kravchuk, from the servant of the people, who was with us. on the air, she said that the bill banning the activities

of russian churches in ukraine will be adopted within a month. let's hear what she said. the draft law is already in the second reading, and i hope that, well, if not in april, because we will obviously have a question of mobilization in april, then whether at the end of april or in may, it will be put to a vote in the hall, there is already our decision. of the main committee to the second reading, we will also take into account the position of the lawyers of the verkhovna rada and the ministry of justice and make certain clarifications this week, but literally the day after tomorrow we will convene the committee. and then there is the consideration of the session hall, but i am sure that there will be 226 voices of people who understand what a threat mr. mykola, why couldn't the same servants of the people find 226 votes until now, realizing that this is a big threat. well,

they found them, they just searched for a very long time, because i submitted my draft law on banning the activities of the russian orthodox church in ukraine, er... more er in 2022, and it dragged on for a very long time, then in the first reading it was finally accepted, accepted government bill, not mine, but i actively worked in our committee on the issue of humanitarian policy, and with the support of all colleagues from all factions, we are very important, key norms from my law 821 were included in the government bill, i understood that the day before yesterday mrs. yevgenia spoke with you, because just today we had a committee. we made the final changes and sent this bill to the verkhovna rada for voting. and i hope that we will vote now. it dragged on for a very long time. since 2002, at first no one did anything, then the president allegedly did not have this draft law, instructed the national security council to prepare the draft law, then the national security council entrusted it to the state service of zetnopolitics, they are very it took a long time to prepare it, they prepared it,

it was so toothless and ineffective, we improved it in committee, and now in... ready for second reading, i hope it will happen quickly, but does it understand, for example, in your opinion , the current ukrainian government about the threats posed by not resolving this issue, that is, no matter how the ukrainian orthodox church, headed by onufriy , tries to condemn it, or let's say, distance itself from the russian orthodox church, it is onufriy after all. and continues to remember cyril among the patriarchs, orthodox patriarchs, and in this way makes it clear that, in principle, everything remains in those places, only they declared declaratively that they are not part of the russian orthodox church. well, i think that many people understand, at least in our committee, which is headed by the representative of the servant of the people party, mykyta

potoraev, and yevgenia kravchuk, who was your deputy, the other representatives of this faction today unanimously voted for... the draft in the second reading together with representatives of other factions, well, ours european solidarity, and for the future and the homeland, i know that the trust will vote for it, just not all the servants understand it, there is a rather large such pro-russian church group in the servants, which defends the interests of this church, and there is a plus point of these groups of the former opzzh, who will also speak out against it, and most other politicians in the verkhovna rada understand, i think that this understanding is gradual, because now after this last council, where gundyaev declared a holy war, and then after the situation when gundyaev obliged the churches in russia to pray for the victory of russia, that is, for the killing of ukrainians, was in fact glorified war and turned his church into an anti-christian sect, i think that many

more people understand the need to quickly pass this bill in order for it to become law. at the very end of our conversation, mr. mykola, tell me, is there a crisis in the parliament or not? i mean with votes and in general with decision-making? yes, it is not a crisis of the parliament, it is a crisis of the majority, because the majority of deputies from the majority, who were elected by more than 250, they simply do not go and vote, recently 170 votes, and that one is even less, and they cannot pass laws without us, without opposition votes, and sometimes our votes are not enough, because we... participation in meetings, and they simply do not come, that a crisis of power, it's not that a parliamentary crisis, it's generally a crisis of power, since the parliament can be said to have a one-party majority, and it is, they have a one-party coalition, and they definitely have a crisis, and it turns into a parliamentary crisis in general . thank you, mr. mykola, for the conversation, it was mykola knyazhytskyi, people's deputy of ukraine. friends, after

a short break, we will return to the studio, to our studio, already in the office, and not in a ... shelter, congratulations, my name is yuriy fizar, this is an exclusive for espresso, today i will talk with my interlocutor about urgent ukrainian-american relations , what to expect from washington, i mean the aid that is currently stuck in the house of representatives and much more, so today the ambassador of the united states of america to ukraine, mrs. bridget brink. and thanks for joining me today. nice to be with you. so, you arrived in ukraine at the end of may 2022. what then? the situation in our country is different from the current one. the current situation is radically different. when i came to ukraine in may 2022, the streets

were practically empty and there were roadblocks everywhere. when i was driving then, i saw a lot of destruction. now, despite two years of russia's brutal war against ukraine, i see incredible progress. 50% of the occupied territory was recaptured from. ukraine was able to export food through the black sea ports, sending over thousand ships, i.e. more than 33 million metric tons of grain and other cargoes, and during two very severe but incredible winters, ukrainians were able to preserve energy and electricity for the entire country. these are really great achievements, and despite military efforts. we see that the economy is not only surviving, it is growing, we are talking about 5% in 2023 and projected growth in 2024. obviously, this is a difficult

