Ukrainian forces have succeeded in their counteroffensive in the Donetsk region by misleading Russia's military leadership and keeping quiet about their gains, a Ukrainian commander has said. Military sources had reported Ukraine's progress against the Russian salient north of Lyman in the Donetsk Oblast, but Kyiv did not acknowledge it until this week. Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi has stopped Russia from encircling the "Fortress Belt" thanks in part to informational silence, said Major Maksym Zhorin, the deputy commander of Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps.
The Fortress Belt of heavily fortified cities and defensive positions in Donetsk is the backbone of Ukraine's defense of the eastern Donbas region, whose full capture is a war goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Informational silence and, more broadly, operational security are highly important, especially at this ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance]-dominated and increasingly drone-saturated stage of the war," military analyst Giorgi Revishvili told Newsweek on Friday. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, the commander of Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps, said on Thursday that Russian forces had intended northern and southern pincers to converge in Barvinkove, Kharkiv Oblast, with the goal of seizing all of Donetsk Oblast. Biletskyi, who has received increased responsibilities to defend the Donbas region, which also comprises Luhansk, said his forces had operationally defeated the Russian plan to encircle the Fortress Belt from the north through Lyman and Sviatohirsk and the south through Dobropillya. Part of this success appears to have come from the element of surprise, with strict operational security and counter-drone operations degrading Russian forces' operational awareness, according to Zhorin.
Ukrainian forces kept their advances secret with the help of a "protective drone" system, comprising electronic warfare systems, that allowed about 20,000 Russian drones to be neutralized, he told the Ukrainian outlet Suspilne. Ukrainian forces had achieved operational surprise during the Oleksandrivka counteroffensive in spring, with flag-raising missions at safe distances to conceal the true extent of Ukrainian positions. "Maintaining informational silence and limiting public discussion of specific operations can therefore help ensure that Russian forces operate with incomplete or distorted information about developments on the battlefield," said Revishvili, who is behind the Substack Russia Analyzed.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have a deeply rooted culture of misinforming, misleading and lying to superiors in the chain of command to secure favorable treatment from higher-ups and to avoid repercussions when the situation deteriorates in their sector of the front, he added. The Ukrainian 3rd Army Corps said on Thursday that an intermediate-range strike campaign in Luhansk degraded Russian fuel supplies and hurt its ability to use drones and electronic warfare, giving Ukraine the edge in drone capabilities to support mechanized advances in the Lyman direction. "Ukraine's meticulous planning deserves significant credit, particularly its efforts to suppress Russian firing positions and, most importantly, Russian unmanned systems to protect the operational area," Revishvili said.
These measures, combined with favorable weather conditions, helped Ukrainian forces disrupt Russian infiltration and advance in areas such as Serednie, he added. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said both Ukrainian and Russian forces are "experimenting with reintroducing limited elements of mechanized maneuver at the tactical level to break out of positional warfare," but so far Kyiv's efforts have been much more effective. Revishvili said, "The operation once again demonstrates that, with effective planning and proper execution, maneuver warfare remains very much possible even on a battlefield saturated with drones and persistent surveillance." Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Shakeema Edwards.
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