On February 24, during his address declaring military action against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the Ukrainian soldiers to lay down arms. He said those who followed his demand would be allowed to leave the battle zone and return to their families.
Putin said the goal of the military action would be to “defend people who for eight years are suffering persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime. For this, we will aim for demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.” Notably, he said Russia does not have any plans to “occupy Ukrainian territory”.
#BREAKING Putin calls on Ukraine military to ‘lay down its arms’ pic.twitter.com/Gvdx9krTY4
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 24, 2022
Putin further warned the West not to interfere in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He said if someone interferes, Russia would respond immediately, and the consequences would be like “you have never before experienced in your history.”
Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country & our people, must know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history: Russian President Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/xSCWPTByWv
— ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2022
Ukrainian President addressed Russians, says invasion would lead to lose of thousands of lives
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the people of Russia. He said he tried calling the Russian President, but his call went unanswered. “Today, I initiated a phone call with the President of the Russian federation. The result was silence. Though the silence should be in Donbas.”
He said he was addressing not as the President but as a citizen of Ukraine. “More than 2,000 km of the common border is dividing us. Along this border, your troops are stationed, almost 200,000 soldiers, thousands of military vehicles. Your leaders approved them to make a step forward to the territory of another country. And this step can be the beginning of a big war on the European continent.”
He said Ukraine would defend itself if the troops tried to take away the country. “If they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack, but defend ourselves. And when you are attacking us, you will see our faces, not our backs, but our faces.” He added people would lose not only money, reputation, and freedom but also loved ones and themselves. He further urged the people of Russia to convince their President, not to initiate an invasion.
