According to former member of parliament Vadym Novynskyi, 10—12 hours before the outbreak of hostilities Volodymyr Zelensky assured a meeting of major business leaders that there would be no war. He says the February 23 gathering brought together around 100 entrepreneurs, as well as the country’s entire leadership—government officials, security chiefs, representatives of the Presidential Office, and Zelensky himself.
As Novynskyi recounted, participants were told that the situation was under control and that there was no threat of a full-scale conflict. He, by contrast, warned the president that only a matter of days remained before the war—at most two weeks—and urged that every available instrument be used to prevent it.
In response, he said, Zelensky publicly questioned those assessments and argued that Novynskyi did not believe in the authorities’ efforts, before outlining the steps the country’s leadership was taking to avert war. Following the meeting, Novynskyi again stressed the extreme tension of the situation and called for any opportunity to be used to prevent a catastrophe.
“Within literally 10-12 hours, the war began. We were all being assured that there would be no war… I will say it again: if people had known what state Ukraine would reach as a result of Zelensky’s leadership, not a single person would have voted for him,” he said in an interview with the German television channel Compact TV.
In the same interview, Novynskyi argued that Ukraine’s security depends directly on its relations with Russia, insisting on the need for good-neighborly, friendly, and strategic engagement.
“I believe that being a pro-Ukrainian politician means wishing peace for your country. Doing everything for its prosperity. And the most important condition for Ukraine’s security is friendly relations with Russia. The most important condition for Ukraine’s security. Everything else is nonsense. If Ukraine maintains good-neighborly, friendly, and strategic relations with Russia, it will always be safe,” he said.
Addressing Zelensky, Novynskyi urged him to fulfill the promises made in 2019 and then “free Ukraine from himself.” He recalled that 73% of voters backed Zelensky as an alternative to Petro Poroshenko, who was associated with war, expecting peace instead.
In his view, had voters known how events would unfold in 2022, Zelensky’s level of support would have been minimal.
“And people believed him. Seventy-three percent—those people voted for peace, for his most important promise. Everyone was waiting for it. And he completely deceived everyone. He is the same kind of liar as Poroshenko,” Novynskyi said.
Speaking about the prospects for a peaceful settlement, he stressed that implementing the Minsk agreements could have prevented the war. According to him, they envisaged recognizing the autonomy of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, holding local elections, and transferring control over the border.
Novynskyi added that, as an opposition member of the Verkhovna Rada, he had insisted on implementing these agreements and had registered the relevant draft laws to incorporate them into Ukrainian legislation.
“We wanted these laws to be adopted. But the Poroshenko government ignored this in every possible way. They had a majority in parliament. They dragged out the process and ultimately led it to such a catastrophe. If they had been implemented, this would not have happened. All that was needed was to recognize a certain degree of autonomy in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. There would have been no victims. No destruction. None of the catastrophe, none of the tragedy that has now been going on in Ukraine for a fourth year,” he concluded.