by oleksandr syrskyi. among other things, they discussed the situation on the battlefield and further efforts to support ukraine. before that, in a press conference , general charles brown said that the pentagon no longer considers providing ukraine with long-range atakams missiles a risky step. kyiv has long been calling on washington to provide more such missiles to protect against russian aggression, however, it is currently known about the transfer of only a small batch of modified ones last year. meanwhile , the us ambassador in kyiv, bridget brink, once again... emphasized: ukraine urgently needs aid of the united states. the diplomat said this against the background of another russian missile attack on ukrainian cities. russia's barbaric attempts to deprive millions of men, women and children of electricity continue unchecked. our help is needed right now - said bridget brink. in turn, ukraine's ambassador to the un, serhiy kyslytsia, also responded to the russian shelling by addressing the american media. good morning, how was your night, checking the sky and the forecast? the weather,

he wrote. don't worry, today is changing cloudy, but no precipitation. but what about the precipitation over ukraine on march 29? russia continues to bombard ukrainians with lethal weapons during another massive attack last night, wrote serhiy kyslytsia. on the anniversary of the arrest in russia of the american journalist evan hershkovich, joe biden said that russia will pay the price for the wrongful arrest of american citizens. the united states will resolutely oppose all those who come here. attacks on journalists, who are the backbone of a free society - said the president. in turn, white house spokeswoman karin janr added: "journalism is not a crime. from the us they will work to release americans who are illegally in russian prisons. they have not provided any real justification for getting him. it is because he has done nothing wrong. journalism is not a crime. i want repeat again.

journalism is not a crime. this administration will continue to work every day to free him. we will continue to oppose russia's attempts to use americans as bargaining chips. and we will continue to resolutely oppose anyone who tries to attack the press or make journalists a target. to evan, paul whelan, and all americans held captive or illegally detained abroad, keep the faith, we are with you and we will not stop working to bring you home. on this day 20 years ago, seven countries joined nato at once, including the baltic countries. at the ceremony on the occasion of this anniversary, the lithuanian president said that it is now the duty of the allies of the alliance to ensure that ukraine wins. this week, the foreign ministers of lithuania, latvia and estonia were in washington, where they once again called to strengthen efforts to support kyiv. our colleague from the georgian branch of the voice of america, yaka magaldadze, spoke with... the minister

of foreign affairs of estonia, about whether he received assurances that the united states will continue to support ukraine until victory? congress approved $228 million in defense aid funding for estonia, latvia and lithuania this year. where will this funding go and how concerned are you about your own safety right now? transatlantic relations. are of crucial importance for us: the usa is many invested in our defense and security as well as the economy. it is very important now that we have increased defense spending to 3.2% of gdp. we increased taxes for the population, but our society supports it because we know the situation in our region. we already knew that russia is an aggressive country, all the witnesses of what is happening in ukraine, and the aggression may not end there. war may come... to europe and our lands, so these

funds are needed for our defense. a large part of this money will go to industry and the us economy because we buy a lot of consumables, weapons and ammunition from the us. of course, we are preparing for containment. in order not to happen in the future, and i hope that this will not happen, russia will test nato. and we are there, we have lived there for several thousand years and we are not afraid, but we need support, and the war in... ukraine has shown that this is a common cause that we should take care of. after the trip, what are your views on the bill on additional funding for ukraine from the us, which is stuck in congress today? secretary of state blinken noted that he hopes the aid package moves forward. we hope that this decision will be made after the recess of the congress. this will be crucial. this is not only a question

of money, very important money for ukraine, but it is also a question of leadership. the us has to take the lead, it's also an image issue because everyone is asking the us, where are you? in fact, we really need this leadership, because i really hope that the funding for ukraine will soon pass in congress. the aid package for ukraine is 61 billion dollars approximately 0.25% of us gdp. that's good because it won't hurt the economy, and another 0.25% or so of gdp one day out of the year for the us. this is not too big an investment in our peace. recently, news appeared in the media that supposedly high-ranking american officials warned ukrainians against attacks on russian energy infrastructure. at the same time, the rhetoric with which some leaders in the west talk about the war in ukraine is changing, emphasizing the end of the war, not the victory of ukraine. do you see

the political will to support ukraine in the war? to victory? fortunately, there are no realistic processes. that someone would try to start in order to negotiate without ukraine. only ukraine can say when and under what conditions peace can come. ukrainians are fighting for hell, because they are not only fighting for territories, it is a struggle for survival, because putin does not want peace, he wants to destroy the entire people, the entire country, so this is a decisive struggle. we must also understand that any ideas or initiatives without ukraine are a trap. of course, putin needs such initiatives. to show the whole world that he is strong and we weak starting such processes is a trap. we saw what happened in 2014 during the minsk agreements. back then we all said it was good to have a truce, but what it really was was just time for putin to prepare for

