Russian soldiers captured by the Ukrainian military have urged their people to rise up against President Vladimir Putin as they tell the world the world of fellow soldiers being thrown in mass graves.
A group of Russian soldiers spoke out against their government during a news conference with Interfax-Ukraine news agency, telling fellow citizens not to ‘see zombies’.
Alexei Zheleznyak, Mustafev Mugasad, Igor Rudenko, Alexander Fomenko and others almost cried as they told the press conference of their opposition to the Russian invasion, according to Mirror,
Mr. Zheleznyak, a soldier of the 34th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade stationed in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. RussiaSaid at the conference that he warned Putin that he would not be able to send enough troops to occupy Ukraine.
A group of Russian soldiers speak out against their government during a news conference with Interfax-Ukraine news agency
He said Putin is “a liar and a traitor to all our people.”
“Putin, without declaring war, is bombing residents of Ukraine, hospitals, cities,” he said, according to translations of the conference.
‘Russian, don’t look at the corpse. Ukrainian people are a brave people. They will take off this (Russian) device even without a weapon. They are united.
‘No matter how many troops Putin sends here, he will not occupy this area… Our Commander-in-Chief is a liar and a deceiver of all our people.
He betrayed not only us, but the whole of Russia. He drove the fascists out of us.
Mr. Mugsad of the 34th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Federation also urged Russian citizens to ignore state propaganda in their country.
“People will remember our aggression for centuries,” he said.
‘People, Russian soldiers, finally take off your rose-tinted glasses and see what’s happening in Ukraine.’
While speaking in the press conference, he was seen crying that the struggle is going on.
He claimed that 15,000 have already been killed in the conflict that started about a month ago.
He also expressed regret that ‘the soldiers of the Russian Federation, crossing the peaceful life of the Ukrainian people in one day, brought misery and destruction.’
Mr. Rudenko, the signalman of the 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade of the Russian Federation, said that the Russian troops were already defeated and that the Ukrainian army would “destroy” them.
He claimed that 15,000 have already been killed in the conflict that started about a month ago.
Official estimates, however, put the number of casualties down.
“If you (Russian army) have any respect left, don’t repeat my mistakes,” he said.
‘Take the soldiers, because Putin doesn’t need us. He doesn’t even pick up the corpse. They are thrown in mass graves. It’s hard to see.’
The Commander of the Automobile Department of the 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade, Mr. Fomenko appealed to his fellow citizens to oppose the ongoing conflict.
He said, ‘Don’t be afraid of our government. ‘They will not trample the crowd. Yes, they will detain 10,00-20,000 people, but you are more in numbers.
In Russia itself, a massive pro-rally war was held in Moscow on Friday, where photographers captured thousands of Russians singing the national anthem.
Vladimir Putin addressed the thousands of Russians gathered at the World Cup stadium in Moscow earlier this week
‘You can go out and stop this chaos. Peaceful people are suffering here, children.’
Russia is yet to respond to the press conference, in which videos of captured soldiers expressed regret over the invasion.
The circumstances under which the soldiers were present at the conference are unclear, and it is not certain whether they were compelled or compelled to speak against the Kremlin.
In Russia itself, a massive pro-rally war was held in Moscow on Friday, where photographers captured thousands of Russians singing the national anthem as Putin stood on stage.
In his speech he told the crowd: ‘Sevastopol’ [capital of Crimea] He did the right thing when he created a barrier for neo-Nazis and fundamentalists, which is already happening in other regions.
,[The] The people of Donbass also disagreed, and they launched a military campaign directly against it. [the Nazis]They were surrounded and shot with guns, Ukrainians launched air strikes against them.
‘It’s called genocide. We started our military campaign to save the people from this suffering and massacre.
Putin called a rally to mark the eighth anniversary of the ‘annexing’ of Crimea, called for ‘de-nazifying’ the peninsula and rejected claims of ‘genocide’ in the Donbass.
People wave Russian flags during a concert at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, eight years after Russia was last attacked
‘There is no greater love than giving your life for your friends.
‘The best confirmation of this is how our people are helping each other shoulder to shoulder during this operation.
When needed, they cover each other as if they were their own brothers, with bullets. We have not had such unity for a long time.
‘It so happened that the special operation coincided, by chance, with the birthday of one of our outstanding military leaders, Saint Fyodor Ushakov, who had never lost a battle during his illustrious military career.
‘ He once said: ‘This storm will go to the glory of Russia’. So it was then. So it is today. And it will always be so.’
The program included patriotic songs, including a performance of ‘Made in the USSR’, which marked the debut of ‘Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, It’s All My Country’.
Moscow police said 200,000 people attended the event – although the stadium has a capacity of only 81,000.
It has seen police forces crack down on anti-war protests and arrest thousands of people, and is now checking mobile phones for anti-Russian messages and material.
RussiaThe invasion is now grinding into its third week with heavy losses for Moscow, with US warnings that Putin will resort to nuclear threats to keep the West out of the conflict as he will no longer be able to rely on the strength of his conventional forces. , – One who will be weakened in battle.
Lieutenant General Scott Barrier, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress earlier this week: ‘As this war and its consequences gradually undermine Russian conventional strength, Russia has been able to signal the strength and project the West. Will happen. Will rely more and more on its nuclear deterrent. internal and external audience.
Today in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, officials say Russian forces have bombed an art school where some 400 people took refuge.
A man helps Ukrainian soldiers find bodies in the rubble at a military school hit by Russian rockets in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine
Evacuation of civilians from safe corridors in Mariupol, Ukraine on March 18
Local officials said Sunday that the school building was destroyed and people could live under the rubble, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Meanwhile, officials in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv say at least five civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, have been killed in the latest Russian shelling.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia’s siege of the port city was “a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come”.
Local officials said their remarks came after Russian troops forcibly deported several thousand people from the besieged city last week after Russia spoke of “refugees” arriving from the strategic port.
In the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents were deported to Russian territory,’ the city council said in a statement on its Telegram channel late Saturday.
‘The occupants illegally took people from the Livoberezhnye district and from shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombing.’
Zelensky stated that the Siege of Mariupol would ‘reduce the responsibility for war crimes in history’.
‘Doing this for a peaceful city… is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come.’