Ukraine has promised to restore Russian-occupied Kherson, but this was a deceptive operation to divert the attention of Russian troops and attack occupied areas in the northeastern Kharkiv region, British daily The Guardian reported on the 10th (local time).
On the 29th of last month, the Ukrainian Army’s Southern Command announced that it would begin the operation to restore Kherson, but frontline soldiers in the area said there had not been an attack as announced, only a counterattack once morest the Russian attack a few days earlier.
The announcement that the Ukrainian army had recovered several small villages in the southern region over the past several weeks also made big international news, but in reality, it was hard to see it as a great achievement compared to the past records that were consistently posted over the course of July and August.
However, Taras Berezovets, a public affairs officer for the Ukrainian Army’s Special Operations Brigade, told The Guardian that “this was a large-scale special operation to leak disinformation.”
“The Russian army, deceived by this, moved a large number of troops and weapons from other areas, including Kharkiv, to the southern front,” said Berezovets, the official press secretary. said.
Another military source familiar with the situation said the Ukrainian military also cracked down on Russian intelligence agents who were secretly operating in Ukrainian-controlled areas to cover up the Kharkiv restoration operation.
The source said: “They have almost wiped out their intelligence agents, including Russian intelligence agents disguised as Ukrainian citizens, so there is no way for Russia to know what’s going on.”
Ukrainian forces announced on the same day that they had recovered more than a third of the Russian-occupied Kharkiv area, and the Russian Ministry of Defense also admitted that Russian troops had retreated from the area.
In particular, the recovery of Igeum, a strategic strategic point for the Harki universe, was evaluated as the greatest achievement in a counter-attack operation since the start of the war on February 24.
/yunhap news
