Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday appealed to the Russian public and soldiers who do not agree with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
“I know that you want to survive,” he told Russian soldiers, speaking in their native language.
“If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated. As people, decently — in a way you were not treated in your army,” a BBC report on his remarks said. “And in a way your army does not treat ours. Choose!”
He also praised Marina Ovsyannikova, the woman who interrupted Russian state TV news by holding up an anti-war sign, as part of a broader appeal to Russians who are upset about the unprovoked assault on their neighbor.
Russians who protest the war in public are often arrested immediately, and the public has been fed a steady diet of Kremlin propaganda about the mission, which has stalled in areas around Ukraine.
“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. Zelenskyy said. “You must not lose your chance.”
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• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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