- Who Are The 300,000 Russian Reservists Who Could Be Mobilized After Putin's Announcement
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| Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. |
Zelensky calls on the Russian population to "protest, fight back or surrender": "You have already been an accomplice, it is time for you to choose"
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, appealed this Thursday to Russian citizens to protest against the military mobilization announced by the president, Vladimir Putin, or, otherwise, surrender to "Ukrainian captivity". Specifically, Zelensky has called on Russian citizens to "protest, fight back, flee or surrender to Ukraine" in his usual daily speech. "You are already complicit in all these crimes, murders, and torture of Ukrainians because you remain silent. It is time for you to choose, for men to choose to die or live," he urged.
"Even if they were not massive, they (the protests) were. And there are. This is an indicator. Not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. We know the mood in the Russian regions. We see that people in Dagestan, in Buryatia, in other national republics and regions of Russia, they understand that they have simply been dragged to death," he said.
More than 1,300 people have been arrested in 38 Russian cities, according to the count prepared by the OVD organization, which advocates for civil rights in Russia, for participating in the protests after the Prosecutor's Office warned potential attendees of these marches that they could be committing a crime.
In this sense, Zelensky has stressed that the choice for many Russians is to die, live, be crippled, or remain healthy. "For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, children, grandchildren forever or try to protect them from death, from war, from one person (Putin)," she added.
The Ukrainian president has warned that Russia will recruit not only the military that are in reserve but "any man". This decision by the Russian president reflects, according to Zelensky, the failure of the Russian Army.
"The Russian decision to mobilize is a frank admission that its regular army, which had been trained for decades, has not been able to withstand it and has fallen apart," the Ukrainian leader said in a late afternoon speech.
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