Yurii Butusov: In Ukraine, there is not presidential democracy, but office democracy. Office intervenes in army administration
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, Yurii Butusov, gave an interview to journalist Yanina Sokolova in a program on Channel 5. He spoke about the situation on the frontline, the missile program and the problems of the Luch Design Bureau, and shared his views on the cases against Kolomoisky and Shufrych. Butusov also expressed his opinion on the newly appointed Defence Minister Umerov and the fact that the Presidential Office is unable to understand its own powers.
- Friends, my greetings. My name is Yanina Sokolova. You are watching Rendezvous. Thank you for your activity on social media. Don't forget to share this video. It is very important for us. And write in the comments what you think. We read everything, analyze it, and you can ask questions on air too. So use it - Facebook, Telegram. Everything is now here, like Poplavsky, here is a screenshot of our pages. Please subscribe. We will be glad to have your attention. Today I have with me - subjectively speaking - the best military journalist in our country, Yuriy Butusov. I am very glad to see you.
- Congratulations. Congratulations.
- Yura has just returned from the frontline. You can regularly see his reports from the frontline on his YouTube channel. Please subscribe to his YouTube channel if you haven't already. You know, Yura, it's a mix of bad news and at the same time an understanding that we need to move on. I'm talking about the US defense budget. There is no aid in one budget, but they promised it would be in the second. The story of Slovakia. The number of people killed and wounded recently. All this makes me think that it will be a marathon, that we will have to fight on our own, one-on-one, a) with corruption, b) with the Russians. At the moment, what's happening at the front, where you came from, is a story about continuing to be actively motivated to overcome. Are there any problems that you would like to tell the authorities about during this broadcast? How are the guys doing?
- The same positional warfare and active hostilities are taking place at the front. In principle, the nature of the fighting has not changed since last November. Attacks and counterattacks are launched at the slightest opportunity. This war has been going on for almost a year now and will continue for a long time. The enemy has concentrated large forces. Including human forces. He is trying to create an advantage in drones and munitions and seize the initiative in all areas of the frontline. Our soldiers are also trying to prevent the enemy from acting actively, acting proactively. At every opportunity, they try to liberate Ukrainian land step by step, 100 metres at a time. Every day is a drama. Every metre of land that is drawn on the map as the front line, every day these metres are fought for life and death.
- I have a message on my phone. It concerns the Zaporizhzhia direction. The meaning of these messages from the military is as follows: 'Listen, it's a complete f@ck-up there now, I want to go to Bakhmut. What a laugh. What's happening in the Zaporizhzhia sector, and what's happening in the south-eastern part of our country in general, and these losses, are they happening locally at this moment or are they happening regularly? Why was it easier in Bakhmut? I mean, the viewers need to be told where these posts and these figures about the huge losses come from. What is the reason for this?
- The nature of the fighting has changed. In Bakhmut, we were on the defensive, on the heights. There were many ready-made shelters in the basements of houses. Now there is nothing like that in the Zaporizhzhia sector. It's the steppe. These are favorable heights for the enemy, and this is our offensive, and we are advancing with infantry. That is why this offensive by infantry forces of small groups of people who are being shelled with all kinds of weapons is the hardest, most terrible thing that can happen in war.
- The State Audit Service has blocked the work of Ukraine's only manufacturer of precision weapons, the State Kyiv Design Bureau Luch, which develops Neptune, Stugna, and Corsair missiles. This was stated by the company itself. This is not the first such precedent from the State Audit Service. At the end of June, the SASU audited the contracts of the Ministry of Defence and reported violations worth UAH 2.5 billion. According to the Service, Ukrainian producers cooperating with the Ministry should not include profit in their contracts with the state. The SASU is demanding the return of this UAH 2.5 billion. This conclusion was made by the Service on the basis of Government Resolution 335, if that tells you anything. What the hell is going on? Perhaps you can explain. Stugna, Neptune, Corsair. We are now talking about missile production, about the fact that America is not sure what will happen after the presidential election. We need to go for self-sufficiency, and cases like this arise.
