Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky switched into Russian in his nightly video address to urge Russian soldiers not to fight in Ukraine, saying even their generals expected that thousands of them would die.
He said Russia has been recruiting new troops “with little motivation and little combat experience” for the units that were gutted during the early weeks of the war so these units can be thrown back into battle.
He said Russian commanders fully understand that thousands of them will die and thousands more will be wounded in the coming weeks.
“The Russian commanders are lying to their soldiers when they tell them they can expect to be held seriously responsible for refusing to fight and then also don’t tell them, for example, that the Russian army is preparing additional refrigerator trucks for storing the bodies. They don’t tell them about the new losses the generals expect,” Zelensky said late Saturday.
“Évery Russian soldier can still save his own life. It’s better for you to survive in Russia than to perish on our land,” he said.
Zelensky added that more than 23,000 Russian soldiers have died since the start of Russia’s invasion; a figure that cannot be verified.
“The occupiers are accumulating additional forces for new attacks against our military in the east of the country,” Zelensky said, continuing, “We know that the Russian command is preparing for new big losses. In those units, the personnel of which was almost completely destroyed or significantly weakened in March-April, new people are being recruited. With little motivation. With little combat experience.”
“They just want to get the right amount. So that they can throw these units into the offensive. The Russian command is well aware that thousands more Russian soldiers will be killed and thousands more will be wounded in the coming weeks,” he added.
Zelensky said that a good portion of Russia’s military equipment had also been destroyed, including close to 200 Russian aircraft, over 1,000 Russian tanks and nearly 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.
Though Russia’s estimates of its casualties in Ukraine have generally been lower than those offered by Ukraine or NATO — on the rare occasions when Moscow has given such public estimates at all — a Kremlin spokesperson made a rare acknowledgement earlier this month that Russia had suffered “significant losses of troops.”
Efforts are continuing to secure the safe evacuation of more civilians trapped in the steelworks at Mariupol. President Zelensky says Ukraine is doing what it can to arrange further evacuations.
At least 20 civilians left the Azovstal plant late on Saturday, but it's not clear where they have been taken. Russian media and soldiers at the plant said some children were among the group.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has thanked Ukrainians for their "fight for freedom" as she met President Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv.
