At the beginning of the year, in the strictest secrecy, the Ukrainians were preparing a counteroffensive. Ukrainian military personnel reported to Kyiv Independent how the military operation took shape, which allowed the Ukrainian army to recapture over 400 square kilometers of territory occupied by Russia in the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. After a few weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was to announce a resounding success of an ongoing counteroffensive, intended to thwart Russia’s plans to launch offensives in these areas.
Even high-ranking commanders who were to participate in the operation did not know that a counteroffensive was being prepared in southeastern Ukraine. In a war dominated by drones, interceptions, and constant surveillance, secrecy had become the most important weapon. Thus, information was distributed to an extremely narrow circle of people, for fear of infiltration by the Russian secret services. The planners even considered the possibility that the women some soldiers were talking to online could be agents of the Russian FSB trying to obtain information.
“Everything was done in secret. Very few people knew what was to come,” declared Vadim, a battalion commander in the 110th Mechanized Brigade.
“It was kept within as small a circle as possible,” revealed Oleh, code-named “Falcon”, the chief of staff of the reconnaissance unit within the 148th Artillery Brigade. Out of the over 2,000 soldiers in the brigade, only about ten were aware of the operation two weeks before its launch.
The mission seemed simple on paper: the reconquest of territories occupied by Russian troops at the end of 2025, before they could be fortified. In reality, it was a complicated operation, fraught with risks from recent operations.
Before actually proceeding to the attack, the Ukrainian army discreetly transferred hundreds of vehicles and artillery pieces from the Pokrovsk sector to the southeast front. Among these were Western Caesar and M777 howitzers.
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