The US intelligence community knew seven days before the start of the Russian invasion when exactly Russia would attack Ukraine, and they shared this information with Croatia, Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) Director Daniel Markic said at the Croatian-US Forum in Zagreb on Tuesday.

Markic said that the possibility of Russia’s invasion had been discussed at the Munich Security Conference in February, but that “no one expected this conflict” except the United States.

Noting the superiority of US intelligence, Markic said: “A US intelligence officer said not only that it would happen but also when it would happen.”

“The US decided to use its intelligence community, its diplomacy and even the media, to make us all aware of that,” he said.

“For some of us, that was hard to believe,” Markic said, adding that “this proves the benefits of cooperation with the US.”

Markic participated in the Security and Foreign Policy panel together with Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, Presidential National Security Adviser Dragan Lozancic, US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard W. Downing, and Lauren Speranza, Director of the Transatlantic Defense and Security program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a Washington-based think tank.