Episode overview

ZELENSKYY ON THE DAY RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE

Diary of a CEO · 1m · 1 Egleze moment

What happened in this episode?

In this short excerpt, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy recounts Ukraine’s force posture at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 and the subsequent mobilisation. He says Ukraine’s strongest troops were positioned in the east, around Donetsk and Luhansk, to contain what he calls the strongest Russian grouping there, and he claims “nobody expected” Russia to advance on Kyiv via Belarus, leaving the capital without substantial forces. Zelenskyy argues that facing an alleged 200,000-strong assault towards Kyiv made defence “simply impossible” with the forces Ukraine had at the time. He says Russian forces were pushed back from the Kyiv region because they lacked enough troops to hold occupied territory, and he lists Kyiv and Chernihiv regions among areas Ukraine retook as Russian units withdrew. Zelenskyy then describes mass mobilisation and volunteering after the invasion began, claiming Ukraine’s army expanded from 200,000 to 800,000 personnel. He also cites a figure of around 700,000 Russian troops operating “across all directions” on Ukrainian territory. The clip contains multiple quantitative claims presented without supporting documentation in the excerpt.

What are the key points?

Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s strongest troops were stationed in the east (Donetsk and Luhansk) at the invasion’s outset.
He claims Ukraine did not anticipate a major Russian thrust towards Kyiv via Belarus, leaving the capital without strong forces.
He says Russia sent 200,000 troops to take Kyiv, making defence impossible with Ukraine’s then-force size.
Zelenskyy claims Ukraine forced Russian units to withdraw and retook Kyiv and Chernihiv regions as they pulled back.
He says mobilisation and volunteers expanded Ukraine’s army from 200,000 to 800,000.
He claims Russia’s presence was around 700,000 troops across all directions on Ukrainian territory.

Who is speaking?

Named speakers identified in Egleze's source-linked moments from this episode.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Which topics are covered?

Geopolitics Military

How is this page sourced?

Programme: Diary of a CEO
Duration: 1m
Original episode: Open the original source ↗

Egleze verifies the speaker, source and timestamp for each linked moment. Unless a moment is explicitly marked independently verified, statements remain attributed claims by the named speaker rather than established facts.

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1 moments from this episode

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Geopolitics

Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s army grew from 200,000 to 800,000 after Russia’s full-scale invasion

Volodymyr Zelenskyy · at 0:58 · Attributed speaker claim

Naturally, when the full-scale invasion started, there was mobilization. There were lines, people showed up as volunteers, and our army grew from 200,000 to an army of 800,000, while the Russian presence was around 700,000 across all directions on Ukrainian territory, meaning this was a massive onslaught coming at them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, mobilisation and volunteers expanded Ukraine’s forces from about 200,000 to 800,000. In the same remarks, he also gives an estimate that Russian forces totalled around 700,000 across occupied areas and other directions inside Ukrainian territory.

Read this moment → Check original at 0:58 ↗