the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskycalled on Saturday for the mothers of Russian soldiers to prevent the sending of their children to “war” in Ukraine.
“I want to say once again to Russian mothers. Particularly the mothers of conscripts. Do not send your children to war in a foreign country,” Zelensky declared in a new video on Telegram.
“Check where your son is. And if you have the slightest suspicion that your son may have been sent to war against the Ukraine, act immediately“To prevent him from dying or being captured, he said.
“Ukraine has never wanted this terrible war. And Ukraine does not want it. But it will defend itself as long as it takes,” he added.
On Wednesday, Russia acknowledged for the first time the presence of conscripts in Ukraine and announced that some of them were taken prisoner. Until now, Moscow defended that it had only sent professional soldiers.
This announcement was made while requests for help on social networks from mothers without news of their children sent to the front are increasing.
In the conflict between Moscow and Chechen independence fighters in the 1990s and 2000s, numerous young Russian conscripts were sent to fight and some were captured.
Their mothers mobilized to bring them back alive or to recover their bodies, a movement that fueled anti-war protests in Russia.
