In a video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russian soldiers to lay down their arms.
We know from tapped telephone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families at home what many “really think about this war”. “I know that you want to survive,” said Selenskyj in a video message published on Tuesday night.
Ukraine’s president wants to call those responsible for the serious acts of war in his country accountable without forbearance. “We are working with partners on new punitive measures against the Russian state,” he said. “Everyone responsible for the war. Anyone responsible for destroying democracy. Anyone responsible for repression against people. Everyone gets an answer.”
The Russian military is definitely responsible for war crimes, for a “deliberately created humanitarian catastrophe” in Ukrainian cities, Zelenskyy said in the clip, which shows him in military gear at the presidential office in Kyiv.
Russia is beginning to realize that it will not achieve anything by going to war. “They did not expect such resistance. They believed their propaganda, which has been lying about us for decades.” Within 19 days of the war in Ukraine, the Russian army had suffered more casualties than during the two Chechen wars, Zelensky said. The information is not independently verifiable.