including staying with espresso. the us congress is back to work this week. the white house expects that the issue of 60 billion aid to ukraine will be unblocked. but when, will the republicans vote for such important aid for ukraine? this is what the next 15 minutes of the bbc's broadcast to the london dzaferov studio will be about. what kind of help is this? this is a combined package of additional funding, which us president joe biden proposed last year, in the amount of 118 billion dollars to help not only ukraine, but also israel and other partners of washington, and some more money.

will go to strengthen the southern border of the united states. senators have not been able to come to an agreement since the fall of last year, and the main reason is the disagreement between republicans and democrats regarding the strengthening of the border with mexico and the immigration policy of the united states. so, out of 101-18 billion dollars, they propose to send 60 billion dollars to support ukraine. most of the money will be spent on weapons, ammunition, equipment, and almost 8 billion. for the support of the ukrainian budget, which is salaries, civil servants, pensions, etc. for the package aid is voted by the american congress, two chambers, the lower and the upper. so, the upper us senate, back in february they voted for this package. the majority of votes were in favor of financing ukraine. and for several months now , the lower house - this is the us house of representatives - has not been able to vote, because the speaker of the house, republican mike johnson. does not bring this

package to the vote, and we are talking more about it with my colleague, voice of america ukrainian correspondent maria ulyanovska, who is in touch with us from washington. congratulations you, why is the consideration of this aid to ukraine in the congress taking so long? greetings to you, greetings to our viewers, indeed, the issue of aid to ukraine, and this is what everyone in the audience here in washington is talking about, has become hostage to political differences, and... i will remind you that president joe biden requested this additional funding for national security needs six months ago, and this bill was considered by the senate for four months. the problem was that this big bill included funding not only for ukraine, but how about you they said, and the needs of israel, and also the needs of the pacific region, and the issue of the security of the american border, and it was precisely the issue of the security of the american border that was the most controversial. we've been talking to different senators all these months. in

washington, and they said that the negotiations on this bill were one of the most difficult in the entire history of their stay in the american congress, and it was indeed a very difficult negotiation, but at the same time the senators did manage to reach some kind of compromise, and in february they passed a compromise version of this bill, which includes $61 billion for ukraine. now this aid and this bill must now be considered by the other house of congress, this is the house of representatives, and at the same time. there is talk that both democrats and republicans have bipartisan support for the bill, but house speaker mike johnson is not bringing it up for a vote. but the white house is confident that the bill will receive overwhelming support in the house of representatives. but in your opinion, why is the speaker of the house of representatives mike johnson still did not put it to the vote, or what does the speaker's decision depend on? indeed, the speaker is here now. in such a very difficult situation,

and the speaker's rhetoric has changed throughout this time, he initially said that he said in general that he supports ukraine, that he supports ukraine's right to protect its borders from russian invasion, and he said that aid to ukraine need to vote, at the same time, he said earlier that this issue is not a priority because there are so many important issues that need to be resolved by congressmen, which undoubtedly concern the united states itself, in particular. it was about funding the government and the budget that could not be passed for a long time, it was about funding the security of the american border, strengthening the security of the american border, at the same time the speaker was under incredible pressure all this time, all the world leaders who were coming to the united states, a lot of them had personal meetings with speaker johnson and explained to him that his decision now depends not only on the security of ukraine, but also on the issue of everything in general region, that he has on his...

such an important decision now, and he should bring this bill to a vote in the house of representatives as soon as possible, because really everyone is talking about the fact that there is bipartisan support, broad bipartisan support for this bill. now the speaker said that after this easter vacation, from which the congressmen and senators have now returned, the work of the american congress has started again this week, he promised that this week he will finally start solving the issue of aid to ukraine, the issue just in what form it will take, because he doesn't support this senate bill that the senate has already passed and that the house has to pass, he's proposing some kind of alternative solution that still needs to be written, if it's written, it... which has to be voted on by the house of representatives, then it has to go back to the senate again, then it has to go back to the senate, then it has to be signed by the president, so it looks like if they go this way, then the issue of aid to ukraine will be delayed again, and the fastest way, really to vote on this bill, which has already been voted by the senate, at the same time speaker johnson

