Zelensky requests Russian mothers, "don't send sons to war"

Kyiv: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested Russian mothers not to send their sons to war in Ukraine. He asked them to check where their sons are, if they are conscripts, and don't send them if they are about to involve in the fight against Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.

In a video address released in Telegram, he said that he wanted to request Russian mothers against that they do not send their children to war in a foreign country.

Asking to check their sons, he said that if the mothers have the slightest suspicion that they could be sent to war in Ukraine, they should act immediately to prevent them from being killed or captured. Ukraine never wished for the war and would never want it, but it will defend itself as much as possible, Zelensky said.

On Wednesday, Russia had officially acknowledged for the first time that Moscow had involved conscripts in the war, and some were taken prisoners in Ukraine. But earlier, it had claimed that they had only involved professional soldiers.

Russian declaration came after posts from mothers of those sent to Ukraine seeking news appeared on social media. Last week, Kyiv had asked mothers of Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine to come and take their children back. Kyiv had published phone numbers, as well as emails for those seeking information for the captured soldiers.

According to Kyiv, it had taken dozens of prisoners as soldiers since Russia initiated its invasion.

In the 1990s and 2000s, during the conflict between Moscow and Chechen separatists, Russia had sent many conscripts to the front, and some were taken as prisoners. After that, anti-war protests broke out in Russia, mobilised by women, which tried and brought back their sons alive or dead from captivity. Some even went to Chechnya themselves for that.