Ukraine guarantees “life and safety” to Russian soldiers who surrender, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov promised Friday, as kyiv’s forces advance in the south and east of the country.
“We guarantee life, security and justice to all those who immediately give up the fight,” the minister said in a video address to the Russian armed forces.
“Russia can still be saved from tragedy and the Russian army from humiliation,” he added.
Ukraine has so far recaptured 500 square kilometers of territory in the Kherson region as a result of the counteroffensive that forced Russian forces to withdraw, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
The Ukrainian president also highlighted the “successes” achieved in the east of the country, although he said he believes these will extend to the Zaporizhia region.
After receiving Western weapons, Ukrainian troops launched a counteroffensive in late August, which allowed them to recapture some of the areas under Moscow’s control.
The Ukrainian army has already recaptured most of the Kharkiv region in the northeast and is now on the offensive in the east of the country, where it recently recaptured the Lyman railway node, and in the south, where it intends to capture the city of Kherson. . .
Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed in late September as part of its invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24 this year.
In addition to Kherson, Russia annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions, where Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is located.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.6 million to European countries-, according to the most recent data from the UN, which places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion was widely condemned by the international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,114 civilian deaths and 9,132 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
