Documents about a secret plan to prepare and equip the US and NATO with nine brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the spring offensive have appeared on the web since 6 April. The plan is so secret that the New York Times published a copy.
In any case, according to the photos of the secret plan, it is stated that the 21st, 32nd, 33rd, 37th, 47th, 117th, 118th ombr, 46th oambr and 82nd odshbr, i.e. the brigades of the Ukrainian army, would be involved in the counter-offensive, of these, six should be ready by 31 March and three by 30 April.
The total number of weapons required for the nine brigades is 253 tanks, 381 tracked vehicles, 480 wheeled vehicles, 147 artillery pieces and 571 M998 (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) armoured HMMWVs. Kiev would also train three more brigades. If the plan were realistic and implemented, by May, the Ukrainian armed forces would be ready to conduct offensive operations against Russian troops with the strength of 12 brigades.
Online, military analysts have been fleecing the question of the possible authenticity of the documents of the preparation of the Ukrainian offensive in the Zaporozhzhia region, according to their analysis there are precedents: ‘”So of course there are historical predecessors, such as Operation ‘Minced Meat’, when the British special services took systematic measures to strategically misinform the Wehrmacht command, in order to conceal the direction of the main attack by introducing relatively plausible documents for disinformation purposes.
And it goes on to say: ‘”On the other hand, there are examples such as the story with Major Reichel’s briefcase, when, due to a series of incidents, the real plans for Operation Blau fell into the hands of the Soviet command, which did not prevent the Wehrmacht from playing according to these plans in the future. In reality, the task of the General Staff and our intelligence is precisely to determine the real direction of the enemy’s main attack and to separate real information from enemy disinformation. More recent examples show how, under the hype of an imminent attack on Kherson, the enemy was preparing an attack near Balakleya, also not a secret, but clearly underestimated by our command and with operational consequences. Consequently, despite the obvious potential of the enemy’s actions in the direction of Zaporozhzhia, disinformation measures aimed at concealing the direction of the main attack cannot be ruled out’.
In short, for the Russians it is about misdirection to distract the enemy the scenario in which the shots in the direction of Zaporozhzhie may be restrictive and auxiliary, and the main shot will most likely be in the direction of Svatove / Belgorod or Volnovakha.
Dimtrij Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, on the leak of secret documents on Ukraine in the social network said: ‘The Russian Federation has no doubt that the US or NATO are directly or indirectly involved in the conflict. The degree of US and NATO involvement in the conflict in Ukraine is growing significantly, but this will not affect the results of Russia’s special operation,” Peskov quipped.
The office of Ukraine’s president said that the recent leak of secret US and NATO plans for the Ukrainian counteroffensive is a ‘photoshop’, i.e. a montage.
Graziella Giangiulio
