Zelensky's refusal to prepare the country for war - a decision that cost thousands of lives in the opening days of the invasion - may paradoxically have saved Ukraine from total collapse. That is the conclusion drawn from The Guardian's investigation.
As "Hvylya" reports, journalist Shaun Walker conducted over 100 interviews with intelligence, military and diplomatic insiders from several countries to reconstruct what happened in the months before 24 February 2022.
"If he had started to talk about an oncoming war, had told everyone to prepare, society would have panicked and millions would have fled," said one HUR general. "The country would most likely have fallen."
Zelensky himself feared exactly that scenario. He believed that public panic would crash the economy and destroy the country without Russia needing to send a single soldier across the border - and he suspected this was Putin's plan all along. In January, he recorded a video urging Ukrainians to "breathe deeply, calm down, and don't go running to stock up on food and matches." A month later, missiles were falling on Kyiv.
But after the invasion began, Zelensky surprised everyone - Washington and Moscow alike. Both capitals had assumed he would either flee or be killed. Biden urged him to leave. Instead, Zelensky stayed, and his defiant performance in the first weeks rallied Ukrainian society. It buried the questions about his failure to prepare. But the debate, The Guardian notes, may yet resurface - especially if future elections pit Zelensky against Zaluzhnyi, the former commander-in-chief who pushed for action and was rebuffed. Meanwhile, Zelensky has accepted a US proposal for new peace talks - negotiating an end to the very war he once refused to believe was coming.