The president of Ukraine has issued a stark warning to Russian soldiers invading his country, offering them a "chance to survive" if they surrender.
Volodymyr Zelensky made the remarks in a video address early Tuesday. He also predicted his country's victory over Russian forces, saying each difficult day of resistance is "approaching peace for Ukraine."
"The enemy is confused. They did not expect such resistance," Zelensky said, according to a translation from his presidential office. "They believed in their propaganda, which has been lying about us for decades."
Zelensky went on to say Russian soldiers are fleeing the battlefield and abandoning equipment.
"We take trophies and use them to protect Ukraine," he said. "Today, Russian troops are, in fact, one of the suppliers of equipment to our army. They could not imagine such a thing in a nightmare."
Zelensky directly addressed the Russian soldiers "who have already entered our land, and who are just about to be sent to fight against us.
"Russian conscripts! Listen to me very carefully," he said. "You will not take anything from Ukraine. You will take lives. There are a lot of you. But your life will also be taken.
"But why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive," Zelensky continued. "We hear your conversations in the intercepts, we hear what you really think about this senseless war, about this disgrace and about your state. Your conversations with each other. Your calls home to your family. We hear it all."
Zelensky then offered the troops a choice -- essentially to choose life or death.
"On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I give you a chance. Chance to survive," he said. "If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated. As people, decently. In a way you were not treated in your army. And in a way your army does not treat ours. Choose!"
Zelensky cautioned that "the whole world sees what is happening," adding that responsibility for war crimes of the Russian military and for a deliberate humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities "is inevitable."
"Every aggressive action of the invaders only pushes the world to new sanctions," he said.
Zelensky's demand for surrender comes as peace talks continue with Russian negotiators, according to Reuters.
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