Failure of Russian blitzkrieg was possible, but Ukraine made strategic mistakes – Havrysh
2 December 2025 12:12
EXCLUSIVE
Former First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Stepan Havrysh said in an interview with the YouTube channel "Komersant Ukrainian" that at the beginning of the full-scale war he was convinced that Russia’s plans would fail quickly, but in his opinion, Ukraine made a number of critical miscalculations that affected the course of the fighting.
Havrysh emphasized that he expected a rapid depletion of Russian resources.
“I was convinced that Russia’s blitzkrieg would fail, that Putin would retreat. And it was probably quite possible if we had not made a number of mistakes,” he said.
The first of these mistakes was the premature launch of the counteroffensive.
“The counteroffensive was launched when it was not properly prepared. We divided it into two parts – the defense of Bakhmut and the counteroffensive itself. We weakened the strike groups that were supposed to break through to the Azov Sea… and underestimated the Surovikin line,” the former official said.
Havrysh suggested that this was a political decision, not an initiative of the military command.
The former official also accused the authorities of “sterilizing” the General Staff.
“Zaluzhny’s General Staff was a deterrent system. He could make decisions based on his understanding of the war without succumbing to political pressure, although he could not avoid it,” Havrysh said.
In addition, Havrysh admitted that he himself had underestimated Russia’s ability to wage a long war.
