At the end of September 2021, signals began to come from the US.
Andriy Yermak and I went to Washington. There were various meetings, and one of them was with Victoria Nuland, who was then in charge of Ukraine at the State Department.
At the meeting, she told us: “Well, that’s it, guys. Dig trenches.”
And no specifics about the sources of information. Yermak and I were shocked. He asked what I thought about it. I said that, just like when a professor says you have cancer, you want to hear the opinion of another professor.
The Europeans did not confirm the information about the preparation of the attack.
“What the hell? What kind of war? Nothing like that will happen. This is some kind of intrigue by the Americans,” they said. Macron and Scholz said that nothing would happen.
As a result, a week after the start of the full-scale invasion, Macron fired the head of military intelligence, who did not know about the preparation of the attack.
Only in 2024 did the Americans admit that they could not name the source of the information — their mole was in the highest echelons of the Russian government, and they could not compromise him. The Americans themselves, when they first heard from the CIA that Russia was preparing an invasion, did not believe it either.
On February 22, 2022, in the United States, I was supposed to have a meeting with [President Joe Bidenʼs national security adviser] Jake Sullivan.
I was taken from the room where such meetings usually take place to another — I realized that there would be a meeting with Biden. At that time, the United States already understood even what time the offensive would begin. They could not do anything and did not plan to do anything. All their reports showed that Ukraine would not exist.
Therefore, Ukraine simply needs to be given a dignified last journey. I was the person who was at hand to hold the farewell ceremony.
In Bidenʼs office, he said: "We will support you as long as it takes. Putin does not know what he will face."
At that time, all American intelligence services said that Ukraine was nuts. Despite this, Ukraine was extremely lucky that Joe Biden was the president at the time of the invasion. He was the only US president for whom Ukraine had any significance.
At the negotiations in Belarus in 2022, the Russians issued an ultimatum.
It included a clause that all heavy Ukrainian weapons were to be taken to warehouses, and the warehouses were to be handed over to the Russian army for protection.
When they say that Istanbul failed, itʼs not Istanbul that failed, the Russiansʼ attempt to push their ultimatum at us failed.
The same ultimatum that was in Belarus. Because of this, the Russians came up with the version that the conditions were better then than now. When they say that it was Boris Johnson who told us to keep fighting, I wasnʼt at his meeting with the president, but Johnsonʼs role in this story is greatly exaggerated. Istanbul, if it had been signed, would have been the capitulation of Ukraine.
There was indeed a conflict with Andriy Yermak, because Andriy tried to manage everything, but he was demonized too much.
My dismissal was a historical regularity. After some time, the President offered me the post of ambassador to the United States, but I refused because of my children, because I want to see them. The President dismissed Yermak because he realized the depth of the crisis.
The scandal between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office is an excessive concentration of masculinity and machismo per square meter from all sides.
Trump could not allow Zelensky to come and say that America would have problems during Trumpʼs presidency. Zelensky could not remain a whipping boy in the eyes of Ukrainians and the whole world in Trumpʼs presence.
Valerii Zaluzhny is a legendary man. We think about Zaluzhny more than we actually know about him.
Andriy Yermakʼs ambitions prevented him from realizing his ambitions.
He had a conflict with Kyrylo Budanov, but it is difficult to find a person with whom Yermak would not have a conflict. After Yermak left, Zelensky changed for the better.
Kyrylo Budanov knows how to think one step ahead.
He lives not in logic like “everyone is an enemy”, but in logic like “everyone is a potential friend”. And he respects the right of others to do their job.
If Orban wins the elections, we will have to merge.
That is, to make serious concessions, because he holds the key to our membership in the EU.
The war with Iran is a mistake of the States.
They are unable to achieve their main goal — regime change in Iran. For Iran, this is the same existential war as for us.
The next president of Ukraine will be Volodymyr Zelensky.