Major General Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, in an interview with Dmytro Komarov in a special project "“A Year Off-Screen. The Intelligence Officer”" revealed the russia's plans to capture Kyiv.

"The russians' entire plan was to swiftly land [at the Hostomel airfield]. It was actually their only plan. First of all, they did not believe there would be any resistance at all, and secondly, they believed that they would land quickly and plane after plane would unload units that would immediately enter Kyiv," the head of Ukraine's military intelligence noted.

According to Kyrylo Budanov, if the russians managed to capture the Hostomel airfield and to create the bridgehead there, the capital of Ukraine would be captured by the enemy.

The Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine also explained that the russians had not intended to fight in northern direction like there was in Mariupol. And showing a picture of long military columns that entering, they had to create a picture of massive offensive and no alternative but to surrender.

"russians believed that no one would be able to create serious resistance to them and they would go into the government quarter and change the leadership, since, the way they saw it, the Ukrainian leadership would then have to flee, and if it didn’t, they would destroy it," Kyrylo Budanov emphasized.

In addition, Kyrylo Budanov said that the aggressor country russia kept changing the date of beginning of the full-scale invasion several times. Ukraine received final information about the attack at 04:00 a.m. on February 24 at about 03:00 p.m. on February 23.