is at such and such a crossroads, because many congressmen, republicans, far-right republicans are telling him that if he brings up the issue of aid to ukraine. for a vote, they initiate an appeal to congress in order to remove speaker mike johnson from his post, that is, they are blackmailing him in this way, that is, within the republican party, there is such a split between the traditional republican party and these far-right republicans who do not want to support ukraine, and on the other hand, speaker mike johnson cannot but put the issue of ukraine to a vote, because there is very high such... pressure from the outside on him, and we will see how things will develop, he is scheduled to hold a press conference today where he will explain how he wants to address the issue in the coming weeks. you said that johnson is at a crossroads, but can lawmakers bypass johnson and bring it to a vote or vote on the package

help? yes, they can, there is such a procedure, it is very, it has been tried several times in the history of the congress to leave in this way, not very successfully. because it is really a very complicated procedure, there must be an absolute majority of votes, there must be 218 signatures, but two petitions have already been initiated: there is a petition from the democrats, who are asking congress to pass this senate bill bypassing the speaker, that is, the speaker will not have to introduce this bill for voting, if the petition receives the necessary 218 votes, then this draft law will be submitted to a vote on this petition, but at the same time there is also a question because there are only 190 democrats in the house...i'm sorry, not 190, 213, so they will have to work with the republicans to get the republicans to support this petition as well. at the same time , the republicans have their own petition, the petition of brian fitzpatrick, who also bypassed the speaker and registered a petition to vote on his own

bill on aid to ukraine, which provides for less funding for ukraine. and again, if this petition gets the necessary number of votes and the house of representatives votes this version of the bill, then it will... return to the senate, and there it will also have to be voted on again, mike johnson earlier, he spoke about the conditions for providing assistance to ukraine, about a loan, that's what what an initiative, indeed, the speaker is now refusing to bring up this big national security funding bill that has already been passed by the senate, while at the same time he is proposing some alternative solution, what that alternative solution is, it is not yet known, because we haven't seen the text of this draft law yet, while in the past you... he said that there is, he has such an intention, and he says that there must be certain innovations and changes before aid is issued ukraine, in particular, is concerned with three points: firstly, it may be about financing ukraine through confiscated russian assets, and he said that if it is possible

to legally establish this mechanism in this way, it will be the best option. in addition, he also says that it is possible to help ukraine need to be given credit, and he repeats the rhetoric of one of the candidates. faithful candidates for the presidency from the republican party of donald trump, and the third, the third point that may be about - this is such an internal political issue that the republicans can try to solve through this bill, in particular, to lift the temporary ban on the production of liquefied natural gas, which the biden administration imposed in order to expand this production and in order to reduce russia's ability to extract such gas itself and reduce russia's capabilities. to finance his war machine in this way, but we don't know what that will look like in the final version, because so far speaker johnson has not shown what that will look like. thank you, thank you maria, maria ulyanovska, voice of america ukrainian correspondent from washington. and not only

ukrainian, but also european leaders are trying to convince congressmen. it was the president of germany, olaf scholz, and now the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of great britain, james cameron. david cameron, he met today. with his american colleague antony blinken, and one of the issues is support for ukraine. cameron himself said that he did not come to lecture someone or interfere with political processes in the usa, but traveled as a friend of the united states and he believes it is in the security interests of the united states and its allies to provide additional funding to ukraine. u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken also spoke about blocked aid in congress. we also talked about the importance of providing assistance to ukraine now, additional shells, air defense equipment, artillery we both heard from the foreign minister. of ukraine dmytro kuleba last week at a nato meeting on urgent needs. our countries are putting pressure on themselves

and others to do this. in this regard, the additional funding requested by president biden is urgent and critical. the house of representatives is back in session. we expect this to be put to a vote and voted on as soon as possible. and david cameron met not only with the representative. the authorities of the united states and with the ex-president of the united states donald trump, who plans to run for president of the united states in november of this year. cameron met him in florida and this is what he had to say about his meeting with trump. this was in line with the fact that government officials meet with representatives of the opposition before the elections. i remember when i was prime minister, i met with mitt romney when he was a candidate. gordon brown met barack obama when he was... tony, you recently met the labor leader, keir starmer, in munich. it

