A year ago, the Russian invaders thought they could “capture Kyiv in three days.” In the event of an occupation, Ukraine could be “managed” by Putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk or former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukrainian intelligence says that the Russians did not have a clear plan for who would come to lead Ukraine. The invaders wanted our power to “fall”. So, in the event of the capture of Kyiv last year, the Kremlin prepared two scenarios for our state.
The first scenario of the occupiers for Ukraine
One of the scenarios involved the closest person to Putin in Ukraine, his godfather Viktor Medvedchuk. Under the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Medvedchuk was the main negotiator with the Kremlin and dealt with the exchange of prisoners. And under Zelensky, he was under investigation.
In recent years, in Ukraine, the level of Medvedchuk's problems has only grown: his TV channels were turned off the air, the National Security and Defense Council imposed personal sanctions against him and his wife. In addition, the godfather of the Russian dictator was raised a number of suspicions about possible cooperation with the invaders and the organization of coal schemes.
Medvedchuk's last chance to be at the top of Ukrainian politics was “assistance” to Russia.
On the morning of February 24, Medvedchuk stopped communicating. A year after the start of the big war, both Medvedchuk's associates and members of Zelensky's team were convinced that bringing Putin's godfather to power was “Plan A” in the Kremlin.
The Ukrainian special services are convinced that the “surrounded” Verkhovna Rada should have removed the head of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk. In general, this should have happened on February 27th. Instead of Stefanchuk, Viktor Medvedchuk would be the speaker.
The fallback scenario of the Kremlin
The Kremlin's “Plan B” was former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Russia. The SBU says that after the “disappearance” of Medvedchuk, the Russians considered the option of returning Yanukovych to Ukraine.
He had to declare again that he was legitimate, and all the other nonsense,” sources in the SBU said.
Thus, Yanukovych became the “plan B” of the Russian authorities.
“The Russians relied on “non-critical imports” – that is, the return to Ukraine of all those who fled after 2014. There will be enough fugitives for several Cabinets. And if they returned, it would be enough to fill a few key positions, and then the system itself would start generate people for the places below,” one of the former top officials of the Yanukovych era said.
As a result, the plan to “return Yanukovych” lived in Putin's head for several more days and failed.
Yanukovych was supposed to bless Medvedchuk to lead Ukraine
Foreign media recently reported that Viktor Medvedchuk, a state traitor and godfather of Vladimir Putin, was convincing the Kremlin that the Ukrainians would not resist. He hoped to be in the occupation administration.
As Putin began to plan for the invasion, Medvedchuk insisted that Ukrainians would welcome Russian troops with open arms. One part of the plan involved Viktor Yanukovych, who was in exile after fleeing the 2014 Maidan. He was supposed to make a video message in which to give Medvedchuk legitimacy and bless him to lead Ukraine with the support of Russia.