- This is completely absurd. The state-owned Luch Design Bureau is the only manufacturer of a full cycle of high-precision weapons in Ukraine. We do not produce any other types of precision weapons on our own. At all. So the conclusion is obvious. First, look at the format itself. A state-owned enterprise posts on Facebook that another state agency is blocking the work of a state-owned enterprise, and the state-owned enterprise appeals to the public on Facebook to influence the actions of the authorities and protect the manufacturer during hostilities from being blocked from producing weapons to defend Ukraine. The very fact that in order to protect the interests of a state-owned arms manufacturer, we need to write on Facebook and a state-owned enterprise hopes that the Facebook community will protect it from the arbitrariness of civil servants, I think, clearly shows that this is not an intrigue. This is a diagnosis of the state apparatus. That is, this situation shows that we do not have a Supreme Commander-in-Chief who controls the armament process. Our Minister of Strategic Industry, to whom the Luch Design Bureau reports, is an empty seat, irresponsible. Our state-owned concern Ukroboronprom is just a corrupt den that takes money from the profits of enterprises every month, but is unable to fulfil its duties of representing the state, and we have no Minister of Defence responsible for arming the army. But he is not even able to ensure that our defence industry is protected, even from auditors. I'm not talking about protecting it from Putin, from Russian missiles and other things. We're not talking about air defence, about secrecy. Even an ordinary auditor, an official, is a more powerful person than Supreme Commander-in-Chief Zelensky, than the Minister of Strategic Industry, than the Minister of Defence, than all the other officials who love to be photographed and say: today, at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, we considered the issue of the missile programme, strengthening production - and this is said with such a serious face, broadcast many times at a marathon. And then the director of this Luch Design Bureau says: 'Guys, we have no options, write on Facebook, let the people defend us. Really? This is our defence policy in the country during the war, isn't it? That is, the Luch Design Bureau, which actually produces the main precision weapons in Ukraine, cannot interact with this government. The question arises - what do all civil servants do in general? What kind of space? They have one company. And they don't have time to call the audit service and say: 'Are you guys crazy? Stay away from this company until the end of the fighting. The president has no questions about this. He is very busy. He is talking to Yermak. He does interviews. He takes pictures with Hollywood stars. He shoots a video in the evening. He thanks them. And then there is a certain enterprise, the Luch Design Bureau. It is, of course, not so spectacular. Zelensky has no time for it. It's bitter to realise that instead of the country's leadership, we have an irresponsible empty space that is incapable of performing basic tasks. Just call your subordinates. They don't even have time for that.
- But if there are no missiles? Then you'll fucking die yourself over time if we have nothing to defend ourselves with.I just don't understand the logic, to be honest.
- They are sitting in Kyiv, in bunkers, where nothing will ever come. When Russia scares us that we will strike at the decision-making centres, we all understand that it will not hit the president. He is not a decision-making centre. It can hit the Luch design bureau. If the auditors are active there and disclose its location. But not the president. They do not feel this threat. They live their lives. And this shocking post by the Luch Design Bureau is just a clear indication. Moreover, law enforcement officers have now come to our country with searches, opened criminal cases, and are investigating a number of leading defence companies involved in other sensitive defence sectors that produce key weapons. Now this is also happening with regard to drones and electronic weapons. Now the directors are testifying, they are spending time on this during the fighting. This is such a completely strange state policy. I still hope that the reason for these raids is corruption, and that someone in power wants to rob the defence industry. Because if these people are really doing this to slow down the production of weapons, it will have a bigger resonance.
- This week we had new appointments in the Ministry of Defence. You obviously followed these appointments. You, as a journalist, as a person who was involved in the war and in observing the changes in ministers and their policies, are now pleased with these appointments. And in general, in principle, Umerov - we haven't talked about this with you. I wanted you to say a few words about it.
