video frame: vladimir zelensky. source: wikipedia
The Washington Post (WP) newspaper, citing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, as well as Ukrainian and Western officials, writes that Zelensky was ready to resign or leave Kiev at the very beginning of Russia’s special operation – if it would help stop the fighting.
The publication notes that the President of Ukraine stated to Western officials that he was not trying to “hold on to power.”
“If the only question is for me to leave and this will stop the bloodshed, then I’m all for it. I will leave right now,” the newspaper quotes Zelensky.
However, Western and US officials informed the Ukrainian leader about the need to ensure the “continuity of power”, and some of them asked him to leave Kiev, arguing that in order to prevent the emergence of a “power vacuum” he needed to ensure his own security.
Zelensky suspected that some of his foreign interlocutors wanted only a speedy end to the conflict. “Of all those who called me, there was no one who believed that we would hold out,” he said, according to the publication.
A few hours after the start of the special operation, Zelensky was in an underground bunker. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov outlined the current situation to him. He said that all the chances of Ukraine’s success were “almost zero”, since the West did not supply Kiev with weapons, hoping to see if the Armed Forces of Ukraine themselves would be able to “protect the country”. Danilov also warned the president about the alleged personal threat from Moscow to him, but did not say what the president should do in this situation.
Adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich said that the presidential guard advised Zelensky to move from Kiev to the fuse of Ukraine. He himself gave the president such advice. According to Arestovich, “people who understand military affairs” approached Zelensky and said that the Ukrainian troops would not be able to “hold out.” Zelensky reacted to such words with a short temper and asked his entourage not to tell him anything like that.