Liberation of Kharkiv region. Syrskyi named the people who in 2022 did not allow a successful counteroffensive to develop in Donbas

In 2022 the Ukrainian military leadership did not believe in the success of the Kharkiv operation and did not allocate enough reserves for its development. At that time the Armed Forces of Ukraine were led by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and the General Staff by Serhii Shaptala. This was reported by former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi during the presentation of a military-historical essay about the operation, writes “Glavkom”.

According to Syrskyi, the initial plan called for a much smaller-scale offensive. The General Staff viewed the operation in Kharkiv region as a diversionary maneuver, and the troops were given only 20–30% of the necessary ammunition. “Nobody in the leadership of the Armed Forces believed in the success of the Kharkiv operation,” Syrskyi said.

At first the Ukrainian military planned to strike in the Balakliia area, reach Izium and try to encircle it. At the same time the offensive developed on a much larger scale: the Defense Forces liberated Balakliia, Izium, Kupiansk and other settlements, and in some sectors advanced up to 30 km per day.

After the rapid advance Ukrainian forces could have continued the offensive toward the northeastern Donbas, but there were not enough reserves for this.

“We had no reserves to move further. The entire operation was carried out by our forces — the units of the ‘Khortytsia’ group of troops; they did not give us reserves,” explained General Anatolii Barhilevych, who in the autumn of 2022 was Syrskyi’s deputy and took part in planning the operation.

According to General Yurii Lebid, who commanded the National Guard in 2022–2023, Syrskyi then said that with additional forces Ukrainian troops could have reached Lysychansk.

“I remember Syrskyi said then: if we had something to build up forces with, we would have reached Lysychansk,” recalled Lebid.

The then leadership of the Armed Forces under Valerii Zaluzhnyi focused a large part of its attention on the Kherson direction. There in August of 2022 heavy fighting was ongoing, and Western equipment and ammunition were being concentrated.

As a result, the Kharkiv operation became one of the most successful offensive campaigns of the Armed Forces. In a matter of weeks Ukrainian forces advanced up to 145 km and liberated more than 11,5 thousand sq. km of territory and over 500 settlements.