- It is difficult to make an assessment now. Rustam Umerov has never been involved in military matters. There is not a single interview in which he commented on any military issues before his appointment. Therefore, I believe that when a person comes to power, he should be assessed, first of all, by his programme statements - what he is trying to do, what tasks and goals he sets for himself and how it is being implemented. So far, I understand that this is a person for whom this is a completely new task, who has not even completed the formation of his team. He is actually just learning the ropes and needs time to get a handle on what he is managing. Then, I expect him to present some kind of action programme. This is something that, unfortunately, the previous minister Reznikov failed to do at all, as he did not have an action programme tied to any logic of what was happening in the war for a year and a half. We expect that Umerov will draw conclusions from Reznikov's failures and formulate a programme. This programme will be used to assess his level of strategic vision and further steps. The President has appointed a person who is far from the war. Now this person has to learn during the war. We will be waiting.
- Friends, the bad news. The US House of Representatives has voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from the post of Speaker. This is the first time in history that members of the House of Representatives have voted to remove a speaker. Biden said that he was concerned about the fate of further approval of aid to Ukraine after the resignation of this particular Speaker of the House. At the same time, the president is confident that members of both parties in Congress will support Ukrainians. Therefore, he will soon deliver a major speech to congressmen. Biden noted that they will be able to find alternative methods of supporting Kyiv if Congress fails to approve new aid. So, Yura, six months ago we heard that no matter what happens, there will be support. Now we are already in October 2023, and the phrase "failure to approve new aid" is still used. Plus, there are several statements related to corruption. By the way, the former President of the European Parliament and representatives of the European Commission made several statements this week that were specifically about the fact that Ukraine is unlikely to become a member of the European Union in the near future because total corruption cannot be approved by representatives of European countries and they do not see the Ukrainian authorities' readiness to change all this, so wait for it to happen one day. Is it expected for you that Americans behave in this way? Do you think this is just a story before the election? We need to show those who are dissatisfied with the support that we are still considering it and will not give everything, we will give it in fragments, so be calm. Or is this a reality that we have to accept now?
- I don't see anything bad happening in Ukraine's relations with America yet. Military support has always been based on improvised decisions and decisions that were partial, that were not predicted in advance, and now, until we have a stop in the supply of arms, I would not say that we have problems in our relations with America. Supporting Ukraine is always a very difficult thing for any democratic country, because Ukraine is still, unfortunately, our government, our state policy, which is always fragmented, and always inconsistent. And of course, we cannot take a proactive stance and lobby for our interests as systematically as we need to in order to make the actions of other countries towards us predictable. Are we predictable to ourselves? We are not predictable for ourselves. We are discussing the Minister of Defence, whom we do not know. We wonder how he will act. And how should our partners react? They are in a constant state of studying Ukraine and trying to understand what Ukraine will do next. So, of course, just as Ukraine itself has no sustainable strategy, for example, for three years it tried to look Putin in the eye and make peace, and then suddenly we are at war with Putin. Then we are supposedly going to join NATO, but in reality, we do not have any NATO standards that have worked. Although there are a lot of words, if we accept them. So there are many uncertainty factors that Ukraine itself creates. This makes it difficult to give objective assessments of Western policy towards us. That's why I see that ammunition is coming to Ukraine. Military equipment is coming to Ukraine from NATO countries. This is of vital importance. As long as we are getting it, it means that we are not doing so badly. So far, nothing irreversible has happened in the relations between America and Ukraine.
- Last week, a wave of criticism was sparked by a statement made by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Kornienko, during the forum: "I think that we have been testing the shift of our parliamentary-presidential model towards a stronger president for the last 600 days.
Kornienko's quote: "I'm going to say one thing now, maybe it will be in the news somewhere. I think we have been testing for the last 600 days a shift in our parliamentary-presidential model towards a stronger president."
