Transcripts For ESPRESO 20240704

Freedom live. My name is sashko shevchenko. We begin. Belgorod came under fire three times today. Two people died, 17 were injured. This was announced by the Regional Governor vyacheslav gladkov. According to him, over belgorod and the belgorod district, i quote. The air Defense System worked. Eight air targets on the approach to the city were shot down. End of quote. Gladkov also reported that the driver of the car, which. Was hit by a projectile, was allegedly killed. This morning, representatives of the Russian Volunteer corps are on their second day successively called on residents of the belgorod and kursk regions of the Russian Federation to immediately evacuate or take shelter, as the red cross announced strikes on military targets on the territory of the Russian Federation. Later, the freedom of russia legion of freedom of russia published footage, which, they claim, shows the moments of strikes on allegedly two ammunition warehouses in the village of tetkine , blhorod region. Region rfe rl cannot confirm the authenticity of these footage at this time. Russian freedom legion volunteer Oleksiy Baranovsky this morning reported, i quote the situation is tense in the kursk region, and fighting continues in the Belgorod Region, the liberation operation has been going on for three days and will continue. The governor of the kursk region of the Russian Federation, roman starovoyt, said that the ukrainian drg tried to enter the area of ​​tyotkino today, and the Russian Guard said that they were allegedly fighting near the village. Attack, quoting ukrainian saboteurs. Next, shots of the consequences of the shelling of belgorod. Damn, damn, damn, damn, in front of me. That the car exploded on this very thing, i was shelled with hail again, just look okay i ran to help people, just immediately from the other side, the same story, look at what is happening , look at the umantulev pit, the glass of the car flew out. I would like to remind you that citizens of the Russian Federation are fighting in the rdk and the legion of freedom of russia, among whom there are former soldiers of the russian army, as well as exemployees of the fsb and the ministry of internal affairs. There are also former activists of extreme rightwing russian nationalist groups who were disillusioned with the ideas of the socalled russian world. Well , ukrainian intelligence previously reported that the actions of volunteer groups on the territory of the Russian Federation is not coordinated by ukraine. Next, we talk about how far into. The territory, the territory of the Russian Federation can go Russian Volunteers, who, let me remind you, set themselves the goal, the goal, quote, the liberation of the kursk and Belgorod Regions of the Russian Federation. Oleksandr musienko, head of the center for military legal research, is in touch with us. Good evening. Good evening. Well, lets remember, actually, that the hostilities on the territory of the Border Regions of the Russian Federation have been going on for the third day in a row, and as the legion of freedom of russia stated, their fighters even allegedly spent the night in the Russian Federation yesterday, but. That is, they did not leave the territory of the Russian Federation, as they say, how then can these actions of volunteers be characterized, they are after all raids when they enter and leave, are they trying to gain a foothold there and possibly advance, rather everything will try to gain a foothold, at least such a goal has been declared, then they will already show how favorable or unfavorable the conditions will be for them to do this, that is, in order to do this, it is necessary to build up forces, to add weapons, support. Which will enter into the ranks of these organizations and advance further, i would still think that the purpose of these actions, it is less military, it is also political. Informative in these components, which is actually very important, because on the one hand , the same citizens of russia want to show other citizens of russia that they have crossed the border, that they are so, to declare themselves, to agitate to join them and move on, and this is important, on the other hand, to demonstrate to other organizations, which i think also exist in russia, and which are thinking about getting together, taking up arms. And trying to act certain actions against the russian authorities due to the fact that it is impossible to achieve this by other democratic means, and of course, from a Military Point of view, this is something that can be stated, it can be a way of diverting the attention of some russian units and groups from the fact that is happening at the front, although in principle the front now has its own history, there are events there. The regions do not have much influence on it, well , after all, this is not the first such raid during more than two years of fullscale invasion of the Russian Federation, and the previous attempts, they ended those that none of the formations was taken under the control of any russian territory, do you think that now it can be somehow different, or as you said, can someone join this Armed Struggle in russia . Of course, i think the goal is to get involved, the goal is to show. Scale is absolutely correct, from this point of view these volunteers are acting quite logically, thoughtfully and correctly, because first of all, in this way they can expand the number of their supporters who will volunteer to join them, because