Ukraine’s president urged Russian citizens to protest Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize at least 300,000 men to fight in the war and called on soldiers called into service to “escape” or surrender.
55,000 Russian soldiers were killed in this war within six months. Tens of thousands of wounded and maimed. do you want more? number? Then protest. defend. run away Or surrender to Ukrainian families. “These are options for you to survive,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Thursday evening that was delivered in part in Russian.
Putin recently orderedPartial packing300,000 reservists to support its campaign in Ukraine. Large-scale anti-war protests in cities across Russia followed Putin’s announcement. More than 500 people were arrested.
“Russia’s decision to mobilize is a frank admission that its military, which for decades has been prepared to dominate a foreign country, was not able to stand it and collapsed,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky recalled how Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian advance in Kyiv and noted the Ukrainian counter-offensive earlier this month that regained control of previously occupied territories in the northeastern Kharkiv region. He pledged to liberate 15 percent of the territories still occupied in the far east and south.
It is a choice to die or live, to become paralyzed, or to stay healthy. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, children and grandchildren forever, or to try to protect them from death, from war, from one person,” Zelensky said, referring to Putin.
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