Army corps commander explains how Operation Vivaldi was kept secret

Operation Vivaldi was kept secret because it was not mentioned in official reports and the commander reported directly to the commander-in-chief. Ukrainian open-source intelligence analysts also cooperated with the military and refrained from posting information about the operation.

Source: Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, Commander of the 3rd Army Corps, speaking at a meeting with journalists

Quote: "Both former commander-in-chief General Syrskyi and Commander-in-Chief General Drapatyi, knew about the operation and both agreed that there should be no official reports.

We did not record our advances in the DELTA battlefield management system either, because leaks can happen – not from the system itself, but from individual units. We did not include them in written reports. Roughly once every few weeks, I personally reported to the commander-in-chief.

The current commander-in-chief was even more closely informed because he commanded the Joint Forces grouping and was our direct superior – we worked closely together. All of this, combined with the Russians' lies, helped maintain effective secrecy."

Details: Preparations for the offensive also played an important role. The first sign of offensive action is the formation of an offensive grouping.

"These days, you can conceal a brigade's redeployment for three or four days at most. It leaves a huge electronic footprint. A brigade has 3,000-4,000 personnel. They have phones, use social media, call their families and friends and sometimes post things online. For open-source intelligence analysts, identifying that a brigade has moved to a new area is a matter of days. Taking away their phones is unrealistic."

There were suspicions within Russia's West grouping that something was wrong. However, one reason the Russians concluded that nothing serious was happening was the absence of reinforcements: they did not have the forces needed to conduct an offensive operation.

Biletskyi said the 3rd Army Corps' press service had also played its part: "We all understand that the 250 prisoners of war announced at the time dealt a blow to Russian morale. We can see this from their bloggers, military chat groups and elsewhere."

Biletskyi also expressed his gratitude to DeepState and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW): "They approached this in a very systematic way. When necessary, we could even use them to spread disinformation."

Quote: "We reached out to Western and Ukrainian open-source intelligence analysts, and the overwhelming majority cooperated with us and refrained from posting this information.

This had a positive impact on the course of the operation. Credit goes to the corps' press service, which handled this directly and, in my opinion, did an excellent job."

Background:

• During Operation Vivaldi, Ukrainian forces thwarted Russian attempts to outflank Ukrainian-held parts of Donetsk Oblast via Dobropillia and Barvinkove. Russian forces have now abandoned these plans, while the 144th Division of Russia's 20th Army has been defeated and has effectively ceased to exist.
• Ukrainska Pravda first reported on Russia's plan to outflank Ukrainian-held parts of Donetsk Oblast via Dobropillia and Barvinkove in the summer of 2025. The Dobropillia salient was intended to form one of two pincers in Russia's plan to encircle almost all of the part of Donetsk Oblast not under Russian occupation.

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