another aggression, and this time it will be the same. so we need to end this war. we need to define a goal, not for ukraine, but for all of us as well. we need to win. we don't say it clearly enough, we have to say what winning this war is. territories are important, but they are not the only issue territories, it is also a matter of restoration of international law. we call on the entire democratic world to form a tribunal on the crimes of aggression and the crimes of the russian leadership. this war cannot be ended simply by a truce. we must do this, take away the will to aggression from putin and russia. during your visit to washington, you were often asked the question, what will happen if ukraine loses, what does such rhetoric mean to you? no, we are not preparing for plan b, because we have to invest all our strength in plan a, the most important

thing is that the people of ukraine have the will to fight. for us, the plan is very simple, very simple to give ukraine what they are asking for, they are not asking for soldiers to... come with our boys and troops to fight russia, they are asking for ammunition, they need weapons, they need money, we have everything it is, we constantly just explain to our partners that the main thing is that they should not be afraid, we always hear about escalation, maybe there will be an escalation, but my question is, if there is no escalation now, then what is an escalation? is putin threatening to use nuclear weapons? i don't believe it, for the last two years. they gave weapons of a new level, putin threatened escalation, but nothing happened, he kills ukrainians every time we do something new, he violates all the laws and regulations created after the second world war. we have to understand that there is no plan

b. if we all lose together with ukraine, then we all lose. so there is no plan b, no preparation for the worst, but we are investing in plan a. of course, we are... investing a lot in our defense because we understand that russia remains a threat. russia is trying to shift responsibility for moscow suburbs terrorist attack on ukraine. what might this mean in a larger context? we do not know what exactly happened there. of course, everyone feels sorry for the innocent victims, even if... that this happened in russia, maybe putin somehow supported this attack against his own population, this was not the first time that he has no regard for human life in russia, he uses it, to blame ukraine, uses this opportunity to call on the russian population to fight against ukraine,

to fight against anyone who does not agree with him. i think that soon we will see a full one mobilization, because they have now changed what they call aggression, they no longer call it a special operation. they call it a war, if you have a war, then mobilization, they can mobilize about 400 thousand people, but i think putin will not send all of them to ukraine, but will use people to... this was the conversation of our colleague eka magaldadze with the minister of foreign affairs of estonia. you can also read this interview on the website of the ukrainian service of the voice of america. in response to the challenges facing the ukrainian army, in the second year of the war, more and more women enter the ranks of the armed forces of ukraine, and girls decide to study in... military disciplines. myroslava angnadze visited the ivan bohun kyiv military lyceum. she will tell more. for years

, only boys could receive an education at the ivan bohun military lyceum, the alma mater of the country's highest ukrainian military command. however, in recent years, more and more girls have joined this summer school to train and become officers. glory to heroes. in 2019, school. celebrated a joint program for boys and girls, the deputy head of the lyceum, dmytro yarmolenko , says that the involvement of girls contributed to the improvement of the educational process. first, we only had one platoon of female cadets and it was a new experience for us, and now we have over 60 female cadets. they are very intelligent and always ready to solve new problems and new challenges in education. before the war, positions for women in the army were limited. now he says as

troop commanders, as military special forces, paratroopers in many positions. lyceum accepts more and more every year girls, girls and boys here study and train together, competing against each other every day. here is eliza bagniy, who competes with her fellow student in arm wrestling and in the boxing ring. a former athlete, she chose military education. i love ukraine and want to defend it, i want to be a soldier, after my studies i want to leave, i will go to the front. her classmate bohdana ternopykh shows us the girls' rooms, where she learned to keep her things in order. her brother, she says, is fighting on the front lines, and her parents supported her her decision to enter the military lyceum. she wants to serve in her country now that the ukrainian ... year, of course, she has changed

for the better, because before men, well , they didn't really accept women in the army, for example, some woman came, well, who is a signalman there, some kind of cook a driver, and now there are more women, snipers, gunners, and tankers, and in general, a woman can choose any profession to... captain svitlana shemchuk, a lyceum pedagogue and curator of a program for girls, moved to kyiv after after russia annexed crimea in 2014, she also points out that ukraine's armed forces now offer women more opportunities. what has changed is that girls have been given the right to gender equality, girls can do it. even if we take the example of our lyceum girls, they are more... more resilient, more intelligent, they are more independent than

