regarding the fourth draft law, it contains articles on the use of russian frozen assets to restore the economy of ukraine, as well as on sanctions against the russian economy. how do you rate such updates to the bill? one of the aspects of giving the administration the authority to transfer russian assets frozen in american banks to ukraine for economic support and reconstruction. this is a major step for congress to give the president power. it's been a long time. in the usa and europe there is an ongoing debate about the possibility of transferring frozen russian assets for the reconstruction of ukraine. this is an important opportunity to move and sends a clear signal to russia, as well as china and iran. regarding sanctions, this is again a strengthening of the united states' position to force the administration to take a tougher stance on sanctions against the russian regime. and i think that this is extremely important. several radical representatives of the republican party are threatening johnson. can this idea

get enough support? only a few legislators supported it, but it seems that some voices balked at the idea, in part because if the republicans were to unseat the speaker again, it's possible that a democrat could fill the office. politically, this is a very risky move, and they would look like dilettantes in an election year. congress parties assured the ukrainian delegation in the united states of support for the aid package for kyiv in a vote on saturday. prime minister of ukraine denys shmygel stated this at a briefing in washington. he noted that the main part of the amount provided for by the draft law is more than 61 billion dollars will go to military needs. after meetings in the white house and congress, i received assurances that military aid to ukraine will be directed by the united states immediately after the vote, and it will arrive in the coming weeks, says the prime minister. in addition, he noted the readiness of

the united states to provide ukraine with budgetary support. in fact, all the leaders of both democrats and republicans, with whom we spoke, once again confirmed their firm intention to vote this saturday on the bill, the first in the house of representatives, to write down the conditions and on under what conditions these funds will be provided, the actual direct budget financing will be decided by the presidential administration, and this will be the next step. it is important that the law will... provide for this tape in the budget to support ukraine, we will agree on the conditions, and they will definitely not be difficult and not difficult for ukraine in the conditions of full-scale aggression. do ukrainians believe that the usa will provide aid to ukraine? has their attitude towards america changed because of the six-month delay? how do they see the role of the united states in the war and whether will ukraine be able to win without help from overseas? with such questions on the eve of voting in congress. in the usa, our

correspondents addressed the residents of zaporizhzhia, sumy, khmelnytskyi and kharkiv. we hope with all our might and show that please help us, because if you don't help us, we will simply die here. relying on the help of the usa is the only thing that remains in ukraine, because because of the fact that we have a delay, because they do not want to help us, everything is delayed in our country, because of the desperation of the ukrainian people, the ukrainian army, we have neither weapons, nor the ability to fight this aggression on our own, and therefore the only thing the ukrainian people are doing is hoping, well, if our president himself says that without the help of the states, well well, if you read it like that, then he is telling the truth that we did not win the war. can't defeat this horde

help is needed because even now i'm leaving the funeral of our friend our boyfriend this can't go on like this we have to end this war with victory of course if it is necessary for our entire state and indeed our partners, if america considers us its friends, they are obliged to help us in such a time. well, at the first stage , i believe that it was a leadership role, and well, we believed in ourselves, because we understood that we had such a strong friend behind us, but now it seems to me that this role has been taken over by a united europe, let's say, they were our strongest ally in the very beginning, and now we see that uh... they took a very weak

side, which caused a lot of conflicts , militaries all over the world, should have been a serious ally and an important partner, in principle they are. they are, because we have a large pile of important weapons, thanks to them we also have financial support, but these moments with six months of downtime, of course , have a negative effect, i think on the general opinion, so somehow, they decide very, very much because of june, without them, quite a lot of aid packages do not reach us. the united states is our absolutely main, strategic partner, and even somewhere, so to speak, some kind of inaction. this, let's call it that, which they manifest there, let's assume in the last six months, they encouraged europe to step up and provide more aid there, to split up, so to speak, europe, to rely on its own strength, then this is also ukraine's help. this is our main strategic partner, and without it it will be

