Ukrainian soldiers thought order to invade Russia was a joke: report

But for some, invading Russia was still a distant possibility.

“I laughed,” a Ukrainian soldier identified only by his first name, Serhiy, he said of the plans when he first heard about them, according to The Economist.

“We joked that it wasn’t April 1st. The commander just smiled, knowing that we had no idea what was coming,” said Serhiy, a soldier in Ukraine’s 80th brigade.

Hiding the invasion plans until the last minute proved a blow to Ukraine’s military, whose shock offensive in the Kursk region on August 6 caught the Russians off guard.

Ukrainian military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week that they had seized nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in just a few days. That’s almost as much territory as Russia seized from Ukraine this year.

Ukraine’s recent battlefield gains mark a turnaround in fortunes for the battered country, which was caught on the back foot after the US Congress delayed more than $60 billion in aid. The aid bill was finally passed in April after months of opposition from the People’s Republic.

Of course, Russian complacency could have contributed to the effectiveness of Ukraine’s clandestine military operation.

Andrei Gurulyov, a Russian lawmaker and retired major general, said in a televised interview in Russia on August 8 that the country’s military knew about Ukraine’s plans to attack Kursk a month before it happened.

“But the order came from above not to panic and that those at the top know better,” Gurulyov said, according to a translation by The New York Times.

Representatives of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.