Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukraine Presidentʼs Office, spoke about the first hours of the war in an interview with "Ukrayinska Pravda". According to him, after the first reports of Russiaʼs invasion, he went to the Presidentʼs Office. Volodymyr Zelensky was already there.
“I arrived home at about 2 am. There was an understanding of what the situation was because there was a lot of information at the time. And in almost an hour and a half, I have already received intelligence and military reports about the beginning of the warfare. So I quickly got ready and arrived at the Presidentʼs Office at about 5 am I received information that fighting had begun at the border and that Russians had started the bombing. So right away, almost from the first minutes, I was in the Office. And when I arrived at Bankova [Street where the Office is located], the President was already there,” Yermak recalled.
He said that it was hard to believe in Russiaʼs full-scale invasion, however, the countryʼs leadership was ready for it.
“Until the very last moment, we did not believe that this would happen, to be honest. You know that there was a lot of information from our partners and so on. But still, we didnʼt believe it. Of course, we were getting prepared [for this development]. And thatʼs why we see the result — for the second week, we have been successfully fighting back,” said Yermak.
He added that the presidentʼs team acted in unison and without panic.