Ukraine began preparing a counteroffensive against Russian troops several months ago. During the preparation, the Ukrainian leadership consulted with the U.S. and took into account some tips.
The New York Times writes about it with reference to its own sources.
They told that preparation for the counteroffensive was accompanied by tense conversations between representatives of Ukraine and the United States. The leadership of the Ukrainian army was changing the strategy of the operation. However, the results exceeded all the expectations.
Preparations for the planning of the operation began after President Volodymyr Zelensky informed the generals that it was necessary to demonstrate the ability of the Ukrainian army to retaliate against the Russian invaders. On his order, the military prepared an operation plan, which provided for a large-scale offensive in the south of Ukraine. As a result, the Armed Forces of Ukraine should have liberated Kherson and cut off Mariupol from the possibility of providing Russian troops there.
However, both Ukrainian and American generals believed that this operation would lead to heavy losses, and that Ukraine might not be able to capture such large territories. For a long time, Ukraine did not want to share all the details, but gradually it told the USA more and more about it. National Security Adviser to the U.S. President Jake Sullivan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley were involved in the discussions. The British also helped.
According to the US, Ukraine should have launched a counteroffensive before the first cold weather, when Russian President Putin will be able to blackmail Europe with gas supplies. The Americans and Ukrainians conducted strategic "war games" that showed that such a large-scale counteroffensive in the south of Ukraine would end in failure. With these results, the Ukrainian generals went to Zelensky.
“We did some modeling and some room exercises. This series of exercises predicted that some lines of counterattack were likely to prove more successful than others. We gave this advice, and then the Ukrainians learned it and made their own decision," noted the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Colin Kahl.
In August, at the request of the Ukrainians, the United States intensified the transfer of intelligence data on the positions of Russian troops and emphasized weak points in their defense. Intelligence showed that after transferring their troops to the south of Ukraine, it will be very difficult for the Russians to have time to return them to the northeast.
"We saw the fact that the Russians actually moved most of their best forces south in preparation for another counteroffensive that the Ukrainians launched," Kahl told.
Instead of one large counteroffensive, the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to conduct two small ones: in Kherson region and in Kharkiv region. Ukraine, the United States and Great Britain jointly evaluated this plan and decided that it could be successful. This plan could give Zelensky what he wanted — a big victory.
However, to implement this plan, Ukraine needed significant military assistance from the United States. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine created a list of the necessary weapons. In the end, the counteroffensive in Kharkiv region was indeed successful. People in Ukraine believe that the long-term success of the Armed Forces will still require achieving the goals of the canceled operation: recapturing Kherson, liberating the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) and cutting off the supply of Russian troops through Mariupol.
Despite the help of American weapons, the USA emphasizes that the credit for the successful counteroffensive belongs entirely to Zelensky and the Ukrainian generals, who were able to achieve a major victory in the Kharkiv region with relatively small forces.
- In the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, the liberation of settlements continues. Thus, during the day of September 11, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation knocked out the Russians from more than 20 settlements, in some places the Ukrainian military reached the state border with the Russian Federation.
- The Ministry of Defense of Russia actually recognized the loss of the towns of Izyum and Balaklia in the Kharkiv region, but called it an "operation to roll back and transfer troops." The purpose of this "collapse" is to transfer the troops to the Donetsk direction.