The Guardian: Putin's Invasion Plans Were A Secret Even To Lavrov

• 21.02.2026, 12:33

A week before full-scale war, most of the Russian elite were in the dark.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not know the details of Russia's full-scale invasion until the last moment.

The newspaper The Guardian reports this, citing estimates by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The piece notes that the then head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, who declined to be interviewed for the article, was one of the few Ukrainian officials who had regular contact with the Russians.

In particular, he was in frequent contact with Putin's deputy chief of staff, Dmitry Kozak. Kozak probably assured Yermak that U.S. warnings of a full-scale invasion were absurd - and believed so himself.

Few knew Putin's plans

The CIA estimates that only a few non-military officials knew the details of Putin's plans. At the same time, Kozak, along with Sergei Lavrov and Putin's longtime spokesman Dmitri Peskov, remained in the dark, two interlocutors familiar with the matter said.

Even a week before the full-scale invasion, most of Russia's elite had no idea what was coming.

"Someone high-ranking from the Kremlin called me and said: 'There are many military men around Putin, the atmosphere is tense, something is happening, but we don't know what,'" one interlocutor told the newspaper.