In his speech, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the Russian people to surrender when they had the chance, warning them that their president was willfully ‘sending them to their doom’. Zelensky warned Moscow’s soldiers that if they refused to submit, Ukrainian forces would ‘liberate our whole nation’.
He said, ‘It is preferable to flee a criminal mobilisation than to get injured and then be held legally accountable for taking part in an attack’. Israel, which Zelensky chastised for its slowness to supply weaponry despite pledging to assist Ukraine as much as it could, was also criticised for this behaviour. Zelensky has frequently used Israel’s Iron Dome system as a way to block Russian missiles since it is efficient at stopping rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.
Ukraine has been reclaiming ground in a counteroffensive since the strikes on regions ranging from Crimea to the Donetsk region. Russia also enacted a bill this week toughening penalties for voluntarily surrendering and deserting in response to the partial mobilisation President Vladimir Putin ordered this week.
Putin also authorised a military conscription this week to enrol 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine, replacing its senior logistical general on Saturday following a string of defeats. Russia has attempted to defend its seven-month-old conflict at the UN, with Sergei Lavrov, the country’s foreign minister, stating that regions of Ukraine where heavily criticised referendums are being held would be under Russia’s ‘complete protection’ if seized by Moscow.
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