Kornienko later clarified that the point was that this is happening now, during martial law, because the president is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and during the war, his role is strengthened. I was already asked by American journalists in a program about the plans to switch from a parliamentary-presidential to a presidential republic. I said that this was nonsense and that our civil society would hardly allow this to be adopted in the Verkhovna Rada during the war. Can you tell us your thoughts on this? And the second point is the elections. In an interview with one of the so-called "1+1" journalists, Zelensky said that he did not see how the elections would be held, who would come to the trenches as observers, and if any of the representatives of the Republicans of the United States of America made such statements, then let them come. A few weeks have passed. Just yesterday, the day before our conversation was recorded, there was a question, or rather a discussion of the question, from Zelenskyy that we are now considering options for how to do all this. Well, now it's external management. I don't think this is a secret for anyone. It's about making certain decisions. But whether it will happen or not - that's my question to you. How do you see it from the point of view of the current behavior of the authorities and the statements that have been made recently, did you want elections to take place in Ukraine now?
- This is one of those issues that are not defined by Ukraine itself. We need elections because we need regular renewal of the government, and we need to have trust in the government, in the system of elections that can exist during a war. This requires a large number of decisions, including legislative decisions, changes to the Constitution. It requires trust, consensus of the authorities, predictability, consistency, and transparency of actions. All the things we do not have. That is why there is a gap between needs, desires and reality, which we are not getting any closer to. The very structure of our government is in fact neither parliamentary nor presidential. We have an office democracy, where political issues, and domestic and foreign policy are managed by the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, and law enforcement and the judiciary are managed by the deputy head of the Presidential Office, Oleg Tatarov. Everything else is absolutely rudiment of democracy, which are not applied in our country. Yesterday, for example, the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, the third highest-ranking person in the country, Oleksiy Danilov, said that no one other than those designated by law has the right to represent the state abroad. First and foremost, these are the president, the foreign minister, and the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. Danilov is thus indicating that Yermak has no right to represent Ukraine in international relations. He bears no responsibility for his words, his agreements are worthless. He has no powers defined by law. He is just a secretary who cannot conduct any negotiations with anyone on his own. And this is what the current NSDC secretary under President Zelensky says. And we are still asking what America's position is on Ukraine. The people sitting on Bankova Street themselves still cannot understand their own powers. Danilov, Yermak and Zelensky still can't figure out who has the right to represent the country in the international arena and why. They have been sitting there for 5 years and have not even studied the issue of constitutional distribution of powers. So what kind of consistent foreign policy or elections can we talk about now? Unfortunately, the main factor of uncertainty, the main factor of instability and uncertainty in our future is our own government, which still cannot find a common language even among themselves, arranging scandals and showdowns, because one says we need presidential democracy, another says that the Office manages everything, and the president says something else. The MPs pretend that they are deciding something. And then the authorities say that we need to unite society. They themselves are disunited as a team that has to take responsibility. The main part of our problems is that instead of taking responsibility, the authorities shrug it off. There is a struggle not for who will take more responsibility, but for who will take more powers, resources and shrug off more responsibility. And all the controversy, when some kind of trouble happens in our government, the controversy on social media, in the media, and at the telethon, is not about who is responsible for what happened, but about the fact that you know, the president has nothing to do with it, and Yermak has nothing to do with it, Shmyhal has nothing to do with it. And we immediately have a list of state leaders who are absolutely innocent. And then we start making up stories about who should be responsible. That's why it's impossible to talk about the government now, about its consistency, its actions, strategies, and elections. It is complete chaos. And I think that they themselves do not plan this chaos further than 24 hours in advance.
- I would like to talk to you about the trials. On 5 October, the Kyiv Court of Appeal continued to consider the appeal against the choice of a preventive measure in the form of detention for intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky. Now you will see the whole saga and what Roman is accused of. Yura has been to court hearings many times and covered it on his YouTube and Facebook. Listen, everyone who knows this case and knows how much Roman managed to do in the past, and who remembers the story called Wagnergate and many other stories, understands the direct connection and the ordering of this whole case. However, court after court, and we do not see the real picture of how this can end. If judges are recused, there will be a new court. When there is no judicial reform, we understand perfectly well that it is controlled by a mobile phone or some direct instructions. Tell us in a nutshell what's going on in this case. What are the chances? What should civil society do to ensure that Chervinsky is released.
