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.

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