“Kyiv, its Western allies and Western media were responsible for the dissemination of hundreds, if not thousands of proclamations, schedules and analyzes of the future military operation,” the publication notes.
One of the Ukrainian soldiers, Andrei Onistrat, said that “idiots in the West put pressure” on the Ukrainian Armed Forces so that the troops would launch an offensive.
“Everyone (Ukrainian leadership) took it upon themselves to announce where we were going, and, of course, they were waiting for us,” he added.
On December 4, The Washington Post published a major piece on why the Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive failed.
In particular, the newspaper noted that during planning there were strong disagreements between the American and Ukrainian authorities over strategy, tactics and timing of military operations.
At the same time, the US intelligence community initially lowered its expectations of the counteroffensive, journalists noted.
At the same time, the first attempts of the Ukrainian troops to advance in the Zaporozhye region, which began in June, were thwarted by Russian helicopters, drones and anti-tank systems, and for many Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters this became “their first shock” on the battlefield.
According to the newspaper, one of the brigades of the Ukrainian army, which was involved in the counter-offensive, was 70% staffed by soldiers who had never entered into combat before.