Russian Federation's attack was known at beginning of December. The authorities did not announce it because refugees would have blocked movement of AFU and they would have been shot at with tanks - Arestovych
He stated in interview with ISLND TV, reports Censor.NЕТ.
"In October-November, it was not yet known if the RF would attack. What was known was that the assault will, for me personally, from my sources. I don't know if the authorities knew it, but if I knew it, they probably knew it too. It was clear already at the beginning of December that they would attack. The question is when will they attack?" he said.
At that time Ukraine started to prepare for the defense: reserves were mobilized, there were trainings and work with the authorities on the local level.
According to him, the authorities decided not to tell Ukrainians that war was inevitable, because a mass exodus of refugees would start and they would "clog all the roads".
"It would have been 8, 10, 12 million people. And the army would not have passed into the defense areas. It's a complete paralysis of the roads. This is a very desirable situation for the military leadership of the Russian Federation. In that case we probably would have lost this war and the Left Bank all at once .... In no way would we have coped with this situation and the only way out is to crush our own citizens with tanks, shoot them in order to pass over the bridges.And now the question is: what decision should we have made? Or to shut up or to leave the paralyzed country and surely to surrender the Left Bank", - he explained.
Arestovych noted that under all scenarios Ukraine would not have fought the war if they had announced the invasion earlier.
