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Zelensky didn't want to hear US intel info on Russia preparing to invade: Biden
The Ukraine war has completed 100 days and Kyiv fears that the West may lose interest if the conflict lingers.
US president Joe Biden on Friday made a starting revelation at a Democratic fundraiser in Washington amid the Ukraine war. The conflict-torn country's president - ahead of the Russia assault - did not want to hear that Moscow was preparing to invade after inputs were collected by the US intelligence, he said.
“Nothing like this has happened since World War II. I know a lot of people thought I was maybe exaggerating. But I knew we had data to sustain he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) was going to go in, off the border, ” the US president was quoted as saying in reports.
“There was no doubt. And (Ukraine president Volodymyr) Zelensky didn't want to hear it.”
Ahead of the Moscow assault on February 24, the West had repeatedly expressed concerns about the military build up near the Ukraine border. Putin was urged for a de-escalation in tensions. However, he launched a surprise offensive, triggering shock worldwide.
Putin sees the Ukrainian capital - Kyiv - as the “the seat of mother Russia", Biden said in his latest remarks, accusing the Russian leader of “trying to obliterate the culture, not just the nation, but the culture” of Ukraine".
Even though the Kremlin failed to capture the capital city, it has stepped up attacks in the eastern parts of Ukraine over the last few weeks. Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that he and Britain’s defense secretary Liz Truss “strongly condemned the sham trial against prisoners of war in Russian-occupied Donetsk” during a telephone conversation Friday.
In over three months, the Ukraine war has not just left many key cities in the country damaged but also led to a surge in fuel costs and prices of essentials.
Earlier on Friday, Kyiv expressed concerns that the West may lost interest if the conflict lingers, “The fatigue is growing, people want some kind of outcome (that is beneficial) for themselves, and we want (another) outcome for ourselves,” Zelensky said.
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