was a private meeting. we discussed a lot important geopolitical issues. and trump's campaign headquarters said that trump and cameron discussed the need for nato countries to meet the requirement for defense spending, as well as the upcoming elections in the united states and britain, and cite ways to stop the bloodshed in ukraine. but will the republicans listen to david cameron, former adviser to the office of the prime minister of great britain tom fletcher believes that he has every chance to convince the republicans. in my opinion, what the minister of foreign affairs is now in the united states is very important, and especially his willingness to participate in such a difficult conversation. diplomacy is not only about negotiations with like-minded people, because in this case it was. too simple it is extremely important that david cameron, the minister of foreign affairs of britain, in the list of his

priority affairs, gave place to the need for proper military support of ukraine, in this difficult time for it. and the americans play the main role in this. so he went to do everything possible and convince that this aid package should be supported, and the key in this is donald trump. so i think this is the reason. today's conversation. i think david cameron has leverage over the republicans. he is a world- class figure. he was the prime minister, he has connections, he is well known in the united states, he is trusted. he is considered, so to speak, a member of the same political circle, although, i think, neither the republicans nor the conservatives are currently as close as they once were. he has political weight there, these are... complex issues and he will not just navigate this policy, moreover, i

i'm sure there will be passion and possible surprises behind the scenes, but david cameron is nothing new to working in this kind of environment, so i'm sure he knows what he's doing. so the package of additional aid to ukraine from the us, 60 billion dollars, has been blocked in congress for months. the white house believes that congress has already. will soon be able to vote for financial support for ukraine and believes that the majority will vote for, and in order to convince the republicans to vote for this important support for ukraine, in the united british foreign minister david cameron also went to the states, where, in addition to meeting with current representatives of the american government, he met with former president donald trump. so that's it for today, check out our bbc website for more stories. ua and on our pages in social networks, and we will be on the air again tomorrow at 9 p.m.,

take care! greetings, friends, espresso is on the air, the second part of the verdict program, immediately for ... those who are watching now both on tv and on our social networks, in particular on youtube, i must to apologize, because in the first part of our program we did not quite correctly give the tv results. television survey, mid-term survey, i hope that now the editorial team will give the correct numbers, because today we are asking you about this, do you think the channels of the united telethon are strategic for the security economy of the state 6% yes, 94% no, these are the correct relevant results

of the survey, which we are conducting on tv today, and the same poll we are conducting on... youtube, i will say right away that today we will talk about a lot of things, well, first of all about mobilization, in the issue today. softened mobilization. the verkhovna rada is preparing a controversial bill for the second reading: whether they will be punished with prison for evasion of the draft, critical enterprises: the ministry of culture has reserved workers from the army. circuses and a single telethon, without which branches of the economy ukraine will not really survive. global peace summit and kremlin ultimatums. representatives of 100 countries will discuss ending the war in ukraine in switzerland. is peace with russia possible? we will talk about this and other things for the next 45 minutes. i will remind you once again

that during this broadcast we are conducting a survey, asking you about this, do you think the channel? of a single telethon strategic for the economy and security of the state, yes, no, everything is quite simple on youtube, either yes or no, write your comment under this video. if you 're watching us on tv, pick up your smartphone or phone and vote. yes, 0800-211-381, no, 0800-211-382. all calls to these numbers are free, vote. i want to introduce our today's. the guests are people's deputies of ukraine, iryna gerashchenko, people's deputy, member of the verkhovna rada committee on foreign policy and interparliamentary cooperation, former commissioner for peaceful settlement in donbas, mrs. iryna, i congratulate you, thank you for being with us today. good evening. solomiya bobrovska, people's deputy

