Thousands of Russian soldiers have already called a Ukrainian hotline to surrender, officials say, inflicting further embarrassment on Putin’s battered army.
In just a few weeks, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, reported that 2,000 people have called the ‘I Want To Live’ hotline to offer themselves up.
Yusov asserted that he has received calls from soldiers in Ukraine, those still in Russia who have been conscripted, and some who have not yet gotten draft notices but wish to verify the procedure.
This comes after Putin ordered the deployment of 300,000 conscripts to the frontlines in Ukraine to prop up his failed invasion.
According to Kyiv’s military intelligence, 2,000 Russian soldiers have called a Ukrainian hotline that allows them to surrender within a few weeks.
The dictator is attempting to maintain control over the land his army has seized for more than seven months, but his weary forces are battling to hold the lines.
Beginning in early September, Ukrainian soldiers breached the Russian position in northern Kharkiv, triggering a retreat that allowed them to recapture tens of thousands of square miles of terrain in a matter of days.
Putin issued the mobilization order that sent thousands Russian personnel to training camps prior to deployment, but his army has since suffered additional defeats.
In the previous 48 hours, Ukraine has retaken dozens of towns and villages in the northern Kherson oblast in the south, while Putin’s troops have retreated more than 16 kilometers in a matter of hours.
Yusov reported that calls to the hotline increased significantly during the Kharkiv offensive and have continued to rise since then.
As Ukraine retakes land in the north and south, Russia is suffering enormous losses attempting to hold the ground it has captured over seven months of war (pictured, a destroyed tank in the north)
The wrecked remnants of a Russian column that attempted to flee the city of Lyman despite being encircled by Ukrainian forces.
Speaking to Ukraine’s Freedom TV, he stated, ‘At that time, we began to receive calls not just from soldiers who are part of the invading forces on Ukrainian soil.
‘Also those who have recently been mobilized and are still in Russia, or their relatives, or even those who believe they may be mobilized and are seeking clarification on this matter.
In a few weeks, we have already received over 2,000 inquiries of this nature.
According to neighboring nations, around 370,000 Russian residents have also departed their country to avoid the threat of being recruited.
According to the interior ministry of Kazakhstan, around 200,000 migrants have arrived in just two weeks.
Fontanka, a Russian news agency, stated that another 93,000 have gone to Georgia, while the EU reported that 66,000 have travelled to its territory, with the majority believed to have landed in Finland after Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania closed their borders.
Putin has ordered the conscription of 300,000 men to bolster his invasion, despite estimates that 370,000 had fled the country.
Mongolia, which shares an eastern border with Russia, said that 16,000 people had come.
Putin has also announced that the occupied territories of Ukraine are now a part of Russia, having staged sham referendums at gunpoint.
Putin stated last week in a huge address in which he again lashed out at the West that Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia will remain Russian “forever.”
Since Putin’s talk, however, his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has been unable to specify where the ‘new’ Russian border will be defined, and Russia has lost territory in three of the four sectors.