very, very difficult for us, not even to win, but simply to hold on to this war. without the help of the united states, i think our prospects are very poor. er of fighting our enemy, this is the only country that can help us end the war on our terms. in any in this case, the american government will support ukraine, but after all, the first aid for the ukrainians should be the initiative of the ukrainians themselves. we should not hope that someone will help us, we should make our own contribution in order to improve our lives and help someone else. we will still win, they will help us, they won't... they will help us, historically it has been known for a long time that the americans always made the right decision after trying all the others, i think this time it will be so soba. such were the opinions of ukrainians

about the future of american aid to kyiv, but how the consideration of aid to ukraine is progressing in the congress is also closely monitored in the pentagon. they say that if additional funding is approved, they will not delay. with the provision of military support for kyiv. we will ask our pentagon correspondent ostap yaresh for more details. hello ostap. greetings maria. ostapa, if the aid is approved, how quickly will the us defense minister be able to form a new package of weapons for the armed forces and send it to ukraine. you know, they say to the pentagon that it is already true are working on potential new packages and are looking forward to the vote, which should take place as early as saturday. they say that they are keeping their fingers crossed, they hope that the house of representatives and the senate will still pass. not funding, how soon will the first deliveries of military packages to ukraine be possible in this case, they say in the pentagon that in fact it can be in a matter of days, as it was before, and we know that in the pentagon maria, in principle, they already have worked out logistics and sent these packages, it is necessary

funding was now available to form these packages. there is also the question of what this potential package of military aid from the pentagon might include in this case, and they are not running ahead here, but they say that... they will definitely focus on the most necessary, which is primarily ammunition for artillery, as well as air defense equipment. the question of maria also arises, whether this package in case of approval of aid, whether it will be larger, whether it will be more voluminous in order to compensate for this six-year absence of any aid from the united states. we don't have any answers yet, i think we'll keep an eye on it, but let's listen now to pentagon spokesman pat ryder's response to how they're going to work there. and funding congress and form this. if additional funding is approved, we are ready to respond quickly by releasing a package of security assistance from us warehouses. as you know, we have a strong logistics network that allows us to move equipment

very quickly. we can deliver it within a few days as we have done in the past. with for security reasons, i cannot share the details of what this aid package might be. i will only say that it would, of course, include such important things as anti-aircraft defense and artillery. in fact, ostape has already included a call to the white house to provide ukraine with long-range atakams missiles in this new bill. are the pentagon ready to provide such capabilities? indeed, maria, there is such an appeal to president biden to provide ukraine with a deleco that differs in the range of actions from the previous ones that ukraine received. timeri this call, he does not oblige the white house to act - either a recommendation or a very persistent, let's say , congressional recommendation. of course, the final decision will depend on the white house and the point i had a chance to ask pat ryder yesterday about whether or not they are considering such long-range capabilities? pat ryder replied that he would not run ahead of future packages, but

emphasized that nothing is excluded from the intelligence, potentially the white house may decide to provide ukraine with such missiles, again everything will depend on the potential ones. as much as i i understand, things are progressing well, they are at an advanced stage of training, i can’t... on another question, on the training of ukrainian pilots on the f-16 in arizona, of course, we are also monitoring this, maria, well then, does it affect is there a delay in funding for these studies in congress? this is an important issue, you really know too... it was said yesterday in the pentagon that this delay in funding does not affect the training of ukrainian pilots, as we just

heard, this training is on schedule, when the ukrainian pilots will be able to to finish this training, specific terms are not mentioned yet, again for security reasons, however, we remember that earlier they said that it could take six months, maybe longer than 7-8 months, we can consider that in this case, if everything goes according to plan, around the end of spring, we are watching it carefully, and... again, they say in the pentagon that, as in other countries, in european countries, and in the united states, ukrainian pilots are showing good skills are being learned on the f-16, and will be able to finish this training soon, we for our part, we are also monitoring this, maria, how the pilots undergo these trainings, we will definitely share information if we have more information from the pentagon or from the verizon base where ukrainian pilots undergo these trainings. thank you, ostap, i will remind you that ostap yarysh told us about how quickly the pentagon from... can provide military aid to kyiv after approval by the congress.

