- Kremlin officials told the Russian outlet Agency they didn't know Putin was going to invade Ukraine.
- The people said the Kremlin only prepared for smaller sanctions over its recognition of Luhansk and Donetsk.
- "Everything is fucked," a source close to Putin's administration told Agency.
Kremlin officials say they didn't know Russian President Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine, and were shocked by the severity of Western sanctions imposed over it, the independent Russian investigative outlet Agency reported.
One unnamed senior official said people in the Kremlin "did not know" that it would be an all-out invasion and that many were shocked when news of the military assault broke, the outlet said.
In the run-up to the invasion, Putin's cabinet had only prepared to deal with Western sanctions introduced over Russia's decision to recognize the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk on February 21, not for an invasion, a source close to Putin's administration told Agency.
After Russia invaded, countries including the US and UK, as well as the EU sanctioned Russian entities and individuals, seizing assets belonging to those closest to Putin, and ejecting Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial system.
The Kremlin is particularly concerned by its ousting from SWIFT, the freezing of Russian foreign reserves, including by the US, and the exit of a string of Western companies from Russia, Agency reported.
"Everything is fucked," a source close to Putin's administration told the outlet.
Before the invasion, one of the officials told Agency, Kremlin officials held several meetings about sanctions and that stress tests were conducted on large companies in case Russia was disconnected from SWIFT.
An official went on to tell Agency that Kremlin officials cannot resign from their posts because it would be seen as a betrayal. "You can only quit to prison," they said.
The report comes as Western officials warned that Putin was so furious about the sanctions that he may target civilian targets in Ukraine to "set an example," The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its ninth day on Friday. Russian forces seized its first major city, the port city of Kherson, on Wednesday, and continued to subject the cities of Mariupol and Kyiv to heavy shelling.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Friday morning, Ukrainian officials said. It is Europe's largest nuclear plant.