of ukraine, member of the verkhovna rada committee on national security, defense and intelligence. deputy head of the permanent delegation of the verkhovna rada to the nato parliamentary assembly. mrs. solomia. fine. not yet, mrs. solomiya, we are waiting for inclusion. and mykhailo tsymbalyuk, people's deputy of ukraine from the batkivshchyna faction. first deputy chairman of the verkhovna rada committee on social policy and protection of veterans' rights, lieutenant general of the police. mr. general, i congratulate you, thank you for joining our broadcast. i wish everyone good health. well, first of all. mrs. iryna and mr. mykhailo, since we ask our tv viewers about this and the viewers whether they consider the channels of the single telethon strategic for the economy and security of the state, this question is explained quite simply, the government and the ministry of culture have reserved

employees of the channels that are part of the single telethon from mobilization, referring to the fact that they are strategic... for the economy and security of the state, do you think that these channels are really strategic for the economy and security of the state, do you understand the motives for mobilization or the grounds or criteria for that, and why exactly these channels are reserved, and other television channels are not, ms. iryna, well , apparently the president's office lives according to the principle of louis the 14th, the state is me, and... if they think so that the state is i, it is obvious that for them it is a strategic enterprise for the state, because the marathon today works as a propaganda channel for such a free for the bank, for the office of the president holding, which does not inform about the war, but rather works as such a propagandist

of the authorities, asking those topics , which are primarily necessary for a positive and... the same information campaign regarding recruiting and mobilization, and you know, and this is strategically dangerous, i think the opposite is the case for the state, because not only is the marathon costing taxpayers 2 billion hryvnias every year, propagandists from the 1+1 channel work there with state funds, they work there... we have now prepared a request to the ministry of culture, so-called journalists who received diplomas in the dpr, the so-called dpr, and, sorry, worked for it. a terrorist group, journalists from the medvedchuk channel pool work there, and it is obvious that the government, which today is going to remove demobilization from

the law on mobilization, and at the same time shows that propagandists are more important to it than the military, we are categorically against this. thank you, ms. irina, mr. general, what do you say about the criteria and who should be there in this case. er, in this list and what are the criteria for who should be reserved, er, if we are talking about the new draft laws on the new law on mobilization, maybe we should have waited for the adoption of this law, and then , well, to so that everything was transparent, clear, and no one had any unnecessary questions. i have not yet found what someone calls a draft law on the improvement of mobilization. although we do not have the final version yet saw in no way how and who and whom will be booked, this is the first thing, secondly,

there is no order in the state and the fact that today the prime minister is declaring something, that he demands a fair reservation of certain positions, then this is a funny story, he already should learn to respond, and this is his problem as the head of the executive branch of government, why he has not yet proposed the rules. games in this direction, if we talk about journalists, then in my opinion, it is journalists today who are responsible for the information fund, security, and this should not apply to some individual channels, in my opinion, it is necessary to book journalists who today work in the mass media of ukraine, which are officially... established and act according to the statute, if they submit such proposals, then it should be considered, sorry, the cabinet ministers, not

individual ministries, all the more so when we see that the ministry of culture has been without a head for more than six months, but a deputy is performing duties, who, i don't know, has a prospect of staying with the new minister, even if it's the same deputy , because of that in the state has no rules. because of that, some give commands, others take them, engage in miracles, booking certain categories, thereby discouraging the desire of others to carry out mobilization, or to go and serve in the armed forces of ukraine. because of that, it seems to me that here the verkhovna rada should, we should have our say and clearly regulate. at the legislative level, the things that the cabinet of ministers wants to implement, the security and defense sector, strategic enterprises, there must be

a clear list, including positions, and of course the economy must work, whether they have keep in mind, journalists, i have already stated my position, but there is no need to make a difference here, there are officially protected mass media, there are no complaints about... acting politics in the national council, please, there is a proposal, make a reservation and let people protect our state with information, thank you , mr. general, thank you for your answer, we were joined by solomiya bobrovska, people's deputy of ukraine from the vote, member of the verkhovna rada committee on national security, defense and intelligence, ms. solomiya, i congratulate you, thank you for joining our broadcast, good evening, as we are mrs. irina and mr. have already asked about their attitude to who and how should fall under the reservation, as we ask our tv viewers

