"We joked that it wasn't April 1st. The commander just smiled, knowing we had no idea what was awaiting us," said Serhiy, a private in Ukraine's 80th brigade.
Concealing the invasion plans until the very last moment proved to be a masterstroke for Ukraine's military, whose shock offensive into the Kursk region on August 6 allowed them to catch the Russians off guard.
The commander in chief of Ukraine's military, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said last week that they'd seized nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in just a few days.
Ukraine's recent gains on the battlefield mark a shift in fortunes for the embattled country, which was caught on the back foot after US Congress delayed more than $60 billion of aid to them.
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