On eve of February 24, 2022, I did not receive any official information that Russia was preparing an invasion - former Joint Forces Commander Naiev
The former commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, said that on the eve of February 24, 2022, he did not receive official information from officials that the Russian army was preparing an invasion.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to UP.
Naiev said that even on February 23, 2022, his command post "did not receive any information from any official that there would be a war tomorrow."
"I am the commander of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. I do not receive written information that there will be a war tomorrow. And at my command post in the evening, around 10 p.m., my chief of intelligence, a colonel, receives information from friends unofficially.
His friend sends it to him on the appropriate messenger. It's a conversation between two Russian soldiers, and they discuss among themselves that at 6 a.m. on February 24, their Russian drone will be over the Russian column in the Sumy region.
I ask my intelligence chief: "Do you believe this information?" He said: "I cannot confirm or deny it". By some inner conviction, being in the midst of these events, I communicate with my commanders, live with the situation as it is. I pick up the phone and tell the 7 commanders again that I believe that at 4 a.m. on the 24th, the Russian Federation will launch a large-scale invasion. Therefore, in the remaining time, you need to take such measures so that you are ready to repel this armed aggression in the morning," the general said.
Naiev said that the actions that took place in that short time "were the result, first of all, of the initiative, independent decisions of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Zaluzhnyi, myself as the Commander of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, and other commanders who took this initiative."
Naiev also said that on February 23, he decided to place mines in the Black Sea, despite the fact that there was no legal regime of martial law at the time. He emphasized that he had only a "premonition" of the invasion, not knowledge that it would happen.
"On that night of the 23rd, I made a decision to lay sea mines in the Black Sea along the coast of Mykolaiv and Odesa regions. Without any decisions on the use, without the legal regime of martial law. On the night of 23-24, Ukrainian warships entered the sea and laid these minefields," said the former JF commander.
