ESPRESO — broadcast
20260920 123000 UTC
394 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:00] Padroshev said that Moscow
[00:00:03] can use allegedly the entire arsenal and that Polish
[00:00:07] statehood will cease to exist in two or three days, well, these 2-3
[00:00:11] days we have already heard,
[00:00:14] and we see that over these years
[00:00:18] the full-scale full-scale invasion of Russia
[00:00:21] into Ukraine has also changed, and
[00:00:24] communication about Poland and messages in
[00:00:28] propaganda...
[00:00:30] their media about Poland, if previously yes, Poland was often
[00:00:34] presented as a country
[00:00:37] that is subordinate to the United States, that
[00:00:40] does not conduct an independent policy, then
[00:00:43] here it often already appears as an object
[00:00:46] of probable aggression of the Russian Federation, so
[00:00:49] and this rhetoric again, well, as such a potential territory of direct
[00:00:53] use of the Russian army, well, listen, what Sikorski
[00:00:57] did in Kyiv, his statements, it's...
[00:01:00] which is actually a fairly typical school
[00:01:03] of Anglo-Saxon diplomacy of deterrence through force, that is,
[00:01:06] Sikorski, in addition to what he said about NATO's capabilities in Europe,
[00:01:10] even without the participation of the United States, he
[00:01:13] also shared his opinion that in his opinion there are two scenarios for ending
[00:01:17] the war: the first is negotiations, that is, Sikorski did not
[00:01:21] say this, but implicitly, that this scenario is proposed
[00:01:24] to Europeans by Donald Trump's own administration, and
[00:01:27] the second scenario is that Russia simply does not have the resources
[00:01:31] to wage war, an energy truce, then
[00:01:34] Sikorski, well, he said that Ukraine should, on the contrary, focus
[00:01:38] on strikes on Russian oil refineries.
[00:01:41] And the second thing is that Russia had ambitious goals in 2022,
[00:01:45] but Russia did
[00:01:47] not achieve them, it does not rule the world, therefore, accordingly, there is no
[00:01:51] need to be afraid, we need to behave more actively, and in fact, within the framework of this
[00:01:54] more active behavior, Sikorski suggested that perhaps
[00:01:58] we, Europeans, should conduct military maneuvers
[00:02:02] and military exercises more often not far from the border
[00:02:06] with the Kaliningrad region, well, Sikorski himself uses the name Kroleviec, in Polish.
[00:02:09] Yes, but we remember that recently such
[00:02:12] exercises have intensified. Literally about a month ago there were
[00:02:16] exercises, sudden, unannounced around
[00:02:20] the Kaliningrad region itself, about which NATO did not report, when in the sky appeared,
[00:02:24] according to various reports and unofficial information, from 25
[00:02:27] to 50 fighter jets of member countries. And
[00:02:31] when half of these planes were visible in open
[00:02:34] sources, yes, on radars, it was
[00:02:37] then that NATO issued a statement that such exercises were being conducted, well, and
[00:02:41] this is also such an element of deterrence and a signal for Russia, as is this
[00:02:44] communication from Sikorski, which shows that these words
[00:02:48] are correctly
[00:02:51] chosen by the Russian Federation, although the reaction, again,
[00:02:54] we saw in Poland
[00:02:58] critical voices, in particular from the right. creative flank, but also
[00:03:01] from, of course, of course, from
[00:03:04] representatives of the fifth column, I mean
[00:03:07] Braun's party, Roman Fritz, a deputy of this
[00:03:11] party, a deputy of the Sejm, came in
[00:03:15] fact to comment on Sikorski's tweet and
[00:03:19] said that, so that Sikorski does not
[00:03:22] get involved in this story and stopped
[00:03:25] humiliating himself, and yet he is the vice-premier of the Polish
[00:03:29] government and the head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to which
[00:03:32] Sikorski replied briefly but very vividly,
[00:03:36] go to hell, that is, uh,
[00:03:39] well, but agree, the fact that Polish ultraright
[00:03:43] criticize the Polish government for allegedly too pro-Ukrainian
[00:03:46] position, well, this is an old song, there is nothing new here, instead
[00:03:50] it seems to me that if we talk about Polish social networks, not about
[00:03:53] their ultra-right segment, but about such a more centrist, liberal,
[00:03:57] uh, there was more approval. at least
