Forewarned Ukrainian commanders did not prepare for Russian push on Kharkiv — MP Bezuhla / The New Voice of Ukraine

Even after being briefed on Moscow’s plans to launch an incursion into northern Kharkiv Oblast by early May, Ukrainian high command failed to mount a proper defense of the region, Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuhla told NV on July 3.

A sitting member of the parliamentary Defense Committee, Bezuhla is no stranger to delivering scathing criticisms of the Ukrainian military. In late 2023, she publicly admonished the then-Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi for failing to develop an overall plan for the war. In May, she called for an investigation into Gen. Yurii Sodol for his alleged disregard for the lives of his subordinates. Recently, she accused Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi of micromanaging troops with his frequent trips to the frontlines.

“It doesn’t take advanced military science to act on concrete intelligence that the Russians are planning an offensive, yet nothing was done for a month,” Bezuhla said in an interview with NV Radio.

“There were no fortifications at the [Russian] border, no troops in Vovchansk. One of the two main positions was held by Territorial Defense forces, whose combat readiness wasn't even checked.”

Bezuhla then questioned whether the decision-making process in the Ukrainian military is fundamentally “broken.”