Arestovich surprised with forecasts in the first hours of the war/Screenshot from video

Aleksey Arestovich admitted that in the first hours of the war he thought that Kyiv would not survive. He was sure that the building of the President's Office would be seized.

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He thought that Kyiv would be seized after two weeks of street fighting, while the western regions would resist and survive. The adviser to the head of the Presidential Office spoke about this in an interview with journalist Dmitry Gordon.

The balance of forces was unequal

Arestovich explained that he had such opinions, because the balance of power was not in our favor – 1 to 20. According to him, if the Russians acted correctly, it would be technically impossible for us to resist.

I believed in two weeks street fighting, but then I thought that Kyiv would be captured. Too the balance of power was not in our favor. Absolutely not our way, – the official said.

What happened in the Office of the President

As Arestovich noted, there was no panic at all in the President's Office. The President was “on the Cossack drive.” The head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, according to the adviser, was even calmer than ever. Zelensky let some of the people go to take their parents out.

“Everyone got ready for battle, because the saboteurs had already gone around Kyiv,” Arestovich recalls.

It was estimated that in the early days of Kyiv had from 300 to 1600 saboteurs.