- Roman Chervinsky is a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine and a colonel in the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. He served, and his last position during the mobilization was in the Special Operations Forces. And his whole case is a demonstration of the complete 'lawlessness' and lack of legality in the country. He is accused of abuse of power, when his immediate superior, Major General Hanushchak, testified that Chervinsky had no abuse of power and acted strictly in accordance with General Hanushchak's orders. General Hanushchak himself acted in accordance with the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi. If the investigators or judges had simply read and made a decision based on the materials in the case, the case should have been closed due to the absence of not only Chervinsky's guilt but the absence of the crime itself. There was no crime. There was a serviceman who performed a task. He had a commander who set this task. And there was no crime. And the commander himself says so. Everyone knows this. But for more than six months now, neither the court, nor the prosecutors of the General Prosecutor's Office, nor the investigators who falsified the case, have taken Hanushchak's testimony into account or asked Zaluzhnyi questions. Maybe, if Ganushchak says so and did say so, Valeriy Fedorovich, you were aware of all these events? No, no one says that. Commander Chervinsky's testimony is not taken into account. The man is simply being held, postponed under various pretexts, and court hearings are disrupted. He is being held in a pre-trial detention center, extending his detention without any grounds whatsoever, in order to avoid proceeding to the merits of the case. The entire task of the state now, of all these many investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation, the prosecutor's office, and judges, is to ensure that, God forbid, no one reads Hanushchak's testimony in public at the trial. Because then they will look like criminals. And they are doing everything so that Hanushchak is not heard, and the lawyers and Chervinsky himself cannot read out that General Hanushchak said this and that.
- Is it recorded somewhere?
- Of course, he did. He has testified. The lawyers want to call Hanuschak as a witness in the interrogation. He is here. But the court session is postponed. This story has already been postponed 20 times.
- And Chervinsky continues to sit
- The man is in jail. This is a demonstration of 'lawlessness', and all these employees of the SBU, the SBI, the Prosecutor General's Office, and the judges who are doing this are criminals who must be held accountable. They are keeping an innocent man in custody for no reason at all and do not want this case to be considered on its merits. That is why for six months now they have been bringing him back every time, and then saying: sorry, we forgot somebody, we didn't bring some papers, go back and we will reschedule the hearing. This is what happens in this case.
- Another court case. The Shevchenkivskyi District Court argued with the Security Service and the Bureau of Economic Security over the citizenship of businessman Ihor Kolomoiskyi, who was arrested on bail. He owes UAH 509 million on suspicion of money laundering and fraud. He is recognized in the ruling as a citizen of Ukraine, but is recorded as a citizen of Israel. On 2 September, in case you hadn't been following this fascinating story, representatives of the 1+1 channel were also there. Alla Mazur and Yuriy Horbunov came to defend the oligarch in court. On 2 September, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court recognised Kolomoiskyi as a citizen of Ukraine, and when choosing a preventive measure for the businessman, the court noted that he was born in Dnipro and is a citizen of Ukraine. At this point, an appeal was filed. It was rejected. Listen, this is actually a Netflix series on holiday. I mean, Kolomoisky is in the dock. His whole American history, I'm talking about Cleveland, Ohio, Miami and the stories of cooperation with an American businessman, laundering, buying 25 factories, skyscrapers... It's just a huge amount of money that was connected to money laundering from PrivatBank. I understand that there is still an American trace there. I'm sure Zelenskyy has been told about this more than once because Ukrainians in America were also involved in this, so that Kolomoisky would go to jail. However, we'll see whether I will be able to complete the story. But several questions arise. Firstly, Kolomoisky, as we all know, is the person who made Zelenskyy not only president, but who he is. If there had been no 1+1 TV channel for all these years, there would have been no 73%. There would be nothing. That is the platform that gave unlimited access to the media resource, in fact, the country's first button. Here, this man is in the dock. Although there are also nuances, Yuriy, if you know, the money - and you know - Kvartal's money is also money that was associated with Kolomoisky's PrivatBank. Therefore, we need to investigate how Zelenskyy was involved in this. This long prelude of mine ends with just one question. You tell me: is this a mask show or is there really a chance now, given your knowledge of this process, that Kolomoisky will go to jail? And why is Kolomoisky the first, and not a few other oligarchs who are now, I'm sure, smoking on the sidelines, because they can also be caught.
