Ukraine's offensive in Kursk Region has been going on for about two weeks now. And details are already emerging about how the country's military leadership planned this operation. Find out all the intricacies of how the AFU commander-in-chief came to order his soldiers to cross the russian border

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The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyy, in July began to develop a plan for a Ukrainian army offensive into russian territory in order to secure favourable conditions for his country during peace talks. The general developed three plans in total, but kept the main one secret until the last, The Economist has reported.

Syrsky started building the plan because of the russian offensive in Donetsk region. 

What options were Syrskyy thinking about?

According to the journalists' interlocutors, these options included an attack in the Bryansk or Kursk regions, or a combination of the two, to weaken russia's position in Donbass and secure more favourable conditions for the upcoming negotiations.

Syrsky kept his plans top secret, sharing them only with a narrow circle of generals and security officials. Only at a late stage was intelligence involved in the plan, and Western allies were not informed at all, as Syrsky's preliminary operations were thwarted by leaks.

Incidentally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bluntly said that Kiev had not informed of its intention to advance into russian territory so that the West would not call the move a ‘red line.’

Operation in Kursk region

The commander-in-chief's choice fell on striking at the weakened russian defences in the Kursk region. Syrsky confounded russian intelligence by concealing the arrival of his experienced units on the border.

The troops were moved into the forests under the pretext of defending the border against an alleged russian army attack on the Sumy region.

The Econimist writes that the AFU fighters themselves began to suspect something serious in early August, when they were given new equipment and trained on mock-ups that turned out to resemble russian villages.

The start of the operation was thought out and executed perfectly, but when the operation in the Kursk region began to slow down, Syrsky shifted his focus to reinforcing the flanks along the border to create solid defensive lines.

The defence forces, according to the source, are probably trying to establish control on the southern bank of the Seim River, while russian forces have stepped up their response, moving experienced units to Kursk and stepping up attacks in the Pokrovsk direction in the Donetsk region.

But it should be noted that the rf army on the southern bank of the Seim River is now isolated, as the AFU destroyed all three bridges that connected the banks and gave the russians convenient logistics.

According to some experts and the military, the Ukrainian army has left the russians trapped on this front line in the Kursk region. Now the command of the russian army will face a difficult choice - to withdraw its units to the right bank or risk their possible encirclement.

We remind you! The Ukrainian state-owned postal operator Ukrposhta is considering opening a post office in the town of Suja in Kursk Region, which was liberated by Ukrainian troops. However, the final decision will be made by the government. Under what conditions the company may start operating in the liberated russian territory, read here.

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