[00:04:00] I have the impression that Poles, Polish experts more often approved,
[00:04:04] but you followed the reaction in Ukraine, in Ukraine
[00:04:07] the reaction, for example, colleagues from
[00:04:10] the Ukrainian side also note that it sometimes
[00:04:14] even coincided with these ironic voices
[00:04:17] of the ultra-right Polish side, well, this is connected,
[00:04:20] of course, with previous reactions and
[00:04:23] NATO's behavior in the context
[00:04:26] of the Russian-Ukrainian war, that drones flew in,
[00:04:32] yes, that is, this is certainly a reflection of these previous
[00:04:35] years, but one way or another this
[00:04:38] communication
[00:04:41] is such an escalatory one, and such signals
[00:04:44] are correctly understood in Russia,
[00:04:48] and yet, well, it has a certain strategic
[00:04:51] goal, so it's worth agreeing, in fact, with this
[00:04:54] side, cohort of experts and people who in
[00:04:58] Poland are actually positive. How do I evaluate these words? I will tell you that I have two
[00:05:02] conclusions from this situation with Sikorski: the first conclusion is that it is still
[00:05:05] how important it is for European politicians to personally be in
[00:05:09] Ukraine now, because Sikorski, well, the fact that he visits Kyiv... other cities,
[00:05:13] as Minister of Foreign Affairs, that's one thing, but even before he
[00:05:16] joined the Civic Platform government in 2023,
[00:05:19] he quite often visited Ukraine, for example, he helped collect
[00:05:23] money and later drove cars for
[00:05:26] a Ukrainian-Polish volunteer, yes, that is, it seems to me that
[00:05:29] this direct experience of experiencing the Ukrainian war is very
[00:05:32] important, and the second conclusion is this, listen, that the Russians scoff
[00:05:36] at his statements, but they listen to them very carefully, because
[00:05:40] literally within a day... after
[00:05:42] Sikorski's words, at 800 m from the Polish border, Russian
[00:05:46] drones fell, yes, we saw all these
[00:05:49] shots from near a gas station near
[00:05:53] Yahodyn, yes, where
[00:05:56] according to one information, there was a hit on trucks that
[00:05:59] were standing near the border and this
[00:06:02] gas station,
[00:06:04] also already on September 17,
[00:06:07] also a few days later
[00:06:10] after the attack near Yahodyn, a drone also fell 4
[00:06:14] km from the Polish-Ukrainian border, an air siren
[00:06:17] sounded in the eastern regions of Poland, there was an evacuation
[00:06:21] of schools, work at airports in
[00:06:24] Lublin and Rzeszow was stopped, that is, we also see
[00:06:28] and recalling that in July a Kh-101 missile flew in,
[00:06:31] plus there was again this week an incident
[00:06:35] related to a drone in the Baltic Sea, there is different
[00:06:38] information on how it could have ended up there, perhaps the Russians
[00:06:42] conducted some tests in international
[00:06:45] waters, or this is again another
[00:06:48] provocation, on the coast of
[00:06:52] the Baltic Sea, a new type of drone, Gerbera, was found,
[00:06:55] and
[00:06:59] that is, we see almost daily some new
[00:07:02] such incidents and, well, actually with this drone in the Baltics, we still need to
[00:07:05] figure out what it was doing there, because there are two opinions, that
[00:07:09] actually the first is that yes, it was such a... empty gerbera, that is,
[00:07:13] without an explosive charge, and again the goal
[00:07:15] was either a provocation, or testing
[00:07:19] the capabilities of Polish air defense, but I also heard a second
[00:07:22] well-reasoned opinion from experts that this is actually a drone that may have fallen
[00:07:26] somewhere in neutral waters and was simply carried to Poland by the sea
[00:07:30] current. Uh, it seems to me that it's still more important to return
[00:07:34] to these border attacks. Uh, you mentioned
[00:07:37] September 17, unfortunately, in the Lublin, in the Podkarpackie
[00:07:41] voivodeships, where... air raid sirens are already becoming
[00:07:44] a practice not once a month, but several times a
[00:07:47] week, but such an incident, the biggest
[00:07:51] incident of demonstration, I would say, of Russian arrogance, such
[00:07:55] arrogance, it actually happened on the night of September 13, when Russian
[00:07:59] drones attacked not only the gas station
[00:08:02] near the border, but also the crossing
