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More than 4,300 Russian soldiers and their relatives, according to the kyiv authorities, have consulted the possibility of surrendering to the Ukrainian Army through the line “I want to live!” launched by Ukraine and oriented towards those who do not want to be part of the invasion of the country.
“They come to us because they want to stay alive. They reject the terrorist regime of (President Vladimir) Putin, but they cannot free themselves from serving in the army”, explains Vitaliy Matvienko, spokesperson for the project, to Efe.
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Soldiers can call the hotline or contact its operators through their Telegram account, which has some 40,000 followers. Many call before being posted to Ukraine, where their movement and communication channels are often restricted by their superiors.
Matvienko explains that the number of calls skyrocketed immediately after the start of the so-called “partial mobilization” declared in Russia last September. Since then it has remained stable, with between 50 and 100 queries per day.
The spokesperson indicates that the hotline team does everything possible to ensure the safety of both those who try to turn themselves in and the Ukrainians who come into contact with them. Mativenko does not reveal if any incident has been registered so far.
A new instruction was issued earlier this week for those willing to surrender in favor of a safer process. The idea is that Russian soldiers “surrender” to Ukrainian drones.
The soldiers go to the agreed place, always in agreement with the organizers of the project; there a drone awaits them, which will move slowly and which they must follow until they reach Ukrainian positions. In this way, the Ukrainian soldiers will have full visual control of the situation without risking their lives so much.
Matvienko does not reveal the number of Russian soldiers who have already used this route to surrender. All of them are formally registered as captured in combat to avoid future Russian reprisals and allow them and their families to receive all the legal aid provided by the Russian Federation.
Ukraine ensures that surrendered soldiers are treated correctly and in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
“They are checked once in Ukraine to see if they have committed war crimes.a,” says Matvienko.
If they have not committed blood crimes, they can choose between several options. They can apply for protection in Ukraine or some European Union (EU) countries, such as Germany or the Netherlands. They may also decide to join the “Freedom for Russia” legion, made up mainly of Russians, to fight on the Ukrainian side.
There is, finally, the option of being sent back to Russia in a prisoner of war exchange. “They want to go back to their families,” Matvienko explains. In this case, they are given a card with all the information on how to contact the hotline if they are assigned to fight against Ukraine again.
Calls are also received from residents of the occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in the annexed Crimean peninsula, where they are treated as Ukrainians by the Russian authorities and forcibly mobilized since the start of the invasion.
The hotline is a coordinated mechanism between various state entities responsible for the treatment of prisoners of war. The number of people in this situation held by one of the two sides is not public.
Ukrainian authorities and relatives of prisoners have often denounced their treatment by Russia. Many exchanged soldiers have revealed cases of torture, malnutrition and psychological pressure.
Some 50 prisoners of war were killed on 29 July in an explosion in Russia’s Olenivka prison camp, an operation Ukraine described as a “deliberate execution”.
Prisoner swaps have become more frequent of late. In the latest exchange, which took place on Wednesday, 64 soldiers captured in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions returned home. The total number of Ukrainian prisoners of war exchanged since the start of the invasion almost 10 months ago thus rose to almost 1,450.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
