Exclusive Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion
Exclusive Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion
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00:00As you can imagine, we've been after this general to sit down and talk to us about Ukraine's
00:05chances and its changing fortunes, certainly since he became the head of all the forces
00:12back in February.
00:14And finally, at this time, we sat down with him, which, as you can imagine, is a crucial
00:18time.
00:19We've been reporting all week about the uptick, the significant increase in Russian ballistic
00:24missiles, cruise missiles, drones that have been pounding cities, including Kyiv, pounding
00:29all sorts of infrastructure.
00:31And so I asked him about the bigger picture.
00:34I asked him about the Kursk operation.
00:36I asked him about morale on the front line.
00:38I asked him about, you know, being outmanned and outgunned still by the Russian forces.
00:44And he had a lot of really interesting things to say.
00:46He was very frank, very candid about Kursk, which took everybody by surprise, not just
00:51the Russians, but U.S. allies as well, we understand, and has caused some debate as
00:56to whether it was the right move.
00:59He said for the first time that it was done in order to stop Kursk being used as an offensive
01:06platform by the Russians to attack, for instance, Ukraine's second biggest city, which is Kharkiv
01:12in the northeast, Sumy and all those places up in the northern area.
01:17He said that they did it in order to create a security platform, a security zone for them.
01:23And when I put it to him that it was causing some consternation, if you like, amongst the
01:28forces further down in Donetsk and the strategic hub of Povrozhsk, et cetera, this is what
01:37he had to say.
01:39Some of your, for instance, your defense minister has said publicly that the reason was to divert
01:45Russian forces from other parts of the Eastern Front.
01:49But there are others on the Eastern Front, commanders who say it hasn't diverted enough
01:53forces and there's still a lot of pressure on your forces on the Eastern Front, that
01:59important logistical hub of Pokrovsk.
02:03So has it been strategically a success and even tactically a success, what you've done
02:11in Kursk?
02:13And do you think you might lose Pokrovsk?
02:18We do everything possible not to lose Pokrovsk.
02:24We increased our defense capability in the area.
02:27Indeed, over the last six days, the enemy hasn't advanced a single meter in the Pokrovsk
02:33direction.
02:37In other words, our strategy is working.
02:42Of course, the enemy has concentrated their most trained units in the Pokrovsk area.
02:49But we've taken away their ability to maneuver and to deploy their reinforcement forces from
02:57other directions.
03:01In other words, it turns out that even though they did not take any units from the Pokrovsk
03:06direction, well, except for one Marine Brigade, they are now unable to maneuver their reserves
03:15as they used to.
03:21And this weakening definitely has been felt in other areas.
03:26We note the amount of artillery shelling as well as the intensity of the offensive has
03:31decreased.
03:33In fact, the Pokrovsk direction remains the most problematic for us, whereas the situation
03:40has stabilized in other areas.
03:44So I think this strategy was chosen correctly and it will bring us the desired result.
03:53There appears to be, and certain, you know, commanders and frontline soldiers have told
04:01CNN that there's a bit of a morale problem in some parts of the front line, that a lot
04:06of young conscripts, young trainees are being sent out there.
04:12The battle is very difficult for them.
04:14Some of them just, you know, leave the trenches and go home.
04:18And I just wondered, you know, again, you said boosting morale is a very important part
04:25of your job.
04:26And I think there's something like 19,000 cases that have been brought before the military
04:33authorities of desertion and a failure to turn up for duty.
04:39Talk about that.
04:40How can somebody like you boost morale and make people still want to fight?
04:46Because we feel, we hear that that moment of patriotic fervor that was so obvious at
04:52the beginning of the invasion seems to be cooling down.
05:02You're right on this point.
05:06The issue of morale is a very important area of our work.
05:13Of course, talking about the Kursk operation, we should note this is what has significantly
05:21improved the morale of not only the military, but the entire Ukrainian population.
05:36It was and still is an incentive that has boosted the morale of our servicemen.
05:44Their thirst for victory.
05:47That's the first of all.
05:49Secondly, speaking of the training, of course, everyone wants the level of training to be
05:57the best.
05:58So we train highly qualified professional military personnel.
06:04At the same time, the dynamics at the front require us to put conscripted servicemen into
06:09service as soon as possible.
06:17That is why we conduct a compulsory basic military training for at least a month.
06:30Qualified training, which is at least two weeks a month.
06:36I want to know, I mean, you as commander, do you go to the front lines, do you go to
06:41the trenches, do you talk to soldiers there and commanders?
06:46What do they say to you?
06:47Because I know some of them have been there for more than two years.
06:50They barely get rotation, they don't get to see their family, there are these glide bombs,
06:55these terrifying things, and the drones, and there's just so much.
06:59I mean, it's almost World War I kind of attacks on them in the trenches.
07:06And they're there for a long time with no real hope of rotation.
07:11What do they say to you when you go to see them and talk to them?
07:15First of all, we speak the same language.
07:25We understand each other, no matter who I am talking to, whether this is an ordinary
07:32soldier, a rifleman, for example, or a brigade commander, or a battalion commander.
07:41You know that I have been in this war since 2014.
07:46And over the last two and a half years, since the beginning of the full-scale aggression,
07:56I've personally been participating in combat operations as the commander of the operational
08:02and strategic group.
08:04Now I am the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
08:08In other words, the front line is my life.
08:12We understand each other.
08:13I know all the problems that our servicemen, soldiers, and officers experience.
08:20It was extraordinary to hear him be so frank.
08:22And he also talked about the slow delivery of U.S. weapons, and he talked about how,
08:29you know, it caused a huge loss of life, that congressional sort of stalemate that delayed
08:34weapons and ammunition for seven months.
08:36But luckily, he says, they have them now, and they're putting them to the best use.
08:40Yana?
08:41It really is interesting that the way he describes the Kursk offensive, which, as you note, surprised
08:49Ukrainians as much as it surprised the rest of the world, including their biggest benefactor,
08:54the United States, was viewed as a strategic incursion to stop it being used as an offensive
09:02platform in their attacks against the Kharkiv area.
09:06Exactly.
09:07And it's the first time they've really laid this out because, you know, a lot of the talk
09:14in the media, talk sort of amongst sort of experts, was suggesting that it's like we're
09:19going in there to get land as a bargaining chip, too.
09:23But he did actually also say, we have taken a lot of Russian POWs, which we hope to exchange
09:30for our POWs.
09:32So even when I talked to Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who has since resigned and
09:36been reassigned this week, he told me that this was not about trading.
09:41This was about making a point of defeating Russians right there in this very, very strategic
09:47area and to, you know, prevent them from being able to conduct these attacks against Kharkiv,
09:53which as you know, they have periodically tried to take, and they've been rebuffed every
09:58time.
09:59So it's quite a big deal what they've done.
10:01And the question is, what does happen to the rest of this eastern and southern front line?
10:06They are really hoping for more equipment.
10:09They obviously want a lot more anti-air defense systems, anti-missile defense systems, because
10:15that has been just really the bane of this country's life for the last two and a half
10:20years because Russia has that superiority.
10:23And you know, they say the problem with delaying this weaponry and ammunition to us means that
10:30we just lose a lot of our good people.
10:33And at a time when clearly they can't afford that, as you heard him say, we need more and
10:37more people.
10:38But he thanked the U.S., he thanked their allies, and he said, we must win.
10:43And he said, together we are stronger.
10:44He said that in English, that last part.