Failure of 2023 counteroffensive occurred due to dispersion of forces, initially single strike was planned - Zaluzhnyi
The failure of the counteroffensive operation of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia Region in 2023 occurred due to the dispersion of Ukrainian forces on a wide front. Initially, it was planned to gather them into a single "shock fist".
This was stated by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi in an interview with the Associated Press.
According to Zaluzhnyi, the offensive plan of the Ukrainian army was developed jointly with partners from NATO countries. It provided for a concentrated strike in the direction of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been occupied since March 2022. After that, the Ukrainian forces were to advance south and reach the coast of the Sea of Azov. This would allow cutting off the corridor that the russian federation used to supply occupied Crimea.
Zaluzhnyi said that for the offensive to be successful, the Ukrainian army needed to attack with a large and concentrated force. But this did not happen, because President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials did not allocate the necessary resources.
Instead of creating a "shock fist", Ukrainian forces were scattered over a large territory. This led to the weakening of their strike force, which led to the failure of the counteroffensive.
The Associated Press writes that two unnamed Western officials confirmed that the Ukrainian army's counteroffensive did not go as originally planned.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in July 2023, the American publication The Washington Post wrote that Ukraine launched a counteroffensive without receiving a sufficient amount of demining equipment from its partners. The allies transferred only 15% of what they requested in Kyiv.
But not only the large number of mines caused the slow advance, which after some time lost momentum and stopped. In September 2023, Reuters wrote, citing Ukrainian military sources, that the russians had prepared a powerful defense in the Zaporizhzhia Region. In addition, the Ukrainians were opposed by units of the russian army, which had been in this direction for more than a year and knew the terrain well.
Recall that in December 2023, the Washington Post wrote that during the preparation of the counteroffensive, Western officials believed that Ukraine would need two to three months to break through to the Sea of Azov.