moment and a difficult situation for ukraine, but we pledge to be with you in the future. currently, i see the incredible resilience of each person in a country that... cannot win this fight with russia. thank you very much for that, and thank you to all the american people for the help you are giving us. let's talk about this help. we are now very dependent on external funding. and unfortunately, the draft law from the white house, which provides ukraine with about 60 billion dollars, is still in the house of representatives. however , we know that the speaker of the house of representatives. what do you

personally think about it, will they vote for it, and if so, will there be any innovations that the speaker is talking about johnson? i am confident that the us congress will support additional legislation. for ukraine, of course, it is up to congress to decide when that will happen, but my confidence is based on the fact that, in addition to the us president and the entire administration, ukraine has the bipartisan support of congress. many of its representatives visited ukraine, including senator schumer. he was here in lviv with a delegation just a few weeks ago. such visits are even more reflective. hold the american people. we know very well that the fight for freedom is now being waged in kona, so that russia and putin cannot repeat something similar elsewhere. we

support ukraine in its struggle for its existence. what about innovations? as for innovations, it will be up to congress to decide. we have prepared an argument based on the president's proposals. that's what. because we adhere to, as jake sullivan said a few days ago in kyiv, there is no plan b. there is no plan b because a lot of american politicians are talking about plan b. they say, yes, we are talking about plan a because that is the master plan, but what there is no plan b. so we only have plan a. yes, and we support it. thank you very much. at the beginning of march, in an interview with cnn, you said that the united states of america has reached a crucial point in support. of ukraine and that people in washington should redouble their efforts to help ukraine. did they listen to you on the capital hill? i will say that not yet, but i am sure

that our congress will reflect the will of the american people and the strategic interests of the united states, the essence of which is to help ukraine. i propose to talk about russia a few weeks ago they held what the russians call presidential elections, we in ukraine call it a farce, so putin reappointed himself again, but what do people in the united states of america think about what happened. we unequivocally believe that these elections are undemocratic, and i have nothing more to say about this, we do not recognize any. elections on the sovereign territory of ukraine. let's talk about support from the western world. in february

, french president emmanuel macron said he did not... rule out the possibility that once western troops will be on the territory of ukraine. i understand that most western leaders disagreed with him , but what about the united states of america? we understand that there will be no american troops in ukraine, but can we at least hope for the signing of some kind of agreement with the usa , similar to the ones we have already signed with great britain and france. yes, definitely. okay, can you tell me what will be included in this deal? not yet, it's still being discussed, but it looks like we're close to that point. i can't name specific terms, but i can say that with active negotiations are being held with representatives of your government regarding this. let's move on to the issue of corruption in ukraine. you once said that in order for western investments to come to

ukraine, we need... an independent judicial system, free mass media and the absence of corruption. is there any progress in these directions. i will say that your president, who represents your people and your democracy, has set an ambitious goal to integrate into the eu and nato. a strong democracy is especially important on this path. important components of which there are dynamic and free media, active... this is the vision of your president, who reflects the interests of your population, and we strongly support you in this, in this vein, we have supported and continue to support all the steps that have been taken to solve some of the problems that exist in ukraine, this is the fight

against corruption. all of this is critical to our primary goal, it's also critical to business, as we heard from special representative pena pritzker as part of president biden's initiative to accelerating your economic recovery. having standards and the rule of law in place so businesses can be confident. that his investments will be protected by laws and regulations, that is crucial: we hear this all the time, so it is extremely important to achieve this goal. as far as i understand, this corresponds to the aspirations of the people of ukraine. madam ambassador, and my last question for today: republican senator lynsey graham visited ukraine a few weeks ago. and he

said he changed his mind about. the integrity of elections, namely presidential elections ukraine now. he claims that elections can still take place. what is the official position of the american authorities on this matter? ukraine is a sovereign, democratic country, and only it can decide such issues. thank you very much, madam ambassador, for your answers, and thank you for all the help we receive from the united states of america. it was an exclusive espresso with my interlocutor. ambassador of the united states of america to ukraine bridget brink talked about ukrainian-american relations, about the help we received, we receive and will continue to receive and much more. my name is yuriy fizar, see you soon! this is the verdyk program, my name is serhii rudenko, once again i congratulate you all and wish you

all the best. in the course of this program, i remind you, we conduct a survey and ask you about the following: do you approve of the activities of the verkhovna rada of ukraine? yes, no, please vote on youtube or with the yes or no button if you watch us on tv, please vote with your phone numbers if you approve of the activities of the verkhovna rada of ukraine, 0800 211 381, no 0800 211 382, ​​all calls to these numbers are free, vote, at the end of the program we will pick up. of this vote. next, we have valentin badrak, director of the army research center conversion and disarmament. mr. valentin, i congratulate you. thank you for joining our broadcast. mr. serhiy, i congratulate you and i am very glad for the invitation. first of all, mr. valentin, a fairly simple question, it would seem, but at the same time it is difficult. zelensky said that the russian...