Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskyy reveals why he didn't warn Ukrainians about Russian invasion

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday explained why his government didn’t openly warn the Ukrainians to know about the Russian invasion just days before he was alerted with intelligence on the looming Russian invasion. In his interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy clarified that if he had hurled cautions at the Ukrainian citizens about the invasion in advance, Russia would have captured Ukraine in a matter of three days.

According to Zelenskyy, chaos and panic would have ensued had the Ukrainians known about the conflict, and without martial law imposed just days after Russians launched the offensive on Ukraine, it would have led to a significant weakening of the economy. Publicly admitting to the looming Russian assault on Ukrainian soil, would have led to a mass exodus, as per  Zelenskyy, and that would have made the invasion much easier. 

Biden says Zelenskyy 'didn’t want to hear it'

US President Joe Biden had earlier said that Zelenskyy “didn’t want to hear it” after the United States intelligence officials informed about the potential Russian attack planned around Feb. 24 invasion. At the time, Biden had pledged an estimated $40 billion in new military and humanitarian aid for the Ukrainians. During an address at a fundraising event in Los Angeles, Biden stated that his administration had already warned Zelenskyy and his government that Russian troops might launch an invasion based on US intelligence. 

“I know a lot of people thought I was maybe exaggerating,” the US President Joe Biden said, according to the Associated Press. Biden stated that his administration had "data to sustain”that Russian President Vladimir Putin “was going to go in, off the border.” “There was no doubt, and Zelenskyy didn’t want to hear it, nor did a lot of people,” Biden had told reporters, according to Bloomberg. “I understand why they didn’t want to hear it, but [Putin] went in," the US President said. 

“Nothing like this has happened since World War II. I know a lot of people thought I was maybe exaggerating. But I knew we had data to sustain he” — meaning Russian President Vladimir Putin — “was going to go in, off the border," the US leader told the donors. He added, “There was no doubt,” Biden said. “And Zelenskyy didn’t want to hear it.”