There is widespread acknowledgment, even among Zelenskiy’s fiercest political opponents, that his wartime leadership has been defiant and inspirational. But along with the praise there are also questions about those weeks before the war, in January and February.
Why did Zelenskiy remain sceptical of the increasingly alarming warnings from US intelligence that Vladimir Putin was planning a full-scale invasion? Could he have done more to prepare the country? Would it have had much effect?
“We don’t want to initiate an investigation for a while, but we cannot avoid it in the future,” said Volodymyr Ariev, an MP with the European Solidarity party of the former president Petro Poroshenko. He said his party had been pushing for weeks in the run-up to the invasion for the government to take the threat of war more seriously…
Ukrainian intelligence was also receiving its own information, and around 17 February it got word about a number of Russian military orders that had been signed off that suggested something major was brewing. But still there was disbelief that this could mean the Americans had been right all along.
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