Zelenskyy Spoke About An Unexpected Discovery In Russian Military Equipment
30- 22.10.2026, 19:38
The Ukrainian Armed Forces thwarted the occupiers' plans.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained why the offensive on Kyiv via Belarus caught them off guard and also identified Putin’s main mistake in the early days of the war. He explained in an in-depth conversation with Stephen Bartlett on the podcast *The Diary of a CEO*.
According to Zelenskyy, Russian troops were conducting exercises in Belarus on the eve of the full-scale invasion. Although intelligence agencies had warned of the danger, many of Ukraine’s partners did not believe an actual attack was imminent and viewed the maneuvers as a show of force, an attempt to intimidate Kyiv and force it to make concessions. European leaders called Putin, and he assured them that there would be no invasion. Zelenskyy cited another detail as telling: the Ukrainian defense minister was invited to those very exercises, and he attended them. “Imagine that,” said the Ukrainian president.
The warnings from the American side, he said, were cautious diplomatic hints: they did not tell him about an invasion as a specific event with a date and scale. He himself admits that he did not expect a full-scale war, as he found it hard to believe that his partners knew about the preparations for an attack but were not using all means to stop it.
It is worth noting that the Belarusian opposition had repeatedly warned Ukraine that Lukashenko would allow Russian troops to use Belarusian territory to attack Kyiv.
Bartlett noted that while preparing for the interview, he was struck by the scale of the forces advancing on the capital. Zelensky explained that Ukraine’s strongest forces were stationed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and were holding back the enemy’s main forces, and that no one had anticipated that the Russian army would advance on Kyiv through Belarusian territory. Therefore, Ukraine had no major forces in that direction, and this, the president emphasized, is an indisputable fact.
According to his account, the Russian command had counted on a rapid capture of the capital. As proof, Zelenskyy cited findings: Ukrainian soldiers, while destroying enemy vehicles, discovered ceremonial uniforms inside them. The invaders, as he put it, were literally marching to a parade and planned to take Kyiv in three days in order to stage a symbolic victory show on Khreshchatyk and Independence Square.
For Zelenskyy, this is part of Putin’s broader mistake: Putin’s refusal to recognize Ukraine as a separate state or Ukrainians as a distinct people capable of putting up resistance.
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