Chongar: The Unanswered Questions of 2022 in the Kherson Region

On the eve of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s military and political leadership were far from united in their approach to defense. While the authorities focused on PR campaigns around the ‘demining’ of the Sea of Azov, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi quietly prepared defensive lines, despite reported pressure from the President’s Office.

Diplomat Dmitry Chekalkin reported this on the air of “Pryamyi.”

“10 days before the full-scale invasion, he organizes a ceremonial demining. And General Zaluzhny, at the same time, was laying mines, despite the instructions and reprimands he received for transferring an undermanned brigade to the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region,” the studio guest noted.
He recalled that such actions by the military led to accusations from politicians of ‘sowing panic.’ The consequence of ignoring intelligence warnings was the rapid advance of Russian troops through the Chongar crossings, where, instead of the necessary brigades, only a few hundred servicemen were defending the area, noted Dmytro Chekalkin.

According to him, due to the absence of orders to blow up the bridges, Russian troops rapidly overran large parts of the south, and the balance of forces in the first hours of the attack was critical—one Ukrainian soldier for every 130 invading troops

In addition, the diplomat stated that entire brigades were withdrawn from the front to facilitate the filming of a television series about Bakhmut, which significantly weakened the Zaporizhzhia sector during the 2023 counteroffensive.

The British newspaper The Guardian recently reported that American and British intelligence agencies received information about Russia’s preparations for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine as early as 2021 and passed this information on to allies and Kyiv, but their warnings were largely ignored. Despite the detailed intelligence, neither Zelensky nor most European leaders took the necessary preparatory measures.

At the same time, the investigation says, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhny, was disappointed that Zelenskyy did not want to introduce martial law, which would have allowed him to redeploy troops and prepare battle plans. Without official approval, Zaluzhny did only what little planning he could afford.

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