download the voice of america mobile application. the application allows you to bypass blocking automatically thanks to the built-in vpn service. read the news, watch informative programs and videos, as well as listen to podcasts of the ukrainian voice of america service. this year, ukraine. received 36 points out of a possible 100 in the corruption perception index for 2023. the growth of three points was one of the best results for the past year in the world. for a country in which a war is going on, this is an unusually good indicator, experts say. in more detail about how to overcome corruption in the defense sector in ukraine, we will talk with olena trigup, executive director of the independent anti-corruption commission, which works to reduce the level corruption in areas important for the national security of ukraine. i congratulate you, olena. good day. olena, in this new draft law on aid to ukraine, which will be considered by the congress tomorrow, there is a provision for strengthening supervision over

the aid provided, in particular military aid. how do ukraine and the united states cooperate in this and how will it happen? we can say that even before this draft law we are already seeing increased cooperation, the new leadership of the ministry of defense recently signed a memorandum with the inspector general pentagon by robert storch. about the deepening of cooperation, you know that the us is trying, well , according to my data, this process has not yet been completed, but to implement a digital system for monitoring military aid, which is called the abbreviation measure, this should be carried out by an american contractor, to build this system, where it will be based on the blockchain there by barcodes to track what moves where, because the problem with... of course this strengthening is that america has a limit on how many

american specialists it can allocate for of ukraine on the territory of ukraine, there are restrictions on these specialists even in the embassy, ​​not to mention the territory of hostilities, which is dangerous, so they are trying to strengthen it thanks to digital technologies, well, actually , regarding these digital technologies, digital technologies, as we... know , such fish always carry cyber security risks, and this information in fact, it is very sensitive about the movement of this equipment, to what extent do you see any risks in this regarding possible russian cyber attacks and the leakage of this data? er, of course, it's very sensitive, i think because of that and there is this delay that it is not so fast to build this system, protected, and on the other hand, you know that the ukrainian delta system is very successfully operating in ukraine, it is a management system. battlefield, and there was a lot of misinformation that the russians had hacked it, but it never happened.

moreover, ukraine was given access to the logistics system of nativska lokfas, which is also quite secure. but of course, well, i think the problem there will be not only building a strong system, but also who will have access to that system, because... america also needs to make sure that those people in the us who have this access are people who cannot be, let's say, the ones through whom the leak of information will happen, because it has happened more than once in the us. and here there is also a problem with the trust between ukraine and the usa, but ukraine is fully trying to open up, and you know that robert storsh stated that 50 criminal proceedings have already been opened with the help of the usa, that is , in general, on these 113 billion allocated through the pentagon, through the state department,

through the development agency, and if you look at these proceedings, it is, shall we say, grassroots like that corruption, there are incomplete declarations of cargoes through poland, or there are poor-quality goods, lack of goods, that is, it is not political corruption, so here we just have to say that the mechanisms should be strengthened, but we see the political will at the level of the leadership of ukraine, and we see that there are no major corruption scandals in the defense industry at all and there is no data when weapons sent to ukraine ended up not there, but abroad. well, actually, recently. the world street journal published an article in which it is written that there are doubts whether it will be enough do ukraine have the resources to implement the necessary anti-corruption reforms, are these resources available and is there actually the political will to go all the way through these reforms? i can definitely see the political will, many changes have taken place since last year, because society put pressure on the government, and for those

