"This is why nobody had been informed about our preparations," Zelenskyy told the heads of Ukraine's foreign diplomatic missions in a speech delivered on Monday, according to a translation by 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 telling," he continued, referencing Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
"When our Ukrainian defenders act like this, decisively and bravely, and when the operation is indeed well-prepared, Putin has no choice. And now the world sees that it is realistic, that it really works," Zelenskyy said on Monday, per Pravda.
"We joked that it wasn't April 1st. The commander just smiled, knowing we had no idea what was awaiting us," a Ukrainian soldier identified only by his first name, Serhiy, said of the orders to invade Russia.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine's military, said last week that Ukraine had captured nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in just a few days. That's close to the amount of Ukrainian territory that was seized by the Russians this year.
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