whether they consider the channels of the single telethon strategic for the economy and security of the state, since the employees of these channels fell under the reservation from mobilization. i will also ask you: do you consider the channels of the united telethon to be strategic for our state, this... this is the first and second, or do you understand what criteria were used, when were these decisions made? well, first of all, i believe that in fact the whole idea with reservations is completely discredited by the cabinet itself, because in fact a very interesting story turns out, so when the verkhovna rada, trying to make the legislation with mobilization as tough as possible, and putting everyone on the military list, and there we have discussions. and there are about hundreds, no more, and the number of hours there is not even measured in days regarding, for example, people from the third group of disabilities, with their caregivers,

guardians, we have a colossal discussion where... demobilization, and every, every, every criteria is discussed, then the cabinet simply stamps itself, it turns out to be a reservation for almost all of them in a row, and here we are talking not only about the telethon and journalists, with all due respect to what they do, but also in particular , for example, about football clubs and there is still a mystery, in particular, for example, about shopping centers, supermarkets, hypermarkets and so on, that is, what is happening, there is a really critical infrastructure that today cannot show, for example, about i have working capital there for export, which are going goods, er, proof, to prove to ukraine that this is critical infrastructure or necessary, instead we have such strange stories, and i don't want to mention the circus anymore with respect to the people who work, and it's a colossal job, but nevertheless, eh the parliament tightens the nuts, the cabinet loosens the nuts, moreover, i have a question, whether the cabinet planned at all, he did not plan

to change his... uh, the orders of the resolutions regarding the change of these bookings, and we often today, we will take tonight previous edition in the committee draft law on mobilization, it is already 12 o'clock in this committee, and we are all still at work, and the story is going well, and the parliament is giving as wide a field as possible to mobilize people with the armed forces, at a time when the cabinet is actually spinning schemes and... . lobbying stories in order to book people, that's why they ruined the story in fact with economic booking, this is an idea that would be difficult to get into parliament, and few people understand how it can be explained, why it should work like that, that the who pays taxes, he should protect himself, because the rich don't fight there, the poor fight there, or any other interpretation, it is already in society today from completely different sides and rejected, but well, such things

are... allowed, it's actually what a mockery, and i would like to remind you that in fact , in addition to the commander-in-chief, the government itself is also responsible for mobilization, and first of all the prime minister, and i would very much like the prime minister to come , in particular to the committee, or to the heads of factions and explained how the whole body the collective cabinet of ministers must decide on the issue of the entire mobilization, because mobilization is not only about entering the army, admission, training, uniform, mobilization of the people of the pcc, in particular the ministry of defense. it's the economy, it's finance, it's just a mass of all the directions that today were not even grouped together with and did not enter into synchronization even with regard to the motivation of including this package of motivation in the bill on mobilization, what we are talking about then , our right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, well, this is not fair, in our country

is actually brewing in society. not just a boom, but such hatred of everyone against everyone, and it definitely does not play into our hands and is beneficial for the front, not for the body, acting minister of culture and information policy rostislav karandeev condemned yesterday's hate around the topic of the reservation of workers sphere of culture and media, he emphasized that the directorate of mobile circus groups of ukraine performs an important artistic mobilization task for the state. i will quote acting as a minister: how can you draw conclusions about the importance of a cultural institution only by its name, a state-owned enterprise of the directorate of mobile circus teams of ukraine, not a street shapito, as someone imagines, but a professional team of highly respected masters of their craft, that is, everyone who booked, or who lobbied for the booking of various groups there, now he is starting to explain, and why actually those who work in the circus also received

a reservation from a mobile phone. although obviously all this is in the competence, including the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi, who called the verkhovna rada to adopt the law on mobilization in the near future, i understand that judging by the words of mrs. solomia, tonight, just as the constitution was once adopted, you will make the final decision on voting or on the introduction of this draft law. and there are 400 amendments there, or even less left for the session hall, but let's listen to what president zelensky said, we are talking to the parliament so that they vote in the coming days, to vote the relevant law, this is very important, and it is not entirely irresponsible that what they do, and what is the problem with this law, i think most naked.