According to his US counterpart Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ignored warnings of a Russian invasion shortly before the start of the war.
There was “no doubt” that Russia would “cross the border,” Biden said at an event in Los Angeles on Friday. “Zelenskyj didn’t want to hear that, and neither did many others.”
“I know a lot of people thought I was exaggerating,” he said, referring to US warnings of a possible Russian attack. However, the US government had data to support its assessment.
The political leadership in Kyiv reacted angrily to Biden’s statements. “The phrase ‘didn’t want to hear’ certainly needs some explanation,” Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov told online newspaper Liga.net.
More on the Ukraine war at Tagesspiegel Plus:
Selenskyj has repeatedly called on international partners to impose preventive sanctions in order to force Russia to withdraw troops already stationed in the border region with Ukraine, said Nykyforov. “And here you can say that our partners ‘didn’t want to hear us,'” he said.