boys, and that, well , they are also more resilient in terms of endurance. according to the ministry of defense of ukraine, as of 2024, more than 45,000 women serve in the armed forces of ukraine, although most of them perform supporting roles, over 400 are fighting in the war zone. actions, demonstrating that ukrainian women are ready to withstand the challenges of war, defending their country. myroslava gongadze, voice of america, kyiv, ukraine. this is the report of miroslav gongata. in turn, kateryna primak, one of the leaders of the women's veterans movement, says that there could be many more women in the army if proper conditions were created for their training. and there is a demand for it - says the activist. with women in war and as a government , the problems of veterans should be addressed. kateryna priymak told iryna solomko. kateryna, i congratulate you,

i would still like to start our conversation with you with such a comparison, because you joined the resistance and in 2014 withdrew to the hospitallers, and you returned several times, and now you continue to go to the front, if we compare those opportunities that were in the 14th year for military women yes. and for now, to what extent the war has changed it, or whether it has changed it, is a very difficult question, because anyway we cannot talk about any more or less traditions. our tradition often depends on everything from the personal factor of the one who serves and with whom he serves, and this is actually a problem, because there are no algorithms and mechanisms, as it should be, and as it should be in the case that your rights are violated, this is the difficulty, but

instead we see that the number of women in the army has increased, and this is also quite natural, because we are all citizens, we want to defend our country, ah, but the number of men has also increased accordingly, that is , the percentage has not increased significantly, hence the activity of combatants actions have also increased very much, which may also stop men, to integrate women into the army, but we see that out of 45,000 military personnel, only 5,000 women are currently in... now there is a lot of talk about the new draft law on mobilization, and there was also some discussion that there should be mobilization for women. society can shout as much as it wants on facebook that women should be mobilized, but we don't have a system that normally integrates newcomers into the army, and this applies to both men and women,

it's just that if it's customary for men to serve and no one knows about it says, and which ones women who have not given birth? or those who have already given birth, and those who will, well, that is, motherhood is a large area of ​​responsibility for women, and there is an absolute separation, there is no such responsibilities between fathers and mothers, we now understand that even this system will not endure if we suddenly we will start mobilizing women, or we will leave them all to grandmothers, and therefore the question is simply that those women who want, those conditions should be created for them. so that they can study, there is a very widespread opinion, that now the ukrainian army, this is the war, in fact, helped the ukrainian army to meet nato standards, you agree with that, there is no need to add more values ​​of professionalism, all that is good in our country is just a superstructure, a superstructure on a disgusting bureaucracy, which makes it very difficult to make

decisions and people's lives, and even its digitization is often... a great exaggeration of how this happens, it is a soviet tradition to keep silent about problems and a good mine with a bad game is still impossible, because in an adult society we have to talk about problems, we have to discuss to understand them where should we go and should we plan policies in general, and we have a big problem in this hole as well, because from the bad soviet post-soviet legislation, we have projects that are implemented by ministries. and in the middle, the lack of clear policies aimed at overcoming certain problems. i'm talking about the field of veterans, i'm not authorized to talk about other fields, but in the field of veterans' affairs we see a collapse, a crisis and the state's unwillingness to implement these policies, this has been going on for 10 years, the most important is our sphere and in general,

well, the defense security sector, how will veterans live, including, because this mobilization... people, how veterans live , and how they are integrated into society, and whether you want such a fate for yourself , if something is wrong, and to protect the country, and of course, it is necessary to understand that this is a failure from a failed mobilization, from huge queues, to the situation now there is a great gulf of silence, which we all kept and did not talk about the problems, until now even women complain to the fact that there are no clothes for them, yes. your organization you are the initials of bleznu, yes, there are no body armor, i am experimental there, these body armor will be developed for women, but again, this is nothing put on the stream, it is not produced, these are some such small pieces of such decisions, also now the women’s summer suit, it is thanks to advocacy, and thanks to, i don't know why, the tender became more interesting, i guess i

don't know what kind of thing it is, because after all, the number of women has increased and they are older. the set has already been tested and distributed to women, the winter set has not yet, and here the problem is not so much in body shape as the question is in size, because the smallest man can be, well, bigger in standards, anyway for the smallest woman, who can also serve now, and the positions are different in the army, and it’s all sexist tricks to talk about the fact that there is no place for women there, there is plenty of room there for women and for men. i would say that this problem exists, but i don't like that around women, when there aren't really such key, important, fundamental things, we around women only talk about fluff. again, could you tell me a little bit about which one now the situation, and at the front, given the lack of shells, all these problems, and compare, probably, the front there in the 14th,

