The Ukrainian army and the military censored the real state of affairs at the front in order not to spread panic among the civilian population, notes the British magazine The Economist . According to reports from high-ranking sources in the military leadership, even President Volodymyr Zelenskyi himself is under protection from the truth about the situation on the front line.
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", implying that in wartime he receives highly selected, optimistic data that do not reflect the full gravity of the situation on the front line
"The point is not even that he (Zelensky) is kept in a warm bath. He is being kept in a sauna," a source told The Economist , emphasizing that the president and the public are not being allowed to know the whole truth about the difficult situation at the front in order to avoid disorder in the rear.
These statements are accompanied by information about the plans of Russian troops to launch a new offensive in the Zaporizhia region, which was previously reported by sources in the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (GUR). This calls into question the ability of the Ukrainian army to respond to new threats in a timely manner, as the means of communication and information exchange between the military and 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 insights testify to the complexity of the situation on the front, where the risk of exaggerating or understating data can have unpredictable consequences for future combat operations.