[00:08:05] where trains that travel from Ukraine to Poland to
[00:08:09] the European Union are waiting for customs and border clearance. And
[00:08:13] there, in particular, more or less at this time there was a train with which
[00:08:17] a large European delegation was returning from an international conference in
[00:08:20] Kyiv, there was, in particular, the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson,
[00:08:24] very popular in Ukraine, less popular at home,
[00:08:27] Carl Bildt also very popular in Ukraine, still popular at home,
[00:08:31] and there were actually many of my Polish acquaintances,
[00:08:34] that is, these were my friends who recently were in Kyiv at various international events,
[00:08:38] analysts, journalists, they also returned on this train, and it was
[00:08:42] about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour earlier than
[00:08:45] planned, that is, it is not excluded at all that this
[00:08:48] drone, which fell near
[00:08:52] the railway platform, that the target of this
[00:08:55] attack was actually this train,
[00:08:59] to intimidate, to humiliate, that is, what Russian propaganda later
[00:09:02] likes to spin during all these
[00:09:06] garbage talk shows, there is also a sharp discussion about what to do with all this,
[00:09:09] because we really see these...
[00:09:14] Putin is climbing the stairs of escalation and
[00:09:17] testing the reaction, if there is no real response
[00:09:20] that forces Russia to think,
[00:09:23] then these incidents will
[00:09:26] escalate, it's already being talked about, even,
[00:09:30] for example, Daniel Szeligowski, an expert from the Polish Institute of International Affairs,
[00:09:33] talks about the need for a kinetic
[00:09:37] response, and
[00:09:40] probably in Warsaw now...
[00:09:43] there are also discussions about this, I would also draw attention, for example, to the opinion
[00:09:46] of Sławomir Odembski, also
[00:09:49] a well-known Polish historian and political scientist, a political
[00:09:52] commentator, who in his text on the ZroPL portal writes about
[00:09:56] the fact that the state can also have available methods
[00:09:59] of influence, and give
[00:10:02] the necessary signals and answers to the Russian Federation. But
[00:10:05] you see, this is all, as it were, a discussion about a response that
[00:10:09] the army or perhaps special services should provide. I would
[00:10:12] draw attention here, if we are already talking about interesting
[00:10:15] texts from Polish media, there is such a Polish sociologist,
[00:10:19] Weronika Grzebalska, she
[00:10:21] researches civil defense. in particular, the role
[00:10:25] of women in civil defense, and she wrote, it seems
[00:10:28] to me, such a very programmatic text for
[00:10:32] the online media Kultura Liberalna, where she
[00:10:35] writes about the fact that in Poland
[00:10:38] there is, as it were, a social consensus that more money should be spent on the army,
[00:10:42] and this is generally not bad, but it is bad
[00:10:45] that Polish citizens increasingly perceive
[00:10:48] higher spending on the army as I will pay any money for someone to do something
[00:10:52] instead of me, while it is important to have even more
[00:10:55] large-scale training than currently exists for public, civil
[00:10:58] defense, it is important to involve not only
[00:11:02] people who would, in case of anything, directly participate in
[00:11:05] the military containment of the enemy, but also training
[00:11:09] for teachers, doctors, employees
[00:11:12] of all educational institutions working with children, because, as the case of
[00:11:15] Ukraine shows, precisely during a hybrid war
[00:11:18] or even a classical war, the importance of these
[00:11:21] people, their competencies, their ability to manage
[00:11:25] their subordinates, simply during evacuation, it is simply critical, well, and
[00:11:29] in particular, she draws attention to how underestimated
[00:11:32] the issue of women's participation and their social
[00:11:36] role during a possible escalation
[00:11:39] still is in the documents of the Polish General Staff and government, but
[00:11:42] we see that there are attempts at coordination between
[00:11:45] Ukraine and Poland, an interesting meeting took place in Rzeszów, so there
[00:11:49] the coordinator of Polish special services Tomasz Siemoniak met with
[00:11:53] the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Igor.
