The New York Times spoke with several US officials (on condition of anonymity) and tried to find out how the Ukrainian counteroffensive was planned. In particular, this was made possible by long-term preparation and communication with the US and allies.

“Preparations (for a counteroffensive – no) began shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi told his generals that he wanted to take a concrete step to demonstrate that his country could repel a Russian invasion. On his orders, the “Ukraine” army developed a plan for a large-scale offensive in the south to recapture Kherson and isolate Mariupol from Russian troops in the east,” the publication says.

However, both Ukrainian generals and US officials believed that such an offensive would lead to significant losses among the Ukrainian military.

Timing was also crucial, as the counteroffensive had to be launched before the cold weather set in to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from using gas pressure on Europe.

Unwilling to share the details of their plans for a long time, Ukrainian commanders began to open up more to representatives of American and British intelligence and seek advice.

According to a senior administration official, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyi’s top adviser, have spoken several times about planning a counteroffensive. Gen. Mark A. Milley and Ukrainian military leaders regularly discussed intelligence and military support.

In the summer, when the Ukrainian and American military simulated a large-scale offensive in the south, they discovered that it would fail. These results were reported to Zelensky, after which Kyiv’s plan changed.

“We have conducted several simulation exercises,” Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s policy director, told the NYT in a telephone interview. “This set of exercises shows that certain lines of counteroffensive are likely to be more successful than others. We gave them this advice, and then the Ukrainians learned it and made their decision,” he said.

Instead of one major offensive, the Ukrainian military proposed two:

• The first is in Kherson, which probably took several days or weeks to achieve concrete results due to the concentration of Russian troops.
• The second offensive was planned near Kharkov.

The US, UK and Ukraine evaluated the plan and the three parties agreed that the new plan would work. At the same time, the New York Times notes that the attack on Kherson was never fake.

“The plan, which emerged during the mid-summer talks, relied heavily on US intelligence and precision weapons. But US officials insist that the credit for the offensive belongs entirely to Zelenskyi and the Ukrainian military, who, with a relatively small force in Kharkiv, won a huge victory,” the NYT writes.