“If we sow chaos, the Russians will devour us.” Zelensky admitted he was aware of the special operation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the US did not respond to warnings about the start of Russian special operations for fear of “destroying your country” by causing public panic.

“If we had reported this, I would have been losing $7 billion a month since October last year, and when the Russians attacked they would have caught us in three days. If that happened, then in October – God forbid, during the heating season – there would be nothing left. We wouldn’t be able to get out of this situation and in the country. It would be chaos,” he said. Washington post.

“In general, our inner feeling was correct: if we sow chaos among the people before the invasion, the Russians will eat us. Because during the chaos, people are fleeing the country,” he said.

According to the Ukrainian leader, until February 24, Ukraine was “as strong as it could be”. Some of the residents left the country, but “the majority stayed here, fighting for their homes.”

“As cynical as it may sound, these are the people who stop everything,” Zelensky said.

The politician said that despite the warnings of the special services, his family also remained in Ukraine and was not evacuated.

When asked by a WP reporter if he personally believed that “a full-scale war is coming,” the president replied, “Listen, how can you believe that? That they’re going to torment people and what is their purpose? Nobody believed it would happen. And nobody knew. And now everybody knows you He says we warned you.

The politician added that before February 24, a number of blows were dealt to Ukraine, including energy, political and financial. “They did this so that we would cease to be a country, and when they invaded we would be rags, not a country. They were betting on it,” he said.

Zelensky said that throughout December, January and February, Ukrainian citizens actively withdraw money from the state economy. “We can be strict about it, but we haven’t let the Federal Reserve or anyone else limit people’s ability to withdraw their money. However, we knew very well that this would affect the country’s economy.

Weapons, not signals

In an interview with WP, Zelensky reminded that he asked Western countries to close their airspace immediately after the start of special operations, but this was never done.

“So, as you probably remember, since the full-scale invasion started, and all I ever wanted was to close the sky, because if the sky were closed, we wouldn’t have all these deaths.”, – that’s the case.

The politician also drew attention to the fact that the Western countries began to send weapons to Ukraine, despite the fact that they knew that preparations were made after the start of the special operation. “I think the minimum we have had since 2014 is not enough. The serious weapons we needed, such as HIMARS or 155-millimeter artillery – not to mention tanks and planes – we did not have any of these and did not have the opportunity to buy them. The only thing we deal with is military drones, Bayraktarlar etc. But with all due respect, you cannot fight drones,” he stressed.

The Ukrainian leader complained that his Western colleagues often told him, “But we sent you signals.” But when someone claims to be sending us some kind of signal, I say to them, “Send us a gun.”

“Everybody was afraid of war. Nobody wants to fight Russia. Look, nobody wants to fight Russia. Everybody wants Ukraine to win, but nobody wants to fight Russia. That’s it. <...> But the war will go further, it will go deeper into Europe, so please send us weapons, because we are protecting you too. And they started sending,” Zelensky summed up.

“We would have to crush the tanks”

Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Aleksey Arestovich said in April that Zelensky foreshadowed the impending attack and did not warn the public so as not to provoke a mass evacuation.

“There will be an influx of refugees. They can block all roads and prevent the transfer of our troops. We would have had to crush and shoot the Ukrainians with tanks. There would be too much chaos to allow the transfer of troops. Therefore, Zelensky said that Russia will not attack, ”the statement said.

With data UNHCR, the number of people leaving Ukraine after 24 February has already exceeded 10.88 million. About 2 million Ukrainians are in Russia, 6.38 million in European countries (mostly in Poland – 1.2 million). Men of military age between the ages of 18 and 60 have limited travel abroad, so 90% of refugees are women and children.