Operation Kursk: how the unique mission of the Ukrainian military began

Four months ago, the Ukrainian Defense Forces launched an operation in the Kursk region of Russia. It has become one of the largest missions conducted by the Ukrainian military. And its goal was to force the enemy to transfer its forces from other hot directions and get ahead of Russian plans for an offensive on Sumy. Now the participants of the operation have shared the details of the preparation, planning and implementation of this unique mission. This is reported by UNN with reference to The Documentary. 

From the documentary "Operation Kursk", viewers will learn how they developed an offensive strategy, trained commanders and conducted assaults. The film also contains unique footage of the first days of the operation, which demonstrates the work of the Ukrainian military.

Details

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatoly Bargilevich said that the Kursk operation is a product of the team under the command of the commander — in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky.

Sirsky explained why the Sumy direction was chosen. "First, the enemy considered this direction for offensive actions on Sumy," Sirsky said.

At that time, the hottest spots were the Pokrovsky direction, and the Russians also tried to seize the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kurakhovsky direction.

"Under these conditions, it was necessary to make a decision on how to significantly ease the enemy's pressure with limited forces and do something so that the enemy would react by withdrawing a significant number of its units from these two directions," Sirsky explained.

Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Komarenko added:

The amounts remained in their plans, and sooner or later they would have gone there. Therefore, one of the goals of the operation was to get ahead of the enemy and prevent him from entering our territory

Putin later accused Ukraine of a"large-scale provocation." Moscow claimed that Ukraine was striking the territory of the Russian Federation.

None of the military or officials commented on the operation. All the information that the Ukrainian or Western press had came from social networks. At that time, the radio silence regime was maintained. The leadership of the operation did not inform those military units and personnel that were going on the offensive about the directions until the last moment.

Meanwhile, the panic among the civilian population of the Kursk region only increased.

Dmitry Voloshin, commander of the 82nd separate Airborne Assault Brigade, recalls: "the operation began for me personally around June 18-19. Here Comes the order of the commander-in-chief, where "the commander of the 82nd brigade will arrive at a certain place to hold an official meeting." We looked at everything and decided that the devil is not as terrible as it is painted.

The commander of the 61st Mechanized Brigade, Andrey Fedichev, noted: "as we approached the direct implementation of the task, specifics appeared: where, in what direction, in the area of which settlements. It was all gradual.

Voloshin stressed that the training was large-scale:

We have put a lot of effort into performing this operation. A large number of personnel were trained through the training centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, both ground and airborne assault troops. we focused on collective training and conducting raid operations, offensive and assault operations, occupying areas and borders. Special attention was paid to the company commanders.

On the eve of the offensive, Sirsky traveled all the units in two days, met with company commanders and determined goals and objectives.

"90-95% of the personnel were very happy about the opportunity to go and punch the enemy in the teeth on its territory," Voloshin said.

All possible scenarios of the operation were calculated. According to Sirsky, they also took into account the experience of conducting the Kharkiv operation.

recall

In NATO back in August, they stated that Ukraine's offensive in the Kursk border region of Russia is legal and corresponds to the right of Ukrainians to self-defense.