Deception and Corruption: How Sudzha District Misled Kremlin During Ukraine's Kursk Offensive

The local administration in the Sudzha district deceived both the Russian leadership and local residents during the first days of Ukraine’s offensive into the Kursk region on, according to a Ukrainian Defense Forces phone interception.

In it Oleksandr Harkavenko, the head of the administration of the Goncharovka settlement said:

“We reported very good news to Moscow for two days. At that moment, we were losing so much territory.” The intercepted conversation was published by the Russian-Israeli entrepreneur Leonid Nevzlin on Aug. 18.

According to him, the leadership of the Kursk region deliberately deceived residents that the situation was under control, while leaving them to their own devices.

A few weeks before the start of the offensive in Goncharovka, Russian troops placed a 122mm Grad multi-barreled rocket launcher system (MLRS) in the middle of a residential area from where it opened fire on Ukraine.

Harkavenko said: “They built and worked right in the middle of Grad Street, you know? And I personally saw it, it surprised me. It was two, three weeks before [the incursion] happened.”

He concluded that the Ukrainian army’s success was good intelligence, and thorough preparation of the operation assisted by endemic corruption.

“Well, how else do they move deftly through forests and country roads, can you understand? They didn't just move along central roads. That's what surprised me. Everyone is blaming treason. Here all those civilians who have experienced what has happened and continue to worry about treason,” he said. “But I will tell you honestly, my opinion is the purest, corrupt sloppiness.”

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