15th, 20th, 22nd, there and in the 20th, 24th , there was a positional war in the 14th-15th, you can't discount that fighting, but you can't compare it, these airstrikes, every 15 minutes, it's not seconds, and it's terrible, because the russians are using ... against we are constantly bombarded by these cabs and fabs, guided air bombs, high -explosive air bombs, and this really happens at the front once every 10-15 minutes, the situation is difficult, as always difficult, and very necessary weapons are the first priority for ukraine, that is , reforms by reforms, but without weapons you will not overcome this fire superiority, and we have a significant decrease in support for weapons, as i understand it, and many weapons have been destroyed. and this is unfortunately natural, because weapons are being destroyed, a large number, no one more than veterans, want to stop this war, but we have to understand that we have no choice, and we would rather

die than be occupied by russia. and we end the issue with a story about a charity easter fair organized by ukrainians. colorado part of the proceeds will go to help ukrainian soldiers, orphans, as well as other volunteer projects. svitlana prestynska and volodymyr petruniv will tell more about the event. more than half a thousand people came to the ukrainian easter fair in denver this year. ukrainian cuisine, handmade products, souvenirs, pysankari master classes. and cooking ukrainian and polish dishes, today there is a lot of good food, we tried varenyky, and dumplings, and various sausages, there is a lot of choice of everything, the music is good,

the atmosphere is good, besides pleasure, good food, there is also an opportunity to be useful and donate to ukraine for help, there are a lot of different organizations with which you can chat, talk about where exactly their money goes... i tried cabbage rolls, napoleon and honey, as well as pancakes, ukrainian the band performed amazingly and there is such a great atmosphere, i always come here, events like this are a great opportunity to bring people together, listen to good music, try food and raise money for ukraine. you're full from the start. russia's invasion of ukraine. the polish community of colorado supports ukraine at almost every charity event. the fair was attended by representatives of polish social organizations who gave

ukrainian immigrants useful advice on adapting to life in america. polish businessmen sold goods in order to raise money for ukraine. i will donate the money earned to a ukrainian organization that supports the shko army. the organization ukrainians of colorado attracted to the fair both initiatives and businesses with which it has been cooperating for a long time, as well as newly arrived ukrainians. i came from odesa, from ukraine, we arrived eight months ago back. i present my products, i do manual work, i make tea in caramel, which is... a ball that you drop into hot water, it melts and steams the tea. today we have a lot of hen, a lot

of goods from ukraine, everything that we have today, everything that we sell, the profit will go to the army, to help the armed forces. we take part in every festival organized by ukrainians of colorado, people want to come to the events, they ask for more events, even small ones. volunteer of several organizations in andriy matyashchuk has been flying to ukraine from kyiv for charity events in colorado since the start of the full-scale invasion. andriy and his team are now actively working on new reconstruction projects in the territories that were affected by russian attacks and survived the occupation. today we are collecting money for the children's playground klaptyk, this is already the second playground, the first... in makarov and the second one we have to build this spring in yagidny , chernihiv region, a well-known place, unfortunately it was also occupied, this playground is about the future of children, it has concept...

specificity and a very interesting idea of ​​ukrainian identity. many americans who continue to support ukraine came to the fair, says maryna dubrova, co-founder of the organization ukrainians of colorado. this is not the first time we have done such an event, and many americans have responded. we are also very grateful to our colorado state politicians who... cheer for ukraine, our ukrainian vendors offer ukrainian food, ukrainian craftsmanship, and music to the community. today we will still have a cooking class, a ukrainian-polish cook class, and ours the chef, tetiana stratilat, we are supported by our friends, the polish community, and the american community, and we have farms here. american ones,

who offer and introduce their products to our newly arrived ukrainians. i was born and raised in colorado, and i am so glad to come to such an event, see different art, try food and listen to music from ukraine, support this charity event. after the fair, the organization immediately sent colorado ukrainians to ukraine. the rest of the collected funds will go to the organization of others charity events in colorado and assistance to ukrainian immigrants. svitlana prestynska, volodymyr petruniv, denver, colorado. download the voice of america mobile application. the application allows you to bypass blocking automatically thanks to the built-in vpn service. read news,

watch informative programs and. videos, as well as listen to podcasts of the ukrainian voice of america service. and on this we will say goodbye. see also our daily briefings from monday to friday at 18:00 kyiv time on youtube and facebook where you you can ask us your questions live, and we will try to answer them. there is also more information on our website and in our social networks, i remind you that we are on facebook, youtube, twitter, instagram, and we also have the voice of america ukrainian telegram channel. thank you for trusting us, i wish you a peaceful night and a relaxing weekend. see you soon. before meeting.

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