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Ukrainian soldiers suspected they would invade Russia when they got new rifles, but still thought it was a joke when the orders came through (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Ukrainian's shock offensive on Russia's Kursk region came as a surprise even to Ukraine's soldiers.
"We joked that it wasn't April 1st," a Ukrainian soldier told The Economist.
The country's troops did suspect that an invasion was imminent after they were issued new equipment.

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[-] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 133 points 3 months ago

Op Sec was fantastic from Ukraine. With that and Russia ignoring what info on troop buildup they did have, they managed operational surprise.

[-] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago

The Russians themselves were also detected to be building up troop numbers in Southern Kursk just opposite of Sumy. The Ukrainians cleverly used that to send troops to Sumy, which the Russians must have thought that it was a countermove to defend against them, to mask their true intentions of going on the offensive. The Ukrainians merely turned the operational table on to the Russians.

That being said, with hindsight, the earlier attacks on Belgorod by anti-Putin Russians could have been probing attacks to identify weakpoints in the Russian border. Or perhaps to distract the Russians and redirect troops away from other areas. Or both. All of these are clever and creative plans by Kyiv; and they played their hands well.

[-] pelya@lemmy.world 66 points 3 months ago

Considering how the plans for the counterattack were leaked by everyone and their mom last year, this time they did the right thing with secrecy.

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 41 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Andrey Gurulyov, a Russian lawmaker and retired major general, said in a televised interview in Russia on August 8 that the country's military knew about Ukraine's plans to attack Kursk a month before it happened.

"But from the top came the order not to panic, and that those above know better," Gurulyov said, according to a translation by The New York Times.

"So we staffed it with the greenest of recruits, and left it practically defenseless!"

Lmao, I'm sure they knew. Riiiiight xD

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

All according to keikaku

[-] Laser@feddit.org 20 points 3 months ago

(Translator's note: keikaku means plan)

[-] bassad@jlai.lu 6 points 3 months ago

jokes aside it could have been the plan : leave some land and let ukraine extend logistic line.

Napoleon did burn Moscow before the catastrophic Winter retreat, Hitler almost went to Moscow during Barbarossa, at the end Russia survived

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[-] small44@lemmy.world 40 points 3 months ago

Rome did something similar against hannibal

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 73 points 3 months ago

What? Handed out new rifles? I'm sure it was very effective.

[-] small44@lemmy.world 33 points 3 months ago

Invading the enemy to force them to retrieve from part of their land

[-] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

Next step: salt.

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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024

422 points (98.2% liked)

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