It was a war plan no one even tried to keep secret.
In July, when I visited Ukrainian troops near the southern front lines, outside the bomb-blasted city of Mykolaiv, soldiers told me how eager they were to start a long-rumored counteroffensive. Their goal was to retake the strategic Black Sea port of Kherson, which would block Moscow's plan to annex the entire south, including the embattled port of Odesa. It would also pave the way to eventually retaking nearby Crimea.
That campaign has begun, slowly. But the hype the Ukrainian military gave it was a ruse.
