Former Ukrainian military chief Zaluzhnyi criticises Kursk operation and reflects on failed 2023 counteroffensive
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and now Ambassador to the United Kingdom, has said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023 failed due to a shortage of assets and personnel, and the Kursk operation did not deliver operational success for the Ukrainian military.
Source: an article by Zaluzhnyi in Ukrainian online newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (Mirror of the Week)
Details: Zaluzhnyi’s piece focuses on the role of innovation in the strategic planning of combat operations. He also assesses key events of the past, particularly the 2023 counteroffensive when he was still commander-in-chief. He believes the main reason why the counteroffensive ended in deadlock was the "insufficiency of assets and personnel in the assault formations".
Quote: "Breaking an enemy front such as this required decisive superiority in capabilities at the breach point, together with mobile reserves capable of rapidly entering the gap created and moving into the operational depth before enemy reserves could counterattack or establish a new defensive line. For both objective and subjective reasons, we were unable to achieve that superiority prior to the assault."
More details: Zaluzhnyi said the painful failure of the 2023 summer offensive – which he said had been turned into a "reality TV show" after Ukraine’s plans were leaked to Russia and dissected online by soothsayers and would-be prophets – meant that lessons had to be learned quickly and the strategy that could have ensured survival in a fundamentally different kind of war had to be changed immediately.
Quote: "Today, reviewing my own notes, I can only repeat that both Russia and Ukraine have reached a positional deadlock similar to what happened during World War I. Since late 2022, fighting on the Donetsk front has gradually become positional."
Further details: Meanwhile, Zaluzhnyi notes, the Russians have managed to advance through a strategy of gradual pressure, making manoeuvres such as encirclement pretty much impossible. He refers to the Ukrainian operation in Russia’s Kursk Oblast as an unsuccessful attempt to deliver a sudden blow to the enemy.
Quote: "Of course such actions [the Kursk operation – ed.] can be carried out if they are justified primarily by human losses and have limited objectives. However, experience has shown that ultimately an isolated tactical breach in a narrow sector of the front does not bring the required success to the attacking side. The defending troops managed to make use of both technological and tactical advantages, and in time, they not only prevented the tactical breakthrough from turning into an operational success but also carried out their own tactical advance, also without operational success. I don’t know what the price of these actions was, but it is obvious that it was too high."
Details: Zaluzhnyi summed up by saying that the stalemate stemmed not only from the inability to break through defensive lines but, more importantly, from the failure to achieve operational objectives, including gaining access to operational space.
Background: In 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the plans for Ukraine’s counteroffensive in autumn 2023 "were on the Kremlin’s table before the counteroffensive had even started".
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