they will see again and make sure that they are not afraid and are ready to act, and in principle, when we talk about bilhorod or, for example , kursk, you understand, there are certain groups there. Who are supposed to cover the border, but only some left, and some remained in principle, and in order to take belgorod, it is obviously necessary to do it with battles, and here the question is how much strength and means will be enough to do it and push out the russian contingents, because its not just that troops are needed for this, somewhere probably in the summer of 23 it was even easier to do, because then the border. Was practically uncovered, and there were even fewer troops on the border of the Belgorod Region with ukraine, with the kharkiv region, for example, but now it is more difficult, because certain defensive structures have appeared, minefields have appeared in some places, that is, russia was strengthening the border section , but at the same time the rebels managed to break through, and it will generally be interesting to watch the situation, how it can gain momentum. But they need regular support for it to spread and so they can move on. And do you think that the situation will gain momentum, based on what is now visible in public information, do we see that it is possible to advance, to bypass these obstacles and resistance that you mentioned, and should we expect that everything will these volunteer forces advance . I think that this cannot be ruled out for sure, that is, it is all possible, and i would not. Rule it out, how much longer such an operation can last, we just really record that for the third day in a row, the rdk are entering, entering and the legion of freedom of russia, the siberian battalion, but how long can this last, we also have, by the way, can we now show the map provided by the personnel of the destruction of equipment from the ministry of defense of the Russian Federation, and how long can such an operation last . It all depends on the level of, lets say , the support force and the means that are available, and on the resistance of the enemy, its really difficult to predict here, because it can last if the normal forces are provided for a few more days, well, i think thats the plan, at least until march 17 before the socalled elections in russia, that is, until tomorrow, because indeed, many people noticed such a coincidence that this raid began on the eve of the event. A certain part of the voting is already taking place , but the main days are tomorrow, well , march 1517, well, i think that somewhere before that there are also political demands and thus demonstrations, that this is participation in the election process, well, but in general it is necessary to say that in general the Belgorod Region was suitable for attacking the Russian Troops in the occupied Luhansk Region very strongly in the summer, and even while our. Counteroffensive on kharkiv oblast, simply no one dared then and the russian rebels did not have such forces at that time, and did not attack, and ukrainian troops did not directly cross the border with. Now something has become more difficult, but at the same time we still see that it is possible, and what does it mean . This means that russia obviously did not expect this this time. What kind of influence do you expect to have on the actual conduct of the russian president ial elections, or can we state that Many Russians may, well, are now afraid to take part in them, perhaps . Well, there are such thoughts, because there are warnings that terrorist attacks are possible and. I think that something is happening, because putin wrote an appeal to come to the elections, so he needs to convince the russians to go, even though they should already be motivated and convinced, well, i think that even when we are talking about belgorod or kursk, it seems to me that someone may be afraid to go to public places, i think that it is not excluded, well , this applies primarily to the Border Regions with ukraine. In russia after all, and i dont think that it will significantly affect the turnout. In your opinion, what role can any command of the armed forces of ukraine play in these raids, or is military intelligence possible . I would like to remind you that gur officially declares that the actions of rdk and other Russian Volunteers on the territory of the Russian Federation are completely independent and not coordinated in any way, but can it be assumed that they are sharing some intelligence information, or is it still possible. Is there any help from the side of ukraine . I think that the help could have been provided in ukraine, that is, they passed here training, they fought here, they went through training, combat training here, this is already a certain help, obviously they could get certain weapons, i think that the help is the same in this, that is, it is normal when you try to destabilize the enemy using various methods. And including such methods, when there is an opposition that is in principle against putin and that is against the war against ukraine, why not provide them with some assistance from the point of view of direct support here. As for actions in russia . I think its true that they operate basically on their own now, and these rebels, because right away it is also unknown how the western partners would react if ukraine. Actively intervened directly in these very actions and battles on the territory of russia, but the authorities of the Belgorod Region and the russian