(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the mothers of Russian soldiers to prevent their sons from being sent to “war” in Ukraine.
Posted at 4:49 p.m.
Updated at 7:06 p.m.
“I want to say this again to Russian mothers. Particularly, to the mothers of conscripts. Do not send your children to war in a foreign country,” Mr. Zelensky said, in a new video address released on Telegram.
Check where your son is. And if you have the slightest suspicion that your son could be sent to war against Ukraine, act immediately [pour empêcher qu’il soit tué ou capturé]
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine
“Ukraine never wanted this terrible war. And Ukraine does not want it. But it will defend itself as much as necessary, ”added the Ukrainian president.
On Wednesday, Russia for the first time acknowledged the presence of conscripts in Ukraine and announced that a number of them had been taken prisoner, Moscow claiming until then that only professional soldiers were fighting there.
This announcement came as calls from mothers without news of their sons sent to Ukraine multiplied on social networks.
For its part, Ukraine already last week invited the mothers of Russian soldiers captured on its territory to pick them up, Kyiv claiming to have taken dozens of prisoners since the start of Moscow’s invasion of the country.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense then published the phone numbers and an email through which mothers could obtain information about their sons who were prisoners in Ukraine.
During the conflict between Moscow and Chechen separatists in the 1990s and 2000s, many young Russian conscripts were sent to the front and some were taken prisoner.
Soldiers’ mothers then mobilized to bring them back alive or bring back their corpses, not hesitating to go there, a movement that had fueled anti-war protests in Russia.
“Our Polish brothers and sisters are with us”
The Ukrainian president also praised the Poles in a long video message on Friday, hailing the “extremely strong union” that has been forged between the two countries following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“When you are hurt, it is very important to have someone to lean on. And when the enemy sets foot in your house, someone reaches out to you. On the morning of February 24, I had no doubts who would say to me, ‘Brother, you will not find yourself alone against the enemy’,” the Ukrainian president said in his message to President Andrzej Duda, to Parliament and to the Polish people.
PHOTO POOL, REUTERS
Polish President Andrzej Duda
“And that’s exactly what happened. And I’m grateful for that. Our Polish brothers and sisters are with us”, he stressed, recalling that Poland currently hosts “more than one and a half million Ukrainian citizens, the absolute majority of whom are women and children”.
These refugees “do not feel like visitors. You welcomed them into your families with tenderness, fraternal kindness”, he underlines, recalling that bilateral relations were conversely “fresh” before his accession to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019.
A “peace between brothers” unites the two countries, he stressed, saying “wish these words would be heard by our neighbors, the people of Belarus”, an ally of Russia.
Together we are 90 million inhabitants […] It is a historic mission for Poland and Ukraine to be the leaders who tomorrow will lift Europe out of this abyss, save it from this threat, prevent Europe from becoming a victim.
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine
Poland offered earlier this week to deliver its Mig-29 jets to the US military and then hand them over to Ukraine, an offer rejected by Washington, which deemed it likely to provoke a Russian escalation.