Zelensky: Ukraine saw Russia preparing for invasion, but 'scale and arrogance' were unexpected
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he saw Russia's real preparation for aggression back in September-October 2021, but its "scale and arrogance" were unexpected.
"The pressure was before a large-scale invasion. We understood that preparations were underway. I would start talking about the offensive from September-October. The hybrid shelling began in the autumn, you remember the problems with fuel, energy, cyber attacks," he said in an interview with the ICTV television company shown on Saturday during a telethon.
"But the scale, the arrogance that we saw – no one fully understood. It's one thing when you understand that tanks will most likely come from Belarus. And another thing is that Russia will attack you through Belarus. It's another thing when missiles are specifically flying from Belarus. There is a big difference – you are at war with those who are on the territory of Belarus, or you are at war with two countries," he said.
At the same time, speaking about warnings from Western intelligence agencies, Zelensky said that "no one fully knew the details. We had our own preparations. The intelligence agencies of our partners had their own preparations. No one had more details than we knew."
According to him, "with such a scale [of invasion], no country in Europe could cope. When a large army attacks you, you cannot concentrate forces, for example, around Kyiv."
"For this territory [Ukraine], we need an army not with 260,000 soldiers (and there were 120,000 soldiers from combat troops). Even with 100,000 more we would not be able to stop them. Today, it is 700,000," the president said.
At the same time, according to him, analysts said that with the format of the Armed Forces and equipment that Ukraine has, "they will come in a couple of days and capture it… Our partners told us – dig trenches. And we said – give us weapons," Zelensky said.