When does Zelenskyy say the Russia-Ukraine war actually began?

Zelenskyy said the war really began with Russia's occupation of Crimea in 2014. It was a slow, creeping takeover by unmarked troops, the so-called little green men, and Ukrainian authorities gave no clear order to fight back. He believes that if Russia had been pushed back then, a full-scale war like today's would not have happened, and he agrees with Trump on that point.

Zelenskyy said only dozens of Russian troops entered Crimea, a region of about 3 million people.
Putin's easy seizure of Crimea, he argued, led him to expect Kyiv would fall just as easily.

▸In their words

“Our mistake was not pushing them back.” Volodymyr Zelenskyy · at 23:15 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (2026-10-22). Read the whole episode summary →

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