Has the shine come off of Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, revealing bigger problems below the surface? This is the implication of an analysis in The Economist yesterday. It reports that 12 days in, “progress has slowed and the outlines of a new front line are emerging. It is unclear whether troops can dig in or are overcommitted at the cost of front lines elsewhere. The biggest danger is around Pokrovsk, in the Donbass inside Ukraine where Kremlin forces are gaining ground fast.”
The plan to invade part of Russia did not come from a happy place, The Economist goes on, citing the pressures on Ukrainian military chief Gen. Oleksander Syrskyi, among them the “less-than-ideal inheritance” from his predecessor Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi. “Rumors circulated that General Syrskyi was on the verge of being dismissed, with attack dogs associated with Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s all-powerful chief of staff, even suggesting he had been ‘lying’ to his bosses.” So, according to this account, Syrskyi, being lousy at politics, went to war. “General Syrskyi kept his plans under wraps, sharing them only with a tight group of generals and security officials. He spoke to the President on a one-on-one basis, without his staff. The army’s intelligence did much of the reconnaissance, rather than leaving it to GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, which was included only at a late stage.”