telegram channels themselves reported that there were casualties as a result of todays of the shelling of belgorod, there is a video that a projectile allegedly hit a car and thus killed the driver, if this is true, what was the reason, because those who announced the strikes were talking about strikes on military facilities, well. Very hard to say from this video, where did it come from, and its very difficult to understand whether it was shot down by air defense or not, so im not going to, lets say , responsibly talk about it now, based on this video, regarding, lets say, reports that were about evacuation , they were from the rebels, they were warned that they had to evacuate because there would be strikes, that is, these warnings were. They were probably clear to everyone, maybe someone thought that this would not happen, and it was some kind of joke or exaggeration, well, we saw that it was not an exaggeration. As for the military objects, in fact it often happens that russia fires, for example, kharkiv from the territory of belgorod. In principle, the s300 installation is actually installed in the city itself. And accordingly, they need to be hit with something, they need to be hit. Ago. Hostilities continue and in the very place with all the consequences that may come from it. Mr. Oleksandr, finally i want to ask you, we have one more moment, your assessment of what is happening in the avdiiv direction. According to british intelligence, the intensity of the attacks is alleged decreased, they believe, they calculate that it decreased by 13 , if compared with the end of february 24th, but still , it seems that these attacks are quite serious, the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine also spoke about this in todays summary, and what to expect should continue in this direction, well, this is one of the largest directions, now novopavlivskyi and avdiivskyi are the leaders in terms of the number of enemy attacks, then there are attacks at the time of the ivars, i think that in the near future we will see, lets say, a narrowing of the enemys offensive actions, and sooner than all Russian Troops will, well, be determined finally, where will be the direction of the main blow and concentrate your forces there. I do not rule out that this could be the avdiiv direction, although in principle i do not think so, or the direction of chasivyar or the direction of ugledar, ugledar kurakhove, these are the three directions, they are now the hottest, where the greatest intensity of enemy attacks is recorded, and at first they will narrow to two directions somewhere, and then possibly to one. In the near future we will see and understand what direction this may be. Rfe rl has its own correspondents in the immediate vicinity front line, and therefore we will promptly and in detail inform our viewers about what is happening on the front. Thank you very much for joining our broadcast, commenting on the latest military events, and being in touch with us. Oleksandr musienko, head of the center for military legal research. Oleksiy danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of ukraine, supported the raid of Russian Volunteers in the Belgorod Region of russia. He also stated that the president ial elections in russia scheduled for march 1517 are not democratic and that kyiv also does not recognize voting in the territories of ukraine occupied by russia. Lets listen. There have been no elections in russia for a long, long time. And this is a question not only for us, because of course we are not going to admit anything, because it is a terrorist country, but it is another matter that all the countries of the civilized world should do this, here is a big question, here is a big question, what will we live to see during the period when these institutions built after the Second World War lived in one coordinate system, and now this entire coordinate system has already changed after the end of the cold war. They didnt build a new one, and this political prostitution that is present in the un, because i dont understand how a terrorist country can be, lets say, in the security council, what is it doing there, well, these are people who kill children , well, they just dont shake hands, no country in the world should have any conversation with him, and this is a tragedy, a tragedy called fright, if you were frightened, you lost in advance. I once said that if you are afraid of a dog, it will definitely bite you, you dont need anyone in your life to be afraid, as for the farce they are going to do in the temporarily occupied territories, we are quite calm about this process, we usually take certain measures if possible, we are not going to admit anything, we do not know that they are there they invented for themselves how a person who has. A passport, a citizen of ukraine , takes part in the elections of this crazy person, well, i cant even find words like this, how how how how how to define it, well, otherwise like in fools, lets say, the chief doctor is chosen, lets say patients, i cant name it, well, that s how it turns out, and what concerns the russians, you know, there is a discussion here that there are good russians, there are very good russians. Look, good russians are at the front, here is our boss, today they are in the kursk region, here is the Belgorod Region, some of them are intelligentsia, they are behind the cardboard, these are people with whom you can at least talk about something. The draft law on mobilization can be brought