Putin reportedly kept senior staff in dark about Ukraine invasion

4 March 2022, 6:15 pm

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Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, March 3, 2022. (Andrei Gorshkov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin kept senior officials in the Kremlin in the dark about his plans to invade Ukraine last week, according to a report in the independent Russian investigative outlet Agency, which cites several unnamed Kremlin officials.

One of the senior officials cited says people at the Kremlin “did not know” it would be a full-blown invasion and that many were caught off guard by the news.

The cabinet was only planning to deal with Western sanctions over Putin’s decision to declare as independent the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, and were not prepared to discuss an invasion, according to the report.