[00:11:55] Kovalenko, security issues were also
[00:11:58] discussed, among others. We know that Siemoniak recently
[00:12:01] met with CIA Director Radcliffe. We know
[00:12:05] that Tusk received
[00:12:08] certain data from American colleagues,
[00:12:11] and Warsaw also receives, well, this
[00:12:14] is now very actively present in Polish media, Warsaw receives signals from
[00:12:17] Washington, and the government
[00:12:20] is concerned, in fact, that these
[00:12:24] difficult incidents that occurred at the border, which took place
[00:12:28] during this week, all
[00:12:31] happened after the visit
[00:12:34] of the Americans to Putin, that is, in
[00:12:38] Warsaw, it raises concerns whether
[00:12:40] the Americans,
[00:12:42] whether the states in general today have such
[00:12:46] influence on Putin to prevent
[00:12:49] these escalatory incidents, when after the visit
[00:12:52] of literally the American...
[00:12:56] Putin literally attacks the borders of NATO countries,
[00:12:59] specifically Poland. I would, you know, summarize this part of
[00:13:03] our conversation by saying that in principle, for years there was a consensus that
[00:13:07] if Russia behaves more audaciously
[00:13:10] in Europe, then target
[00:13:14] number one is the Baltic states. Here Estonia and
[00:13:18] Latvia were particularly singled out as target number one, that, as it were, they should be most
[00:13:21] vigilant. Meanwhile, as
[00:13:24] the Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland, Cezary Tomczyk, recently stated
[00:13:27] from the rostrum of the Sejm, if we are talking about hybrid attacks and
[00:13:31] surveillance, then Poland, unfortunately, is in many ways today
[00:13:34] Russia's target number one. But I suggest
[00:13:38] we move on to the next topic, because bad results of the week from
[00:13:42] Poland, in which we did not mention whom? Grzegorz
[00:13:45] Braun. What did he, what did he distinguish himself
[00:13:48] with this time? You know, well, on the one hand, I am both surprised and not surprised, because
[00:13:52] on September 10, Braun... I remind you,
[00:13:55] the odious MEP and leader of the Polish Confederation
[00:13:58] of the Polish Crown party. He published a video on his social networks
[00:14:02] in which he and another man were hitting
[00:14:06] with hammers a granite obelisk in the Belyastok
[00:14:09] tract, near the village of Liski,
[00:14:12] Gmina Dołhobyczów, this is Hrubieszów County, Lublin
[00:14:15] Voivodeship. And this stone is not just
[00:14:19] a stone, it's an obelisk erected
[00:14:22] on the grave in which 40. one soldier of the Ukrainian
[00:14:26] Insurgent Army is buried, who died in February 1946
[00:14:29] in battles with an NKVD unit, that is,
[00:14:32] they fought against the Soviet army, which, according to many Poles, occupied
[00:14:36] Poland after the war. Yes, and this incident was, of course, very
[00:14:39] loudly discussed in
[00:14:42] Ukrainian media, in Ukrainian social networks, there was
[00:14:45] a reaction, there is a reaction from the Polish police, who have already
[00:14:49] opened proceedings, an investigation is underway, there were statements from the Ministry
[00:14:52] of Internal Affairs and Administration that the guilty will be punished,
[00:14:56] the guilty will be punished, here
[00:15:00] the question is, yes, well, Braun, of course,
[00:15:03] Braun is known for these performances of his,
[00:15:06] I would say, yes, because he has
[00:15:10] become famous for this in recent years, and these
[00:15:13] actions of his, well, with a fire extinguisher,
[00:15:17] extinguishing a menorah, burning the EU flag,
[00:15:20] taking down the Ukrainian flag, and this is also the basis of
[00:15:24] his rating. because all these
[00:15:27] incidents of his are very actively
[00:15:30] spread on social networks, so, well, this is emotion,
[00:15:34] this is uh...
