Syrskyi denied NYT’s claim about changing 2023 counteroffensive plan: "I learned lot about myself"
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the information of the American edition of The New York Times about the change in the plan of counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 is not true.
He said this in an interview with Lb.ua, Censor.NET reports.
Syrsky does not deny the fact of offensive actions south of Bakhmut but emphasizes that they were carried out by only two brigades. According to him, it was clear at the planning stage that this was not enough to achieve strategic goals, but the emphasis was on the factor of surprise and the lack of fortifications on the part of the Russians in the area.
"We were counting on surprise, on the fact that we would break through the enemy's defense with such, not to say adventurous, but bold actions, taking into account the fact that it was not ready, not the same as, for example, in Zaporizhzhia. There, all the fortifications were in an ordinary field," the commander-in-chief noted.
According to him, the main goal of the offensive was to cut off three key roads used by the Russian army to provide logistics. If the Ukrainian forces had succeeded, the occupiers would have been forced to retreat. But the lack of resources prevented this plan from being realized. According to Syrskyi, if five brigades were operating in this area instead of two, "both Bakhmut and Soledar would have been liberated."
Separately, he commented on the NYT's claim that at the beginning of the great war, he allegedly expressed distrust of American advisers and said something like: "We are at war with the Russians. You are not. Why should we listen to you?" Syrskyi denied this remark and added that many of the facts in the investigation were news to him: "I wonder who came up with these words, so to speak. From this text, I learned a lot about what I allegedly said and what I did."
What is the NYT story?
The New York Times recently published an extensive investigation into the US's role in Ukraine's military campaigns. In particular, it describes how, two months after the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian generals traveled to Wiesbaden, Germany, where they agreed with the US military on a close partnership in intelligence, strategy, planning, and technology.
The article pays special attention to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023. It is here that the journalists describe the tense moments between the Ukrainian military command and American advisers.
