MP says Ukraine was secretly preparing for war weeks before full-scale Russian invasion

Ukraine’s Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence was considering the issue of introducing martial law and mobilization in Ukraine from the beginning of 2022, weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion and war, an MP says.

MP Roman Kostenko told NV about Ukraine’s secret preparations for war in a comment for the article “How Ukraine Lost the South. NV identified several reasons for Russia’s rapid seizure of the vast region from the suburbs of Mykolaiv to Mariupol,” which was published on Nov. 22.

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“We talked about mobilization, reservists, and increasing funds to finance the army,” Kostenko said.

“At the beginning, around January 2022, (Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii) Zaluzhnyi visited the committee. He said that there was no need for mobilization yet.”

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Closer to the outbreak of the invasion, the commander-in-chief’s rhetoric changed: Zaluzhnyi said he supported increasing the number of troops. “For me, the more troops, the better,” the lawmaker quoted him as saying.

“(The head of the Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo) Budanov, also came,” Kostenko said about the Rada committee meetings before full-scale war.

“He kept saying: ‘War, war’. I asked him: ‘Do you report to the (President’s) Office? Why don’t you give them suggestions that they need to mobilize, pull up personnel, dig trenches?’ He said that yes, he was reporting.”

Read also: No need for new mobilization wave yet — defense minister

Ukrainia President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on general mobilization after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022 when martial law was also introduced.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine