Pashynskyi said that Russia was developing a plan for a military invasion of Ukraine since the summer of 2013

The then-member of parliament, and later the acting head of the Presidential Administration, recalled the first days of Moscow's aggression.

Russia had military plans against Ukraine as early as August 2013 of the year. Vladimir Putin began implementing them in February 2014, even before Viktor Yanukovych fled, said former acting head of the Presidential Administration and ex-parliamentarian Serhiy Pashynskyi in an interview with Berliner Zeitung magazine.

Pashynskyi held the position of acting head of the Presidential Administration from 5 March to 10 June — the transitional period after the fall of Viktor Yanukovych's regime and before elections of a full-fledged head of state. According to him, parallel to the occupation of Crimea, Russian battalion tactical groups stood near the border with the Chernihiv region, right by the road to Kyiv.

“The heads of our security forces desperately searched for explosives to blow up bridges in Kyiv and halt the Russian tanks. There were no explosives. Unlike 2022 year, we could not stop those columns. Then the head of the State Guard Directorate called me: Russia is planning a helicopter air assault on the roof of the Cabinet of Ministers, and he urgently needed portable anti-aircraft missiles. I was shocked. All this was happening in the first days after Yanukovych fled,” he said.

Despite this, Pashynskyi noted, Ukraine did not cut all economic ties with Russia and sought opportunities to reach agreements with it.

“We passed a law on a free economic zone in Crimea, regulated coal deliveries from occupied Donbas, allowed water through the North Crimean Canal, and did not cut electricity,” he recalled.

Over the years of war, Ukraine rebuilt its defense capabilities. Pashynskyi, who now heads the National Association of the Defense Industry, believes that cooperation with Europe, established amid the full-scale war in Ukraine, should be based on mutual benefit.

“Ukraine is not only a recipient of aid. Our manufacturers are partners who contribute to joint security. Cooperation between Ukrainian and European defense companies should become the foundation of a European security order, regardless of changing geopolitical interests. Germany is our most important partner. Both sides benefit: Germany knows the jointly developed weapons and their usefulness in countering a possible Russian attack,” he commented on the cooperation.