The Ukrainian government announced this Saturday the capture of 300 Russian soldiers since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and has made a direct line available to their families and relatives so that they can try to communicate with someone who knows their status.
“We have captured more than 300 unfortunates,” said the deputy to the Office of the President, Oleksiy Arestovich, at a press conference collected by Ukrinform.
In the same appearance, Arestovich described the opening of the line as “a gesture of goodwill towards the mothers of Russia, whose children are being killed by the insane regime of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin.”
According to the adviser, the Russian military is “surrendering en masse”, and even officers such as a commander of a tank battalion. Russia has not commented on these statements or published estimates of its numbers of deaths or captured during the invasion.
The deputy himself has estimated in his appearance that more than 1,000 Russian soldiers had died and 2,500 had been wounded, figures substantially lower than those presented by other Ukrainian officials.
Without going any further, the also advisor to the head of the President’s Office, Mijail Podoliak, had declared this Saturday that 3,500 Russian soldiers had died since the beginning of the war and less than 200 were taken prisoner.
Arestovich wanted to clarify that these figures are constantly being reviewed due to the conflictive situation on the ground.
