Kremlin officials did not know about the war/Getty Images
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate stated that the top leadership and intelligence of Ukraine knew in advance about the plans and date of the Russian attack on Ukraine. The same cannot be said about the Kremlin officials.
They did not know about Putin's plans to break into Ukraine until February 24th. Kirill Mikhailov, a military expert, Conflict Intelligence Team researcher, told Channel 24 about this.
Even before Mr. Budanov's interview (which came out on May 24 – Channel 24), we knew that most Kremlin officials also did not know until February 24 that a full-scale war would begin, he said.
As Mikhailov added, when the Conflict Intelligence Team drew its conclusions immediately before the invasion, they said that they did not know if the war would begin at all. However, everything went to the fact that Putin could order.
“Back on February 23, they (the Russians – Channel 24) could well have returned to some more permanent camps, for example, near Voronezh. But this did not happen,” he added.
Putin's other plan
Also, Russia had the option of openly entering the territory of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions with Russian troops and declaring that they were allegedly “under the protection of Russia”.
“However, he chose the craziest course of action,” Mikhailov added.
Intelligence knew about the date of the invasion: what is known
- Kirill Budanov said that he knew the exact date of the invasion and reported it to the political leadership of the country.
- According to him, Putin accepted the final decision to start hostilities around 15:00 on February 23, and before that time there were still some hesitation.
- The intelligence chief also noted that on February 23, participants in a meeting of big business in the Office of the President were warned about the maximum likelihood of hostilities.
- Representatives of big business were also told about the location of the main forces, groupings, the total number of tanks, helicopters stationed in operational areas.
- And therefore, according to Budanov, in order not to cause premature panic , which Russia really wanted to achieve in Ukraine, so that there would be no significant fluctuations in the exchange rate, capital outflow, in order to somehow maintain the investment climate and other economic aspects, Ukrainians had to be assured that that the situation is under control .
