“That is why no one was informed about our preparations,” Zelenskyy told the heads of Ukrainian foreign diplomatic missions in a statement. letter It was delivered on Monday, according to a translation by a Ukrainian media outlet. Pravda.
“Now the real success speaks for itself: our active defensive actions on the other side of the border and Putin’s inability to protect his territory from our defensive actions of this kind are very significant,” he added, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine’s allies weren’t the only ones who didn’t know about the attack. The planned invasion was kept so secret that Ukrainian soldiers weren’t notified until the last minute.
“We joked that we weren’t there on April 1. But the commander just smiled, because he knew we had no idea what awaited us,” a Ukrainian soldier identified only by his first name, Serhiy, said of the orders to invade Russia. The Economist It was reported on Sunday.
Russian forces were caught off guard when Ukraine launched a surprise attack on the Kursk region on August 6. The surprise attack resulted in significant gains for Ukraine on the battlefield.
Last week, Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military, said Ukraine had seized nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in just a few days. That’s close to the amount of Ukrainian territory the Russians have seized this year.
“When the Ukrainian defenders act this way, decisively and courageously, when the operation is already ready, Putin will have no other choice. Now the world sees that it is real, that it really works,” Zelensky told the Pravda newspaper on Monday.
Representatives of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, which was sent outside regular business hours.