Ukrainian authorities did not tell citizens about the exact date of the Russian attack because then the displaced would have blocked the roads with their cars, Oleksiy Arestovich, an advisor to the head of the Presidential Office, explained in an interview with ISLND TV.
"A mass exodus of refugees would have started and they would have clogged all the roads, which would have prevented the army from going to the defense areas. It's a complete paralysis of the roads. That would be a very desirable situation for the Russian Federation and so we would probably lose the war and the Left Bank everything," Arestovich explained.
Advisor to the head of the presidential office says that, according to preliminary calculations, in such a situation, there could have been about 12 million refugees at once.
"It would have been a massive panic, and at a time when there was not yet martial law, there would have been a lot of political shouting and chaos, which would have allowed neither mobilization nor overturning of the troops," Arestovich said.
