Ukraine’s top general responds to NYT claims about Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive failure

Syrskyi addressed the claims in an interview with LB.ua.

The NYT article, published in late March, detailed operations conducted by Ukraine's military and the role of international partners. It focused significantly on Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive, stating that the primary push was supposed to target Melitopol, with 12 brigades and substantial resources allocated to the operation. 

According to the report, the offensive failed largely because Syrskyi redirected some forces to Bakhmut in an effort to launch a separate offensive there. This, the NYT claimed, diluted Ukraine’s strength on the main axis and led to a lack of breakthrough success.

Syrskyi’s response

Syrskyi dismissed the narrative, stating that he had learned many surprising things from the article about what he supposedly said or did.

“Every officer and general who participated in the fighting knows that this is not true at all.”

He clarified that only two brigades were involved in the counteroffensive south of Bakhmut, not five, as the article claimed.
If five brigades had been involved, “both Bakhmut and Soledar would have been liberated,” Syrskyi stated.

According to Syrskyi, the intent behind the Bakhmut operation was to force Russian troops to withdraw by cutting off key supply routes. The goal was to sever three vital logistical roads used by Russian forces:

• Between Bakhmut and Horlivka
• The Bakhmut–Debaltseve highway
• The road to Popasna

Had those routes been cut, Russian troops in the area would have faced encirclement and been forced to retreat.

However, Syrskyi acknowledged the Ukrainian forces were under-equipped for such a task.

“We had two brigades without additional ammunition,” he said. “That is, we operated within the limits of what we were supplied with to conduct normal operations in the normal mode. But we were counting on the surprise factor, on bold actions, given that the enemy wasn’t prepared — unlike, for example, in Zaporizhzhia, where all the fortifications were in an ordinary field.”

Despite the bold approach, the effort fell short due to a lack of sufficient forces and resources.

“But this did not happen. Unfortunately. We simply did not have enough forces and means,” Syrskyi concluded.

• On the third anniversary of Kyiv region’s liberation from Russian occupying forces, Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi shared details about the Defense Forces' operation.