"We know about roughly 50,000 soldiers from other sectors who were transferred to the Kursk direction," Syrskyi said in a documentary aired on national television.Ukraine launched the offensive into Kursk Oblast in early August, claiming to have seized up to 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) and 100 settlements.The Ukrainian leadership said that one of the key goals of the operation was to divert Russian forces from Ukrainian battlefields. Syrskyi's figure is an increase from President Volodymyr Zelensky's estimation from Sept. 19, when he said that 40,000 troops had been diverted to the Kursk sector.According to Syrskyi, the redeployment weakened Russian positions in other areas, namely in the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kramatorsk sectors."This, of course, made it easier for us to conduct defensive operations," he noted.The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.