Ukraine’s plans to attack Russia’s Kursk region were kept so secret that Ukrainian soldiers did not believe they would go ahead.
Ukrainian soldiers began to suspect an attack was imminent after being issued new helmets and assault rifles earlier this month, The Economist reported on Sunday, citing soldiers involved in the incursion.
Soldiers told the media they were conducting a training exercise using a model, which they later realised was a replica of a Russian village.
But to some, an invasion of Russia still seemed a distant possibility.
“We laughed” when he first heard about the plan, a Ukrainian soldier who was given only by his first name, Serhiy, was quoted as saying by The Economist.
“We joked that today wasn’t April 1st. The commander just laughed, knowing that we had no idea what was coming,” said Serhiy, a soldier from Ukraine’s 80th Brigade.
Keeping their invasion plans secret until the last moment proved to be a brilliant move by the Ukrainian military, as their sudden offensive into the Kursk region on August 6 caught the Russians off guard.
Ukrainian military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Shirsky said last week that his country had seized about 400 square miles of Russian territory in just a few days – roughly the same amount of territory Russia has seized from Ukraine this year.
Ukraine’s latest battlefield victories mark a reversal of fortunes for the embattled country, which was handicapped by the U.S. Congress’s decision to hold up more than $60 billion in aid, a bill that was finally passed in April after months of Republican opposition.
Indeed, Russian letdown may have increased the effectiveness of Ukraine’s covert military operations.
Russian lawmaker and retired Major General Andrei Grulyov said in an interview broadcast in Russia on August 8 that the Russian military knew about Ukraine’s plans to attack the Kursk missile site a month before it actually happened.
“But the orders came from on high not to panic. The higher-ups should know better,” Grulyov said, according to a translation by The New York Times.
Representatives for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment sent outside normal business hours.
