Russia knew for months of Ukrainian plans and tried to prevent invasion of Kursk region - Guardian
According to Ukrinform, this was reported by The Guardian.
“Russia’s military command had anticipated Ukraine’s incursion into its Kursk region and had been making plans to prevent it for several months, according to a cache of documents that the Ukrainian army said it had seized from abandoned Russian positions in the region,” the report says.
The documents handed over to the Guardian also reveal Russian concerns about the morale of the troops near Kursk.
In late August, The Guardian met with Ukrainian special forces who seized the documents a few hours after they left Russian territory. The soldiers said they had seized Russian Interior Ministry, FSB and army documents from buildings in the Kursk region and later made them available for viewing and photographing.
Some of these documents are printed orders sent to various units, while others are handwritten journals recording events and problems at specific positions. The earliest entries date back to late 2023, while the most recent documents are from just six weeks before Ukraine launched its operation in the Kursk region on August 6.
The documents mostly come from units of the 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, in particular from the second company of its 17th Battalion.
The Russian military documents contain months of warnings of a possible invasion of the area and an attempt to capture the town of Sudzha, which has been under Ukrainian control for over a month.
The January 4 message spoke of a “potential breakthrough on the state border” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and ordered them to intensify training to prepare for repelling any attack.
On February 19, unit commanders were warned of Ukraine's plans for “a rapid breakthrough from Sumy region deep into Russian territory to a depth of 80 km in order to create a four-day ‘corridor’ before the arrival of the main units of the Ukrainian army with armored vehicles.”
As reported by Ukrinform, earlier President Volodymyr Zelensky said that one of the goals of the Kursk operation for Ukraine was to draw Russian troops back to their territory.