expensive eggs, as you remember, minister reznikov paid with his position, and a lot was introduced. new mechanisms, one of them is the anti-corruption council of the ministry of defense, i am a member there at the moment, i was elected as one of 15 representatives by the citizens of ukraine through the nacp portal, and now we have the term of office ends in april, and citizens will elect new people, this body has demonstrated its effectiveness during the year, because we noticed a lot of interesting episodes, when even on the issue. for example, we wrote complaints to the supply of projectiles, and then you saw it in the press, when the director of the department and the deputy minister were arrested, and this all happened with the assistance of the current leadership of the ministry of defense, so i am talking about political will. moreover, two new agencies have been launched, one for tylovoi security, dot, headed by arsen

jumadilov, and another for weapons, headed by marina bezrukova. both of these agencies will have. supervisory boards, and we hope that they will solve the problems of corruption, because this is a nato mechanism, when procurement is separated from the ministry, and this is now happening in ukraine during the hot phase of the war. we now see, also in zmi constantly write about new criminal cases regarding the investigation of corruption in the armed forces, this corruption is really unknown, but in your opinion, does this mean that ukraine may appear finally here is this institute. tatations, about which activists talk so much, so that these people do not move from one place to another to work and do the same things there, but to really close access for people who have compromised themselves, of course, now zhumedilov's new agency is trying to do this, as it turned out that there are companies that supplied the ministry of defense with food for a very long time even before the war, for example, tetyana

glynyana's company, which actually supplied these expensive eggs and discovered a number of hotels. in croatia bought by her, because it is very much earned on these foods, and the problem is that such unscrupulous suppliers in ukraine, they have to leave the ministry of defense, and this is a long process, because sometimes there is no replacement for them, and now there is such a practice of creating some kind of gray lists there, when the previous contracts were broken , no longer supply. don't take these suppliers on open tenders, that's why it happens, you just have to understand that this dishonesty and corruption, it exists not only on the part of officials, but also on the part of the private sector, and it's really, well, the question is what the institution of reputation, it works better now, because the tolerance for such things during the war is much worse, and glynyana worked without

any problems, and hrynkevich worked without any problems. before the war, but you see, when the war, the society just exploded with indignation, so i hope it really changes the situation. and one last question about private companies, you have repeatedly, repeatedly criticized the inconsistency of the united states and european sanctions against the russian military-industrial complex. we know that both in rockets and in airplanes, how both russia and north korea's missiles, which north korea supplies to russia, constantly find these components from european companies and from companies in the united states. what should be done to solve this issue so that this does not happen? er, it is necessary to develop a different sanctions policy and different export control than is currently in place, because the way it is now er... this sanctions system works allows both russia and iran to build their equipment with western electronics with american companies, which even

increased sales to russia in the last year of a full-scale invasion. of course, these sales do not go directly to russia, but through third countries, through companies, intermediaries, but unfortunately, no one has been able to stop it yet, and it should be done at a higher level, because i see. that the companies themselves are not able to control where their goods go, and they need help from the state, they also need this, maybe a negative incentive, punishment, criminalization, avoidance of sanctions, in order to take it more seriously. thank you, elena. i will remind you that this was a conversation with olena trygub, executive director of the independent anti-corruption commission, which investigates corruption in the sphere of national affairs. safety, friends, we will say goodbye on this, read breaking news and analytical materials on the website of voice of america in ukraine, watch live broadcasts, full versions of interviews and stories

on our youtube channel, and of course, subscribe to our social networks to always be informed in actual and true news. see also our briefings from monday to friday at 18, where you live you can ask your questions on the air. good night, good morning, see you soon. there are discounts on eurofast softcaps of 10% in the psarynsky, pam and oskad pharmacies. exclusively on the air of our channel. congratulations, friends,

politklub is on the air on the espresso tv channel. the most relevant topics of the week: russia's war against ukraine, the war in the middle east, the crisis on the border between ukraine and poland. topics that resonate in our society. drone attack on kyiv and other cities of ukraine, drone attack on moscow and other russian cities. analysis of changing processes the country and each of us. the country should get the right to start negotiations on joining the eu. vitaly portnikov and guests of the project: we are bored because there is nothing to fight about. let's invent, help to understand the present and predict the future. for the world, a second trump presidency will be terrifying. a project for everyone. and thinking. political club. every sunday at 20:10 at espresso.

