“What do you want to fight for? Run if you want to stay alive! – President Zelenskyy to Russian soldiers
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has told Russian troops sent to fight in Ukraine that they should give up if they want to stay alive.
After losses on the battlefield, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called up over 300,000 reservists to help fight in the war against Ukraine. But Zelenskyy has told the new soldiers to run or protest in Russia instead of coming to fight and losing their lives.
“Run if you want to stay alive. Give up if you want to live. If you want to live, you have to fight for your freedom on the streets. Everything was taken from you anyway,” he told the soldiers in Russian on the Telegram app.
Zelenskyy asked the conscripts a question to show how different ordinary Russian men who were called up last week as part of President Putin’s partial mobilization are from powerful Russian oligarchs.
“What do you want to fight for? You only have loans, a little food for dinner, and now mobilization. Fight for what you already own! Do not climb onto our land, our souls, or our way of life.”
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Zelenskyy’s warning comes after photos of newly drafted reservists at a departure ceremony in Sevastopol, Crimea, were made public on September 28. The reserves seemed old and out of shape.
Also, Zelenskyy has made a lot of diplomatic calls to Ukraine’s Western allies to get them to support Kyiv after a series of fake referendums in parts of the country that are controlled by Russia. Most people think that Putin will say on Friday that Luhansk and Donetsk in the east and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south will become part of Russia.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s main job was to “coordinate actions with partners” in response to Russia’s fake referendums and other threats. Russia took over Crimea in 2014, which is not 2014. Everyone understands everything. And they will do something.”
“If someone over there in Russia thinks they can do whatever they want in the occupied territory, they are wrong,” the president said.
