An elite Russian commander told Moscow's troops that they would 'go to heaven' if they died in Kursk

• A Russian commander said that soldiers who died serving their country in Kursk would go to heaven.
• Ukraine's counteroffensive into Kursk took its Western allies and Russia by surprise.

A Russian special forces unit commander told the parents of conscripts that their children would go to heaven if they died serving their country in Kursk.

Ukraine launched an offensive into Russia's Kursk region on August 6, taking both Russia and the West by surprise and forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to divert some troops from Ukraine.

Following the incursion, commander Apti Alaudinov said he observed parents demanding that their children be taken out of the combat zone.

In a message shared on his Telegram channel on August 18, Alaudinov said it is their duty to protect the country when it's being attacked.

He said conscripts who die defending "their Fatherland, their faith" will "go to heaven," Russian-language media outlet Meduza reported, citing the Telegram video.

The incursion was a surprise as NATO officials thought that Ukraine would have to wait another year to launch a counteroffensive. However, experts say that it has proven highly effective.

The Washington, DC-based Institute for the Study of War said in an update on Sunday that there was a "stark contrast" between the amount of territory taken by Russia so far this year and by Ukraine in less than a week.

Kyiv says its forces have captured roughly 386 square miles of Russian territory — almost as much as Moscow has seized in Ukraine this year — since the incursion began on August 6.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine didn't inform its allies about the planned incursion because its allies would have called the plan "unrealistic."

Last week, the country's intelligence said its forces in Kursk had captured 102 Russian soldiers.

The "I Want to Live" project, run by Ukrainian intelligence, posted a video on its Telegram channel on Thursday of dozens of men lying stomach-down next to a road.

The caption of the video stated that the troops had "made the right decision and surrendered."

Representatives for the Russian military did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.