(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The ongoing Kursk operation by the Ukrainian armed forces is an unprecedented endeavor as the aggressor state is forced to defend its own territory.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said this in an interview with war correspondent Andriy Tsaplienko, Ukrinform reports.
"An unprecedented case where the aggressor state has been forced to defend on its territory, to destroy its settlements on its own territory. And in fact, they were forced to pull troops from other areas and create a 67,000-strong grouping involving their best units. Also, they have whatever's left of those 11,000 North Korean troops," Syrskyi said.
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Since May 2024, the Russians have launched large-scale offensive operations in the Kharkiv axis, Syrskyi recalled.
"We actually got ahead of the enemy in deploying our reserves along the border, starting from Sumy, Kharkiv, and Vovchansk. The enemy did not expect us to have brigades available that had been withdrawn to the reserve to restore combat readiness," said Syrskyi.
He recalled that the enemy laid down a plan for the two main strikes, the main one targeting Kharkiv and the other one being toward Sumy.
In particular, as Syrskyi recalled, Russia was bound to deploy 43,000 forces from the Belgorod region toward Kharkiv, and another 26,000 – in the direction of Sumy.
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Since June, the enemy has shifted to offensive action so Ukraine had to find a solution to distract the enemy, forcing them to withdraw part of their forces from the main combat zones.
"During a detailed analysis of the enemy's new groups and the amassing of their troops, a weak spot was found right there in the Kursk direction. ... We were able to pull three brigades of our airborne assault troops, pulled several more brigades, restored their combat readiness, gave them more people, and accordingly launched our offensive operation," said Syrskyi.
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