Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine began at 3:40 in the Milove area in Luhansk Oblast, and at about 5 am — the offensive was throughout Ukraine.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security Council, told Ukrayinska Pravda about this in an interview.
"The invasion began at 3:40 in Luhansk Oblast in the Milove area, but we thought that they were entering the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. "We believed that their goal after the recognition of the "republics" to take them within the oblasts," — said the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
According to Danilov, he immediately went to the president. Denis Monastyrsky was already there.
"Volodymyr Oleksandrovych was in a white shirt, and I think so... you remember... He says: "Well? We will fight!" The Secretary of the Security Council recalls.
Then, according to Danilov, an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council was convened at about 5:30. All draft decisions were prepared. He also said that on February 23 there was a meeting of the Security Council on the imposition of a state of emergency, where proposals to impose martial law were already heard, but did not want to provoke Russia.
Danilov also said that when he presented the presidential decree and the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on martial law to the Rada on February 24, the parliament hall was "tense and electrified" because in the first days of the war many decisions were made: someone wants to flee, someone wants to take abroad all assets".
On the same day, after the vote on martial law, the president invited all faction leaders and called on everyone to forget what had happened and work as a team. Then there were several conference calls with the heads of oblast state administrations, who have already become heads of military administrations. At that time, all oblast leaders were at their jobs.
Danilov also added that before the Russian invasion, the authorities made sure that there was constant communication during the war. Additional communication equipment received from the partners was distributed on the day of the attack.