How Ukraine Kept Operation Vivaldi Secret, According to Biletskyi
Operation Vivaldi stayed secret because it was kept out of official reports and the corps commander briefed the commander-in-chief in person, said Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletskyi, who leads Ukraine's Third Army Corps, at a meeting with journalists on Monday, Oct. 19. Ukrainian OSINT analysts also met the military halfway and did not publish what they saw, he added.
No written reports
Biletskyi said both the previous commander-in-chief, Gen. Syrskyi, and the current one, Gen. Drapatyi, knew about the operation and agreed that no official reports would be filed. The corps did not mark its advances in the Delta system, he said, because leaks happen, not from the system itself but in the units. Roughly once every few weeks he reported to the commander-in-chief personally. The current commander-in-chief was even better informed, since he had commanded the Joint Forces grouping and was the corps' direct superior.
Why the build-up was hard to hide
The first sign of an offensive is the creation of an assault group, Biletskyi said. According to him, a brigade's move can be hidden for only three to four days: a brigade has 3,000-4,000 personnel with phones who use social media and call relatives, so OSINT analysts need only a few days to see that a brigade has moved. "Taking away phones is unrealistic," he said.
Suspicion arose at the level of the Russian "West" group that something was wrong. But one reason the Russians concluded there was no serious threat, he said, was that no reinforcements arrived, so Ukraine appeared to lack the forces for an offensive.
The press service and OSINT
Biletskyi said the corps press service also did its job. The 250 prisoners the corps announced then were a blow to Russian morale, he said, which can be seen from Russian bloggers and army chats. He thanked DeepState and ISW, saying they approached the matter very systematically and that, if needed, the corps could even spread disinformation through them.
"We reached out to Western and Ukrainian OSINT analysts; the overwhelming majority met us halfway and did not show this information," he said, crediting the press service. In another account of the briefing, we described the territory Ukraine said it liberated in the operation.