[00:15:37] what social media algorithms love, what a certain
[00:15:41] cohort of people actively share,
[00:15:44] and - this incident also falls into this
[00:15:47] whole strategy of Braun's behavior, uh, in order to
[00:15:51] once again attract attention to himself, attract attention against the background, and
[00:15:54] the Korona party, if we look at the average figures for July and August,
[00:15:58] is still losing ratings, there are various estimates of 1-1.5,
[00:16:02] even up to 2%, accordingly, you need to remind
[00:16:05] yourself that... so that these ratings would at
[00:16:09] least remain at the current
[00:16:12] level. The second point, we see that after the wave
[00:16:15] of aggravation in Polish-Ukrainian relations, a stage has come
[00:16:19] when, in fact, there were holidays for Polish politicians, diplomacy
[00:16:22] worked more actively, a stage has come,
[00:16:25] after all, yes, Ukraine issues new permits for exhumation,
[00:16:29] reburials of the remains of those found during
[00:16:32] exhumation are taking place, Poland is preparing a package of military aid for
[00:16:36] 50 million. That's it. Between the capitals and
[00:16:38] between
[00:16:42] internet users, it somehow became calmer, and then Braun comes out with
[00:16:45] his sledgehammer, well, I primarily
[00:16:48] see a specific stone
[00:16:52] aimed at Prime Minister Donald Tusk, why, because
[00:16:55] you see, by and large, well, not by and large, there is simply a
[00:16:59] grave there, that is, it's not even a question of attitude
[00:17:02] towards the UPA, there are graves of Soviet army soldiers and Wehrmacht
[00:17:06] soldiers on Polish territory. that is, formations that are unequivocally recognized by Poles as
[00:17:10] hostile, while Polish media, which reported
[00:17:13] this case as the destruction of the UPA monument, which, as it were,
[00:17:17] says that there is some monument that glorifies someone, although in reality it is a tombstone,
[00:17:20] and the fact that the case is presented exactly like this puts
[00:17:24] Tusk and the Polish government in general in a very awkward position, because on
[00:17:27] the one hand,
[00:17:30] if he as it were, the government starts doing something
[00:17:34] to restore this monument, there is also such a subtle point that...
[00:17:37] that there are such Ukrainian places of memory on the territory of Poland, there are such
[00:17:41] Polish places of memory on the territory of Ukraine, where in the 90s local
[00:17:45] communities installed some commemorative signs, commemorative monuments,
[00:17:48] but these signs and monuments were never formally recognized as places
[00:17:52] of memory on the basis of national law, and
[00:17:55] if, moreover, in such a situation, Tusk, his government starts
[00:17:59] doing something to restore this monument, you will immediately
[00:18:02] get from the same Braun, his associates, the Polish
[00:18:06] authorities are restoring...
