"It was blackmail." Ukraine launched operation in Kursk Oblast without US knowledge and with equipment from allies – NYT

In the summer of 2024, Ukraine launched an operation in the Kursk Oblast of the russian federation without the knowledge of the US and with equipment provided by allies. The American side perceived this step as a breach of trust and blackmail, but did not stop supporting the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

This is stated in the investigation of The New York Times "The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine".

NYT writes that in the summer of 2024, the Ukrainian army in the north and east was dangerously stretched. However, General Syrskyi continued to tell the Americans: "I need a win."

It is alleged that the foreshadowing was back in March, when the Americans discovered that the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was secretly planning a ground operation in southwestern russia. The C.I.A. station chief in Kyiv confronted the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine commander, General Kyrylo Budanov: If he crossed into russia, he would do so without American weapons or intelligence support.

“He did, only to be forced back. At moments like these, Biden administration officials would joke bitterly that they knew more about what the Russians were planning by spying on them than about what their Ukrainian partners were planning,” the investigation says.

The former commander of the Ukrainian defense intelligence, Valerii Kondratiuk, noted that for the Ukrainians, "don't ask, don't tell" was "better than ask and stop." He added: "We are allies, but we have different goals. We protect our country, and you protect your phantom fears from the Cold War."

In August, General Aguto's visit to Wiesbaden was coming to its planned end. He left on the 9th. That same day, the Ukrainians made a cryptic hint that something was happening in the north. On August 10, the CIA station chief went to work at headquarters.

In the midst of a command shift, General Syrskyi made his move, sending troops across the southwestern russian border to the Kursk Oblast.

“For the Americans, the incursion’s unfolding was a significant breach of trust. It wasn’t just that the Ukrainians had again kept them in the dark; they had secretly crossed a mutually agreed-upon line, taking coalition-supplied equipment into Russian territory encompassed by the ops box, in violation of rules laid down when it was created,” the report said.

It was created to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kharkiv, not to be used by the Ukrainians to seize russian territory.

“It wasn’t almost blackmail, it was blackmail,” a senior Pentagon official said.

It is stated that after the start of the operation in the Kursk Oblast, the US could have "pulled the plug on the ops box”, but they knew that this, as an administration representative explained, "could lead to a catastrophe": Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk Oblast would have been kiled without the protection of HIMARS missiles and American intelligence.

The Americans concluded that Kursk was the victory that Mr. Zelenskyy had been hinting at all this time. This was also confirmation of his calculations: he was still talking about a complete victory. But one of the goals of the operation, as he explained to the Americans, was leverage – the seizure and holding of russian land, which could be exchanged for Ukrainian land in future negotiations.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in the 7.5 months since the start of the Kursk operation, the total losses that Ukrainian soldiers inflicted on the russians amounted to more than 55,000 people.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that the information about the alleged encirclement of Ukrainian army units in the Kursk Oblast by the aggressor country russia is not true and is a fake.

Also, CIA data refuted the simultaneous statements of US President Donald Trump and russian president vladimir putin about the encirclement of Ukrainian military personnel in the Kursk Oblast.

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