- First. Zelenskyy is not fighting the oligarchs. He refused to do so publicly, as he said that he was not going to make the register of oligarchs, the law he passed, public. At first, he said that I will fight the oligarchs, a register of oligarchs is being created, and their rights are being restricted. And now he has said that the register of oligarchs, which he himself announced, will not be made public. That is, there are no oligarchs. They have all been re-educated. This is the president's logic. Secondly. Why was Kolomoisky targeted? Kolomoisky's case is a case of transparency of the Ukrainian budget and a symbol of the fight against corruption in the United States. That is why the Privatbank case is being heard in the London court. This year, the London court should decide whether Kolomoisky stole $5 billion and whether he should pay back exactly $5 billion, the amount that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and PrivatBank are charging him with. The criminal case against Kolomoisky intensifies this trial and the possibility of returning $5 billion to the state. That is why America has done everything to ensure that this case is intensified. During the September visit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau delegation to Washington, the entire leadership of the US law enforcement bloc met with the NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. The first topic discussed was when and how you are going to move this case forward. As soon as this delegation returned, they immediately planned to serve Kolomoisky with suspicion in the case, where all his property, all his real estate, everything he had, all his assets were to be seized... but two days before NABU was supposed to conduct investigative actions and serve the suspicion, the SJU suddenly served its suspicion, which they did in just a few days. Officially, the SBU has taken one investigative action in the case of Kolomoisky. That is, on 30 August, he was interrogated by an investigator of the Court of Justice, according to the materials of this criminal case, and on 2 September, he was served with a suspicion, two days later, and detained. There is no seizure of property in this SBU case. There is a suspicion of UAH 500 million. For Kolomoisky, this is not money at all. Why was this done? Because Kolomoisky, if he had been suspected by the NABU, would be under the control of detectives now, and he might start saying something. Perhaps he would have started saying that he had been paying money for a long time, according to data published by various offshore companies, he personally paid tens of millions of dollars to Volodymyr Zelenskyi. And this has been going on for a long time.
- As part of their cooperation on the Quarter, am I right?
- It's hard to say what kind of cooperation. I don't think that anywhere in the world an entertainer on television can be worth $40 million, which he received from Kolomoisky back in 2014 from PrivatBank.
- And then what?
- Obviously, these are some political favors that Zelenskyy provided to Kolomoisky. Perhaps it was his participation in the political project Servant of the People, which was separately funded to fight all Kolomoisky's enemies. This is lobbying for his interests, trading information. If Kolomoisky was under the control of the NABU, he might have wanted to say something about this. Or exchange this information for a lighter sentence. Now President Zelenskyy has helped his sponsor not to make such a difficult choice. Zelenskyy handed Kolomoisky over to the SBU, which he fully controls. Now he is sitting in the SBU detention centre under the control of SBU operatives and cannot say anything uncontrolled to anyone. And the main thing is that he does not say anything about Zelensky.
- Is this some kind of arrangement?
- It's obvious. It can't be an accident at this level. A criminal case in two days. This is a record. And Kolomoisky makes no comments.
- Yes. That's right.
- Pay attention to the support group: the leadership of the Servant of the People, Tkachenko, a former minister, Mosiychuk, a regular interviewer of the president.
- By the way, one of the most important factors in this story is...
- How good Zelensky is, she just constantly compliments the current government. They do not criticise the methods of investigation. In the case of the SBU, let's imagine Kolomoisky was there five or 10 years ago. The SBU comes in and says: we served you with a suspicion yesterday, you are detained, go to the pre-trial detention centre. Of course, this is a blatant violation of human rights, a violation of all procedural norms. By now, 1+1 TV channels would have had entire talk shows with lawyers. But they don't. It's just a group of supporters going to court, telling them that they had merits. Everything is very good, but there is no criticism of illegal decisions. Why? Because, of course, the absence of criticism of this illegal case means that it is a deal. And Kolomoisky himself nods and says: well, it's better this way than if I sit in the NABU and the FBI comes to me and says: 'Ihor Valeriyovych, either you tell us everything we are interested in, or we will now file an extradition request, and NABU will extradite you.
