Zaluzhnyi's Confidential Plan: Why Did Ukraine Refrain from Attacking Belgorod?

At the end of 2022, former Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi proposed an advance on Belgorod to alleviate pressure on Kharkiv. However, the Ukrainian leadership did not support this plan, according to his former advisor Viktor Nazarov, reports NewsBox.

In December 2022, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, suggested shifting combat operations to Russian territory and advancing on Belgorod. This was disclosed in an interview with the BBC by Major General Viktor Nazarov, a former advisor to Zaluzhnyi.

According to him, the idea was not to capture Belgorod but to encircle or blockade it. Such a move was intended to reduce the intensity of Russian attacks on Kharkiv and to pose a threat to the supply lines of Russian troops in the Donbas area.

Nonetheless, Nazarov claims that Ukrainian authorities were not interested in this plan. Consequently, in February 2024, Zaluzhnyi was dismissed from his position.