Syryskiy revealed that he personally urged soldiers to commence the offensive in the Kursk region.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, shared that before the operation in the Kursk region commenced, he personally urged the soldiers to begin the offensive.

He revealed this in an interview with the YouTube channel "Bombardir."

According to him, not all brigade commanders were mentally prepared to cross the border into Russia, and some soldiers believed that it would be illegal.

“I met personally with each company, with the servicemen. We did not have that many troops. We advanced with smaller forces than during the Kharkiv operation. We withdrew brigades from combat, allowed them to prepare, and some battalions were engaged only after the operation had started,” the Commander-in-Chief explained.

Syrsky stated that he explained to the soldiers the purpose of the operation. He noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine began the offensive from areas where the Russians themselves had planned to launch an attack on Ukrainian territory.

Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk Region

The first unofficial reports of a border breakthrough in the Kursk region emerged on August 7. In response, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed a “large-scale provocation” by Ukraine.

As President Vladimir Zelensky explained, the offensive in the Kursk region is part of a larger operation “to compel Russia to a just peace.” Specifically, this operation helped avoid the occupation of the Sumy region and also seized the initiative from Russia.

By the end of September, the Russians launched counteroffensive actions in the Kursk region.

As of mid-December 2024, military sources confirmed to Hromadske that half of the territory in the Kursk region that had been captured by Ukrainian forces since the operation began had already come under Russian control.