Peskov on Preparation for Special Military Operation in Ukraine

The information regarding the preparation for the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine has been disseminated among a very limited circle of people, attributed to the very nature of such operations, said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the President of Russia.

Thus, the Kremlin representative commented on a publication indicating that even President Vladimir Putin's close entourage supposedly did not have accurate information about the beginning of the special military operation, as reported by TASS.

“As you understand, of course, the information about the special military operation cannot be widely shared the day before the operation begins. Therefore, indeed, such secret information is always presented to a very limited circle of people, and this is a completely normal practice,” emphasized the President's press secretary.

He clarified that “the essence of the operation does not imply the broad dissemination of information about it.”

Speaking about the publication in question, Peskov added, “Generally, the information from Bellingcat (an online publication recognized as a foreign media agency in Russia) should be interpreted through special filters, sometimes with a sense of humor, and at times... as a deliberate lie and distortion of reality.”

Thus, he commented on the information from Bellingcat representative Christo Grozev, who stated that even Putin's inner circle was unaware of plans to start a war with Ukraine.

Grozev mentioned in an interview with Dmitry Gordon that Putin's circle was genuinely shocked that he had engaged in a large-scale war with Ukraine. “The source, who knows Lavrov's daughter quite closely, heard this from her. Even Lavrov believed until the end that this would be something like a threat of war and would actually only concern the LPR and DPR. He himself was shocked when he learned that a real war was going to happen,” Grozev said.