Zaluzhnyi planned an offensive in Zaporizhzhia, but the US did not support this idea - media
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine's military chief has planned an offensive on Zaporizhzhia in 2022 to cut off Crimea, but the US has called for a focus on Kherson.
In 2022, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, planned to launch an offensive not against Kherson, but against Berdiansk and Melitopol to cut off the occupiers in Crimea. Western partners did not support this idea. This version of events was presented in the book "Our Enemies Will Disappear" by Yaroslav Trofimov, reports Bussiness Insider, UNN writes.
Details
According to the newspaper, when discussing plans for a counteroffensive in 2022 with Western partners, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and General Valeriy Zaluzhnyy advocated an offensive to the Sea of Azov through Zaporizhzhia region. At that time, Russia had not built large minefields and fortifications that would prevent a counteroffensive in 2023, mitigating the requirements for a breakthrough.
Such an approach would still be a difficult challenge and a risky strategy. The penetration must be not only deep, but also wide enough to prevent a Russian counterattack and threaten the flanks of the advancing force.
It is noted that for the offensive in 2022, Zaluzhny asked the Americans for 90 additional howitzers and a sufficient amount of artillery ammunition. There was a chance that with a powerful military force, Ukraine could have achieved a result similar to what was done in the Kharkiv region in September 2022, when Russian lines collapsed and Ukrainian troops recaptured thousands of square kilometers of territory in the northeast of the country.
It is emphasized that when the offensive was planned, Ukraine had not yet demonstrated any offensive capability, and US officials were cautious. They feared that a push from Berdiansk to Melitopol and down to the Azov Sea could create a vulnerability on the line, especially given the uncertainty over whether Ukraine could coordinate brigades for an effective offensive.
Instead of supporting the Ukrainian proposal, the US pushed Ukraine to focus on a different goal - a southern counteroffensive into the Kherson region. It was a safer option, and the stakes were lower.
Kherson was an important victory for Russia at the beginning of the war. During the offensive on the city, the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed bridges that Russia needed for logistics, forcing the Russians to retreat across the Dnipro to the left bank of the Kherson region.
"The reason we recommended that they attack Kherson was because Ukraine didn't have the trained personnel and equipment to go south," said a senior Pentagon official who participated in these discussions.
The author of the article notes that Zaluzhny disagreed with the opinion of his American colleagues and argued that the Armed Forces "should attack where they have to, not where we can." But since the United States controlled most of the military aid to Ukraine, there was no point in arguing.
Zaluzhnyi, on the other hand, planned a high-risk offensive in the Zaporizhzhia sector with a significant advance in 2022. However, this did not happen.
Recall
During the briefing, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny said that it was a mistake to believe that the number of losses inflicted on the enemy by the Ukrainian army last year could stop Russia.
