Zaluzhny did not allow Bakanov to blow bridges in Kiev at the beginning of the invasion of the Russian Federation - BBC
On the third day of the invasion of Russia, on February 26, 2022, it became apparent that the plan of the Russians for "the capture of Kiev in three days" failed. Although the Russian troops failed to land a landing with military equipment in Gostomel, they surrounded Chernihiv and rapidly advanced by Sumy region, which led them to the opportunity to reach the left -bank suburbs of Kiev.
Publicly, the authorities urged the Ukrainians not to panic, but there was an active debate within the government about the possibility of an explosion of all bridges in Kiev. Such an action could detain the Russian army before the natural obstacle - the Dnieper River, and prevent it from reaching the government quarter.
At the same time, one of the high -ranking officials contacted the then SBU chairman Ivan Bakanov and demanded that he ordered his special forces to blow up the bridges and cut off the left bank of the Dnieper from the right. The situation was difficult.
Bakanov contacted the Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces General Valery Zaluzhny, who, after hearing him, replied: "Promote bridges? In no case! It will be a betrayal about those who remained on the left bank of the Dnieper - both military and civilian.
" We will remind, in the same material BBC reported that the name of the Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny began to pronounce aloud in the walls of the military Academy of the Russian General Staff of the Russian Federation, after he confessed that he had read all the works of the head of the Russian department Valery Gerasimov.