A special telephone line “I want to live” created in September last year has already received until January 20 – a guarantee from the spokesman of the Ukrainian Prisoners of War Department Vitaly Matviyenko – more than 6500 requests to surrender from the Russians “mostly on the front”.
Recordings of the phone calls were released yesterday to confirm the authenticity of the service. In one, a man with a distorted voice said he had been given the number and could call to “voluntarily surrender”.
The person who answers the call, a woman, asks if he is already mobilized or if he is already in the military. The answer was affirmative: “Yes, I am mobilized. Soon I will be sent to Kherson”. Next, go to Telegram, search for the “I want to live” chatbot and answer what is asked.
There is silence and the man asks: “Should I kneel when the Ukrainian soldiers come? How can I surrender?” The question was ignored. The “operator” tells him to call back “when you’re in the front row.” “I’m not alone,” the man says. “I’m with a group of soldiers who want to surrender, but they say we could be imprisoned in Ukraine for ten years.”
The explanation is simple and the woman never changes her voice: “Those who voluntarily surrender will be recorded as captured on the battlefield”. “They won’t be filmed or assaulted,” the man asks for assurances. The answer points to two paths: “political asylum in Ukraine, Germany or the Netherlands” or by granting “interviews” found in Russia so they can coordinate “prisoner exchanges” and return home.
Long-range missiles?
Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, quoted by AP, assured this Saturday that Kiev and “Western allies” are engaged in what he called “rapid” talks on the possibility of providing Ukraine with “long-range missiles” and “military aircraft”. It guarantees protection to armored vehicles as promised by the US and Germany.
In an interview with Lusa, Ukraine’s defense ministry adviser Yuri Zak says he hopes the delay in sending tanks or bureaucratic obstacles won’t happen again, adding that “this is the biggest war the world has ever seen. At the end of World War II, “all kinds of weapons are used very, very intensively”.
That is why he emphasizes Kiev’s call for “intensive support” and the deployment of fighter jets: “We will start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and other versions of fourth-generation aircraft. This will ensure the end of the war sooner or later”.