to the session hall for voting in the second reading in the near future several weeks about this with reference to the top representative of the servant of the people, reports the publication nv. Meanwhile, the Specialized Committee continues to work on the text of the document, to which more than 4,000 amendments were made and submitted. Among other things, the representative of the servant of the people , Oleksandr Fedienko , announced on the air of the single news marathon that the committee of the Verkhovna Rada rejected the rule on blocking the accounts of the evaders, and the rule on restrictions on driving vehicles was left. In the meantime , the government of slovakia proposes to discuss the idea of ​​returning ukrainian men of military age to their homeland, according to the countrys defense minister, this would be the best help to ukraine. Instead of sending nato troops to ukraine, we should think better about the fact that some of the ukrainian refugees that we have sheltered and will provide with housing, work, etc. , are a group of people who are subject to ukrainian legislation on. Military service , and i believe that this would be the greatest help to the ukrainian army, to have a sufficient number of people who can serve, they are proud enough, so we would have these 300,000 young men capable of serving in the ukrainian army, provide them with the necessary means so that they have the motivation to go and defend their country. Can slovakia really deport ukrainian men of conscription age and. Will such steps really help ukraine to defend itself . We will talk about this later. Live with us is iryna friz, peoples deputy of ukraine from european solidarity, member of the committee on National Security, defense and intelligence. Good evening. Good evening well, lets start actually from the slovak ministers statement, how can you comment on it, and here he says that the best way to help ukraine would be to return people who can join the army. Well, this is the opinion of the slovak minister of defense, i can say about what is currently being considered in the bill on mobilization. Yes, indeed, on the initiative of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is a proposal to introduce restrictions on the provision of Consular Services. From my point of view it absolutely is. On faulty logic, because, firstly, there is no clear and effective mechanism that can be applied for of this in order to fulfill it. What does it consist of . Well, first of all, International Law does not provide for any mechanisms for the deportation of conscripted citizens to their countries during mobilization. Therefore, it will be extremely difficult to do this in different countries. For example, germany has already said that it will not comply. The second, second question is that before proposing this idea, the ministry of Foreign Affairs should not only analyze the consequences, which by and large will more likely cause emigration from the country to the country of temporary stay, because it will be considered as aggressive, unfriendly step of their state towards them. In addition, i am sure that the ministry of Foreign Affairs probably did not analyze what expenses need to be laid in addition, because the introduction of military accounting will fall directly on the shoulders of employees of the consular network, and therefore, accordingly, a separate position is needed and the opportunity to carry out all the relevant these accounting things, so i believe that the ministry of Foreign Affairs in this case offered legislators a kind of ineffective horror film, which. Already had a sufficiently negative attitude towards it, and therefore, it is false from beginning to end. Mrs. Irina, was this rule actually discussed at the committee, specifically about the ban on Consular Services for men abroad, and is it possible that this amendment will not be put to a vote . No, this amendment has not yet been reached, but this direction has been discussed and it has caused mixed feelings among members. The committee, in particular , the votes were divided in half in this direction, that is, we did not support this idea of ​​the mfa at the committee, and now, during the consideration of the amendments, we will be determined finally in the committees decision. Well, i had to talk to slovak observers about how slovakia reacts to such a proposal from their government, and the political observers i talked to say that there really is no such mechanism for expelling men, but the situation can change. If kyiv made such an official request, and here it is possible that what is meant is that the government of slovakia can try, well , to apply such political will here and it is possible to do so in violation of some legal norms, should kyiv think about it, why am i asking , because the authorities of ukraine have repeatedly said that it would be fair for those men, at least those who may have illegally left ukraine, to return. For those who returned illegally, for those who left illegally, it is indeed possible to apply the administrative code of judicial proceedings, which is currently in force, it can be increased in the form of fines, etc. , but from another point of view , i am almost sure that a similar rule regarding the restriction of the provision Consular Services for ukrainians abroad is quite wrong, because in such way of participation of god. Fathers of ukrainians abroad will be reduced, including in any measures to support our state, from my point of