[00:18:37] Poland's Independence March, but not in
[00:18:41] some Polish city, only in Ukrainian Lviv,
[00:18:45] and actually this group of deputies, among whom is Dariusz Matecki, a great
[00:18:48] friend of Ukraine, in inverted commas, they asked Donald Tusk's government whether
[00:18:52] he was ready to agree to hold the event with the Ukrainian and
[00:18:56] Lviv city authorities, and also to ensure its organization
[00:18:59] and financing, well, in Ukraine I see it is also
[00:19:02] being discussed, discussed, Matecki, this is allegedly presented
[00:19:06] as a reaction to... the celebration of Ukraine's Independence
[00:19:09] Day in Warsaw, which is currently taking place,
[00:19:12] in particular since 2022 in
[00:19:15] the center of Warsaw, which is also held under
[00:19:18] the patronage
[00:19:20] of the Warsaw city hall, these are also similar
[00:19:24] events in various regions of Poland supported by local
[00:19:28] self-government, and here Matecki asks,
[00:19:30] does Tusk support
[00:19:33] such events in Lviv? Well, the first
[00:19:36] point... here it is worth turning to the rather
[00:19:40] rational opinion of Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the Confederation, who said
[00:19:43] that when he saw this information about this letter, he needed
[00:19:47] time to generally understand what it was about,
[00:19:50] firstly, if we are already talking about
[00:19:54] holding similar events, although Poles do celebrate,
[00:19:57] the Polish community in Ukraine celebrates Independence Day just in a different
[00:20:00] format, if such events are to be held and addressed
[00:20:04] to the authorities in this context, then it should be to the Ukrainian ones, because... there should be
[00:20:08] symmetry, if there
[00:20:10] is some support from the Polish side, then in Ukraine there should be support
[00:20:14] from the Ukrainian side for the Polish community. But you see, Matecki, as it were, and his friends, they
[00:20:18] first of all popularize false information, as if the Polish
[00:20:21] authorities financially support the Ukrainian community, which
[00:20:24] celebrates Ukrainian Independence Day in
[00:20:27] Poland. And the absolute majority of money for celebrations
[00:20:31] that take place either in Warsaw or in smaller communities, comes from private sponsors,
[00:20:35] Polish companies or Ukrainian businesses. In
[00:20:38] Poland, the city authorities of Warsaw and
[00:20:41] other cities provide their patronage, but not financial participation. The second thing
[00:20:45] is that, you see, in Lviv there is an old local Polish
[00:20:48] community, which itself celebrates this day somehow for years,
[00:20:52] sometimes in the opera house, sometimes with a solemn reception,
[00:20:56] more modestly during the war, and here there are, I would actually call these
[00:21:00] people parachutists, because a month ago they traveled
[00:21:04] to Lublin, a city that, by Polish standards, is very
[00:21:07] calm, where integration of foreigners is very good, and they
[00:21:11] came there to muddy the waters, because it seemed to them that in Lublin
[00:21:15] universities there are too many students from sub-Saharan
[00:21:18] Africa, and so they... these parachutists landed there and started
[00:21:21] telling the locals how they should actually live with these students, although
[00:21:25] they live wonderfully with them, and here these parachutists are doing the same thing, they
[00:21:29] don't just want to, I don't know, walk with flags, the Independence March is a very
[00:21:32] specific event in Poland, mostly with
[00:21:35] the participation of very masculine young
[00:21:38] men, dressed in black with far-right
[00:21:42] symbols, flares, well, and let's be
[00:21:44] honest, sometimes with such not very
[00:21:48] tolerant slogans towards foreign national minorities, and
[00:21:51] in fact, they are going to bring this whole show
[00:21:55] to the Polish community of Lviv, which actually has its own format for years,
[00:21:58] and I would actually emphasize that
[00:22:02] the point is not that Poles cannot celebrate Independence Day in Ukraine, of course,
[00:22:06] but let the people who are here themselves, let them decide how
[00:22:10] this holiday
[00:30:24] Hello, this is News on Espresso. My name is Oksana Vysochenska and I will tell you more
[00:30:27] about the situation in the country and in the world. Russian troops
[00:30:31] launched an air strike on an evacuation point in Kramatorsk
[00:30:35] in Donetsk region, reported the head of the humanitarian mission "Proliska" Yevhen
[00:30:39] Kaplin. According to him, it was a direct hit. At the time
[00:30:43] of the attack, evacuated people and staff assisting with
[00:30:46] the evacuation were at the location. Information about possible fatalities and injuries is still
[00:30:49] being clarified.
[00:30:51] Due to the consequences of Russian attacks,
[00:30:54] Ukrzaliznytsia trains are running with significant delays. Some
[00:30:57] flights.