Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky denies that the Russian troops were allowed to escape after the successful Kharkiv operation in the fall of 2022, it is just that the army was exhausted after a month of active fighting "day and night," he said in an interview with the Baza project for the Bayraktar radio.

"No one let anyone escape. When we took Izium, the AFU had a week to regroup and replenish losses. After that, the Ukrainian army began to advance on the other side of the Oskil River. We crossed, there were fights. We just suffered such losses, first of all in weapons – equipment broke down and received battle damage – that in fact there were literally two or three units left in the battalions. That is, there was nothing left to fight with," he said.

According to the Commander-in-Chief, it is this plus the factor of exhaustion of people, "because there was actually a month of fighting." Syrsky recalled how many territories and settlements were liberated then, adding that people fought "day and night." The military were exhausted, there was no equipment, and there were problems with ammunition, he said.