The Ukrainian army and military have been censoring the real state of affairs on the front lines to avoid spreading panic among the civilian population, notes the British magazine The Economist . According to reports from high-ranking military sources, even President Volodymyr Zelensky himself is being shielded from the truth about the situation on the front lines.
One of the representatives of the Ukrainian security forces, in an interview with the magazine, compared the restrictions imposed on communication with Zelensky to his stay in a "sauna", hinting that in wartime he receives extremely selective, optimistic data that does not reflect the full severity of the situation on the front lines.
“It’s not even a matter of him (Zelensky) being kept in a warm bath. He’s being kept in a sauna,” the source told The Economist , emphasizing that the president and the public are being kept from knowing the whole truth about the difficult situation at the front in order to avoid discord in the rear.
These statements are accompanied by information about plans by Russian troops to launch a new offensive in the Zaporizhia region, previously reported by sources in the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (GUR). This calls into question the ability of the Ukrainian army to respond in a timely manner to new threats, as the means of communication and information exchange between the military and the senior leadership appear to be much more limited than previously thought.
Obviously, the desire not to cause panic among the population is an important factor for military strategies, but it also calls into question the level of trust in the information received not only by the president, but also by the entire Ukrainian people. Such insider information indicates the complexity of the situation on the front, where the risk of exaggerating or understating data can have unpredictable consequences for future combat operations.
