KYIV (NYTIMES) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to as on Russian troops to give up in a video tackle posted on-line early on Tuesday (March 15).
“On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I give you a chance,” he stated in a translation of his tackle shared by his workplace. “If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated – as people, decently.”
In his tackle, Mr Zelensky stated Russia had already misplaced 90 warplanes and that Russian troops “did not expect such resistance”.
“They believed in their propaganda, which has been lying about us for decades,” he stated.
Mr Zelensky’s name for give up was not the primary time the Ukrainian authorities made such a proposal to Russian troops. Two weeks in the past, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov supplied Russian troopers money and amnesty in the event that they surrendered.
In an tackle on Saturday, Mr Zelensky stated hundreds of Russian troopers had both been captured or surrendered. This month, the Pentagon stated some Russian troops had surrendered, but it surely didn’t say what number of had carried out so.
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Mr Zelensky additionally stated he was grateful for Russians who continued to combat Russian disinformation in regards to the warfare, singling out a lady who walked in on a reside broadcast of a Russian state-run information present on Monday night, holding up an indication that stated, “They’re lying to you here.”
The girl, Ms Marina Ovsyannikova, labored for Channel 1, the channel whose broadcast she stormed. She was later detained and was being held at a small police station, in response to OVD-Info, an activist group that helps Russians detained for protesting.
“To those who are not afraid to protest: As long as your country has not completely closed itself off from the whole world, turning into a very large North Korea, you must fight,” Mr Zelensky stated. “You must not lose your chance.”
He stated some Russian troops had been fleeing battlefields and abandoning gear.
“Today, Russian troops are, in fact, one of the suppliers of equipment to our army,” he stated.
Addressing Russian conscripts and officers, Mr Zelensky requested them: “Why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive. We hear your conversations in the intercepts. We hear what you really think about this senseless war, about this disgrace and about your state.”
