Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council: Ukraine was preparing for war but could not tell its citizens

Denys Karlovsky – Thursday, 10 March 2022, 22:07

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said that Ukraine’s government was preparing for an all-out war with Russia, but could not openly say so to its citizens.

Source: Oleksiy Danilov on Radio Svoboda Youtube

According to Danilov: "We could not tell our citizens that, well, tomorrow there will be a war. It was unacceptable, because fomenting chaos here was one of Russia’s tactics.

We held off until the last instant, we were preparing for it until the last instant. We clearly understood that this would happen.

The only thing I can say is that we did not expect this to happen from the side of Belarus. We did not expect to be stabbed in the back like that. We did not expect them to advance everywhere, on all fronts. It was a surprise for us – I can say that."

Details: According to Danilov, the authorities began to assess the risk of war as ‘real’ in November 2021.

Danilov claims that the Ukrainian government believed that Russia would launch offensives on the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimean fronts.

The Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council also insists that the Russian political and military command, fired some of its military commanders in the wake of an attempt to find out what caused the blitzkrieg on Kyiv to fail.

The official believes that no one in the world expected a full-scale war of this extent in the 21st century.

Background:

• Contrary to Danilov’s words, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, told Ukrayinska Pravda that on the night of 24 February, he and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not believe in the imminent start of a full-scale war.
• On 23 February, American journalists learned that the United States had informed Kyiv on the morning of 22 February that Russia would launch a full-scale invasion within 48 hours. US intelligence warned in January and February 2022 that a full-scale Russian attack was "imminent."
• On the evening of 23 February, a meeting with representatives of Ukraine’s 50 largest businesses was held in the President’s Office. President Zelenskyy asked the businessmen to stay in Ukraine and help prop up the economy, to help assure the citizens. Ukrainian intelligence agents had reassured the businessmen that a full-scale war would not happen.
• On 28 January, about a month before the start of the war, Zelenskyy held a press conference with foreign journalists. He asked them not to panic, as panic would harm the Ukrainian economy, and assured that the risk of escalation was not greater than it has been for the past three years.