an unusual look at the news. good health, ladies and gentlemen, my name is mykola veresen. sharp presentation of facts and competent opinions. and in america they also say let us have better roads , we will have even better ones. a special look at the events in ukraine, there will be some katsaps on the border of kyiv and beyond. what kind of world is he dreaming of, pa- norman, can we imagine it? all this in an informational marathon with mykola veresny, saturday 17:10, sunday 18:15 at espresso. glory to ukraine, this is the verdict program. my name is serhiy rudenko, i greet everyone and wish everyone good health. for the next two hours, we will talk about ukraine and the world. about the war and about our victory, today in the program. vendetta for the dnipro. air force destroyed a russian strategic bomber in the air for the first time. will it prevent

missile terror? mobilization of european air defense. scholz found seven free patriot systems in europe. it remains to persuade the owners to give them to ukraine. complaints of good russians. believes that ukraine underestimates the russian opposition, whether passive resistance will help overthrow the putin regime. for the next hour, we will talk about this and other things with our guests, servicemen of the armed forces of ukraine yehor firsy, journalist roman tsympaluk and the chairman of the board of the institute of world politics by viktor shlinchak. in the second part of our program, which will start in an hour, there will be a journalism club with the participation of my colleagues kateryna nekrecha and yanina sokolova. however, before starting our big conversation, i suggest watching the video of the aftermath of the night attack

by russian terrorists. in the dnipropetrovsk region , forgive me , the regional center, kryvyi rih and senelnikivsky district were under the sights of the aggressor, seven people, unfortunately, died, another 35 were injured, let's see the consequences of the missile attack on dnipro ok, i woke up, i didn't hear the sound of the siren, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, everything will be fine , i woke up expecting an explosion, grabbed the cat, put it in the carrier and left, ran out of the house, my apartment is now behind your back,

i look my daughter's hand was almost taken off, some kind of nightmare, i've lived most of my life, i've never seen such horror. friends, we are working live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms, for those who are currently watching us.

live there please vote in our the survey that we are conducting today throughout our broadcast, it sounds like this: do you consider putin to be the legitimate president of russia? yes, no, please vote with the appropriate buttons, or write your answer under this video. if you watch us on tv, grab your smartphone or phone and vote if you think putin is the legitimate president of russia (0800-211-371) 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 want to introduce today, our first guest is yehor firsov, a serviceman of the 109th battalion of the armed forces of ukraine, a sergeant of the rotiudar drones, a people's deputy of ukraine of previous convocations. mr. sergeant, i welcome you, thank you for being with us today. i congratulate you, as always i wish everyone good health.

thank you, mr. yehor. okay, let's start our conversation with the downing of the tu-22 m3 plane, this night one of the planes, a strategic bomber that was striking on the territory of ukraine, was shot down, and over the russian territory in stavropol the edge, it fell, the russians say that it was apparently a technical malfunction, but the representative of the main intelligence department of the ministry of defense andriy yusov on the air... radio svoboda said that it was a special operation of the main intelligence department of interaction with the air forces, let's listen , what andriy yusav said, an enemy strategic aviation aircraft was destroyed, for the first time during a combat mission, actually in the air during the period of a full-scale invasion, and destroyed during a combat mission, that is, another ... aircraft that was following

him, was forced to turn around, and this means that a number of rockets were not fired over ukraine. in general, the operation was a certain repetition, taking into account, of course, the gurmo operation to shoot down the a50 plane, which took place recently. yes, the distance is even greater this time. we will remind that we are talking about a distance of about 300 km from. ukrainian border, this is truly a landmark operation and a landmark result for ukraine. mr. yehor, this operation, which was carried out by gurmo together with the air force, shows that in ukraine is getting more opportunities to hit planes at such a distance, or the ukrainians are starting to adapt the weapons they have, they have, in order to deliver such strikes, then...