- But there is another case. In the United States, Buzzfeed, in particular, was investigating the Kolomoisky case, and they are following it closely. I just spoke to them last week, and they said that the Americans are waiting for the case to be fully proven, at least at the stage of investigation in Ukraine. Not just PrivatBank, by the way, and then they will follow Ukraine in doing their own thing. If it is a plea bargain and they are not going to bring it to an indictment and trial, then what will they say to the Americans? Or are they waiting, or can they stretch it out until the end of the war?
- The main thing that President Zelenskyy is afraid of is that he constantly asks about it at all meetings with the heads of anti-corruption bodies: whether this case will raise questions about the tens of millions of dollars that he and his family received, and the tens of millions of dollars that 95 Kvartal received from PrivatBank.
- Is he asking about this?
- Yes. Because if this is really the amount of losses, then these 5 billion should be returned. It is quite possible that the money that Kolomoisky distributed to cover his activities to senior political figures in Ukraine will also have to be returned. Including the current president. So this is a very real threat. But now this tension has arisen because this year the London court is to make a decision on the amount of damages... First, whether the damages caused by Kolomoisky's actions were caused by the state or whether the $5 billion claim filed by the newly nationalized PrivatBank against Kolomoisky's structures abroad is true. If this is confirmed, all of Kolomoisky's assets around the world, and all of the people associated with him, will be completely seized. Even if it was transferred to someone else, or registered to someone else. In fact, this means that everything that Kolomoisky has been building for many, many years will be completely confiscated. So, of course, this is the most painful thing for him. This is the event that NABU is suspecting. And that's why Zelenskyi is trying to save him now, because only such a shield, only detention in a pre-trial detention center, allows us to build at least some protection around Kolomoiskyi. That is, the SBU suspicion is not about PrivatBank, it is about actions at Ukrnafta. There is actually a very unobvious story there. Since it was written in a hurry, on the knee in two days, there are, of course, a lot of legal gaps, and it will be easy for Kolomoisky to defend himself. Now it's a pretext for the SBU to hold him in their hands and say that we can't give him to you. He hasn't given us $10 million, so, sorry, your $5 billion will have to wait.
- Listen, there was supposed to be a trial in London in early October.
- I'm talking about him.
- No, it was on 2 or 3 October. Did it take place? What was the outcome?
- I'm not going to tell you now. It needs to be checked. There is a long process going on, and there must be a decision on the merits. We don't know exactly when it will be made. But in the near future.
- But PrivatBank's lawyers and defenders say that the fact that Kolomoisky is now sitting under the dome of the SBU and, accordingly, Zelenskyy, suggests that the London case can be delayed, because in the London case, it can be said that the lawyer does not have the opportunity to talk to the defendant, to his client. Accordingly, it is also beneficial to keep him in Ukraine from all sides.
Friends, this is our final part. You have the opportunity to ask questions to our guests. Andriy Povarchuk. Question: "Who will be the next to be dealt with after Shufrich and is Mr Butusov happy with the fate of Nestor Shufrich?" By the way, when this happened, a lot of memes, I mean, with Shufrich, were circulating on the Internet, and I also wonder if Yura is happy at this moment.
- I think it's good that the SBU has seen, after a year and a half, basically what caused the conflict in the studio, and this is now the subject of suspicion against Shufrich. But I would like to see a court verdict and that Shufrich will be behind bars and receive a long sentence for high treason.
- Yevheniia asks. "A cry and a prayer for Klishchiyivka. There are a lot of missing people." Yura, what is really happening there? Basically, everything happened there in the days when we had large-scale losses. But what is happening now? You can tell us briefly.
- Heavy fighting for Klishchiyivka is still going on. The same heavy fighting is taking place along the entire frontline. And there are many such battles - Klishchiyivka, Andriivka, Serebryansky Forest, Kupyansk, Zaporizhzhya, Orikhov, Robotino - and areas with heavy losses and intense fighting. This is war, and the enemy is doing everything to drive us out of these positions and seize the initiative.
