The United States was well aware of Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to attack Ukraine - while even 90% of Putin's entourage and Russian security forces knew nothing about it. Washington was warned of an imminent attack.

This was stated by the head of the international investigative group Bellingcat Christo Grozev on the air "To be continued".

How can this be achieved? Only by having a mole (long-term espionage agent) at the highest level … Or some kind of super-technological solution that no one knows about yet,

Christo Grozev

Grozev is sure that if the Russian security forces knew about Putin's decision to attack Ukraine, they would take certain measures in one direction or another. But they did not know, but they knew the West, thanks to the source. Moreover, this source was of a very high rank.

It must be a person above the Lavrov chain. I am absolutely convinced that Lavrov did not know that the war would begin. But in this military party about 20 people knew about it. Here, one of the 20 people would have to

Christo Grozev

Grozev suggests that this mole could be "Putin's cook" and the owner of PMC "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin, or someone from Prigozhin's entourage, since the PMC took part in planning an attack on Ukraine, and when the campaign failed, Prigozhin was abruptly lost confidence.