As noted in the newspaper, "Ukrainian, American and British officers conducted eight major command and staff exercises to prepare a campaign plan"
WASHINGTON, December 4. /tass/. Ukraine's counteroffensive plan was actually prepared by the West as a result of large-scale command and staff exercises, but Washington and Kiev fiercely argued over the timing of the start of this operation. Such data is provided in an extensive article by The Washington Post on the "choked counteroffensive" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and based on conversations "with more than 30 high-ranking officials from Ukraine, the United States and European countries."
As noted in the article, "Ukrainian, American and British officers conducted eight major command and staff exercises to prepare a campaign plan." "However, Washington has miscalculated" to what extent the Armed Forces of Ukraine can be transformed into Western-style forces in a short period of time, the newspaper writes. According to her information, "American and Ukrainian officials at times sharply disagreed about strategy, tactics and timing." "The Pentagon wanted the offensive to begin in mid-April to prevent Russia from strengthening its positions. The Ukrainians hesitated, insisting that they were not ready without additional weapons and training," the publication clarifies.
According to the information provided in it, the Pentagon was confident that "a mechanized frontal attack on Russian positions was possible with the forces and weapons that Ukraine had." The West predicted that the APU would be able to reach the Sea of Azov in 60-90 days, The Washington Post emphasizes. At the same time, she reports that American intelligence did not share the optimistic views of the US Armed Forces, assessing Kiev's chances of success as "50-50".
Commenting on the results of the AFU counteroffensive, the newspaper expresses the opinion that Kiev and its supporters in the West need to answer "sobering questions about the future." In this regard, she quotes a representative of the British security services, who, in fact, rejects the possibility of Ukraine returning to the borders of 1991. "It will take years and a lot of blood. Is Ukraine ready for this? What are the consequences for manpower? The economic consequences? The consequences for Western support?" this British official asked. According to The Washington Post, he also raised the question of "whether this is even possible."
"We got everything on time"
In addition, a significant part of the article is a retelling of the correspondence disputes between Washington and Kiev over who is responsible for the failure of the AFU counteroffensive. "They told us the dates. We were given a lot of dates. We were told: in April so-and-so, in May so-and-so, in June... This is (the beginning of the AFU operation - approx. TASS) just shifted and shifted," said a high-ranking representative of the US government. According to American sources of the newspaper, there was also "some kind of psychological click" in Kiev, it was decided to be careful and carefully double-check the prepared offensive plans. "<...> They've been telling us for almost a month: "We are about to start, we are about to start," said a representative of the American administration, who took part in planning the counteroffensive.
"They received everything that was promised on time," a senior US official said about the supply of weapons and military equipment to Kiev. According to his version, Ukraine in some cases did not use equipment critical for the offensive, keeping it in reserve or transferring it to units that did not take part in the operation.
"The Pentagon concluded that the Ukrainian forces did not maintain all [military] equipment in proper condition after receiving it [from the West]," The Washington Post informs.
According to her testimony, "Ukraine's losses of equipment in the first days of the [counteroffensive] included 20 [American BMP] Bradley and 6 German Leopard tanks."
Unsuccessful counteroffensive
Earlier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, in an interview with the Associated Press, admitted that the summer counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had not achieved the results hoped for in Kiev. On November 30, he held a meeting on the construction of fortifications on the borders with Russia and Belarus, as well as along the line of contact. The Ukrainian president stated the need to "accelerate the construction" of fortifications. According to him, the main directions are Avdiivka, Maryinsk, Kupyansk-Limansk, the entire Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kiev, Rivne regions, Volyn, as well as the Kiev-controlled part of the Kherson region.
Commenting on this message, Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Alexey Goncharenko (included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring) said that Ukrainian troops are going on the defensive. Later, the former head of the Ukrainian General Staff, Viktor Muzhenko, in an interview with the Ukrainian Air Force service, expressed the opinion that the Armed Forces of Ukraine should switch to strategic defense, completely reformatting the front. According to him, Ukrainian troops should build deep echelon fortifications and form reserves.