view, the authorities should change their information policy and send advances to victories or victorious counterattacks, and do everything to ensure that the issue of mobilization is information under the policy of the authorities has been significantly strengthened, because now, proposing only coercive measures, we will not. Achieve that, apart from the fact that we will cause resistance and rejection in society, therefore, instead of coercive measures, here you know, such innovations and novelties that the government brought us, it was desirable, first, to change the information policy, so that the connection in society, unity in society really corresponded to the need for mobilization of mobilization reserves. I have to say that Radio Liberty appealed to the representatives of the servant of the people, invited them to our airwaves today to discuss the possibility, and actually how the draft law on mobilization and that is being discussed. In what way it would be possible to motivate men both inside and outside of ukraine border, and in particular women conscripted to join the ranks of the armed forces, however, the representatives of the servant of the people were unable to join our airwaves today, and Radio Liberty is still waiting for them at a time when it is convenient for them to provide opportunity for the authorities to argue their position, lets talk. Actually about the government bill, you are talking about the fact that it is not necessary to talk about coercion, but are there any mechanisms left at all to encourage ukrainian men living abroad to still stand up for military service account, return to ukraine, or is it not possible at all . You know, there is a whole list of motivational factors that it would be desirable for the authorities to apply, starting with the financial component and ending with other privileges that the state. Would be able to provide to all those who are ready to take up arms and join the ranks of the armed forces. On the other hand , you and i see that the situation with mobilization, it has turned into, you know, such a creeping sabotage in the question of mobilization, because remember the 22nd year, the month of february, march, april, when men returned on their own from abroad and joined the lavz. Began to defend the state, and now we see the situation against the background of corruption scandals, against the background of the illegal actions of the tekashniks, such a negative image of ukrainians is enough, which is distorted in the context of the fact that ukrainians do not want to defend their state, and this narrative is very qualitatively used by the Russian Federation in information war against ukraine, so it is necessary to stop here, to establish information. This policy and to remember that mobilization requires the unity and mobilization of all without excluding resources, not it can be said that due to the coercion of the human antihuman resource , the mobilization factor can somehow be improved. Mobilization is the unity of all, without excluding spheres and branches of the state, starting from people and ending with defense and economy, so it is worth adjusting. In order not only to find in some way, well, that is, not only to find coercive mechanisms for mobilization and the formation of a mobilization reserve, first of all to know in what way the people who will be mobilized receive professional training, in what way the already mobilized conscripts, will be provided not only with uniforms or food products, primarily with weapons and ammunition, and if there is no answer to this, the economic factor does not exist in the question of mobilization, then applying mobilization compulsions to people from my point of view is false logic, yet mobilization is a key factor in winning this war, but mobilization must involve all the resources of the state, not just the mobilization of people. Of course, i just want to also remind you that Radio Liberty covered how, in particular and, lets say, both the positive and negative sides of trying to change the recruiting process itself, some combat units started their own recruiting centers in order to really mobilize effectively, and those who mobilized had completeness of information, and their skills were applied to the maximum effect. Mrs. Iryna, the last question, i ask you to answer briefly, when do you think the draft law can be brought to the session hall . You know, if there was a political will in the monomajority, this one the bill could by the end of march already. Get to the session hall, if there is a direct desire to consider it aloud in the session hall, then this is not an obstacle, that is , the committee does not inhibit this issue, i want to emphasize, the issue is that it seems , just as the representatives of the authorities do not want to comment on this draft law, seeing in it image risks for their own ratings, i do not rule out that this, you know, somewhat slow situation with preparations is connected with this. It until the second reading, unlike the first, then the turbo mode was turned on and without of any discussion, they simply pressed the buttons and immediately voted. Now it is clear that many norms need to be revised and reconsidered and in the form in which those adopted in the First Reading are not possible until the second reading, so this period takes time, but here everything depends on the political will of the authorities, of course, thank you very much for joining our air, commented on everything that happens on