- There are many questions from the Court of Justice, our viewer, in Russian, and I will translate them... okay: "Why is there virtually no analysis in his reports of the illegal and even criminal actions of TCC officers when issuing summonses on the street and detaining people? And what is his attitude to speakers from the Ministry of Defence? Has he ever been offered to become a speaker from the Ministry of Defence?"
- No, I have not been offered to become a speaker. I was already offered at the Ministry of Defence at one time, but now the situation is different.
- What about the TCC?
- The TCC is not just the actions of TCC employees. These are the actions of the entire military leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is the policy and the requirements for the implementation of the mobilisation plan. I believe that these are inadequate decisions that need to be corrected. We publish information about such illegal detentions. But we are currently under martial law, and the actions of the military are recognised as lawful by law enforcement agencies themselves. Therefore, since it is martial law, I believe it is necessary to criticise the actions of the military command during the war.
- Olena asks. "Yuriy, do you have the impression that they are trying to push Zaluzhnyi to the second flank, and even if there are some options for blaming the General Staff, as was the case with the military commissariats, they are blaming Zaluzhnyi. Is this a conscious position of the state leadership?"
- This is what we have said before, this is an attempt to be responsible only for good PR and photo shoots. Any responsibility for any problems is to be blamed on someone else. The main problem we have in the management of the Armed Forces is that there is no actual vertical, there is manual intervention by the Office and several verticals of army management. This is a real problem. And the conflicts between the Office and Zaluzhnyi are the consequences of this inadequate approach.
- Question: "Mr Yurii. Congratulations, please comment briefly on the history of Poland. Was it our government that behaved inappropriately? Is it the elections in Poland or is there some other reason?" Can you say a few words about Poland?
- Poland has its own state interests, and the Polish leadership has its own voters... there is small farming there, and of course, people do not want their prices to fall and there to be dumped on the market. These are common problems that need to be solved within the framework of interstate relations. What Poland has done for us is invaluable. If we calculate the amount of weapons they have given us, in what volumes, we can arm two corps with just what the Poles have provided us. So we are grateful to them. But such things should be resolved without scandals and psychosis at the level of interstate relations. Unfortunately, in our country, everything is thrown into the public domain. State leaders hope that if they talk about something, it will somehow be resolved by itself. This is not the case. This is a difficult time and it requires a well-thought-out strategy and actions, not words.
- This week, we published a story where Mykhailo Tkach was on curfew at night, standing guard until five in the morning, outside one of the clubs in the capital, if you haven't seen it, we'll show you a fragment. And you know, you came back from the front. I just watched this footage after visiting one of the hospitals where I visited my military friends, and many of them felt a sense of surrealism and devastation that such healthy, boorish, cattle-like people are still living, singing Russian songs. But this is the smallest, in general, just cattle, which is actually a political... By the way, there were politicians there... and a young elite who has the means and opportunity to be there. There were no representatives of military enlistment offices. There were not even adequate representatives of the police. There was a phrase: people are tired of the war, so they are having fun here. Finally, this is the last question, I will ask you. Firstly, have you seen this video, what did you feel when you saw it? And secondly, to those tired of war, what would you say to them?
- I do not believe that during martial law and such a war, general mobilisation, the state should explain anything to everyone. And civil society should spend a lot of time on explanations. I think it is a deep mistake of the Ministry of Defence, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces that they did not issue a clear and understandable plan for mobilisation in cities. We have these TCCs implementing the plan at the expense of ordinary people, and the plan is not being implemented at the expense of those who sit in nightclubs. This imbalance demoralises society. And this is a big mistake of the political and military leadership that really needs to be condemned and corrected. I hope this will be done and we need to talk about it constantly.
- Thank you for coming to see me today!
- Thank you!
- That was Yurii Butusov, thank you for listening, trusting, and thinking. Stay tuned next week and let us know what you think about this episode in the comments. See you next week.
