- More Russian soldiers are offering to defect via a surrender hotline, a Ukrainian official said.
- The rise in calls comes after a Russian helicopter pilot publicly defected to Ukraine last month.
- The official said the number of Russian appeals to defect jumped by about 70 percent daily.
A Russian pilot who defected with a Mi-8 helicopter last month has inspired a massive uptick in calls to Ukraine’s surrender hotline, an official said on Monday.
Andrii Yusov, of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, told Radio Svoboda that there has been a 70 percent daily uptick of calls to “I Want to Live”, a state-run project which allows Russian soldiers to arrange to give themselves up rather than fight in the war.
“There is considerable progress on the hotline of ‘I Want to Live’ and, separately, on other communication channels,” Ysuov said, according to a translation by the Ukrainian Pravda.
“After the successful operation Synytsia with the Mi-8 and the pilot, the number of Russian army servicemen considering such a scenario has increased,” he added.
Yusov did not provide an exact number of how many people have called but did say that there “there will be a reward” for anyone thinking of defecting, as per the Ukrainian Pravda.
Maksim Kuzminov, a 28-year-old captain in Russia’s 319th separate helicopter regiment, surrendered to Ukraine last month, bringing with him a Mi-8 helicopter and stolen fighter jet parts.
His successful arrival in Ukraine was said to have marked the end of a six-month secret defection plot he had worked out with Ukrainian intelligence that included moving his family out of Russia. Two other crew members, who were on board the helicopter and not aware of the defection, tried to flee but were killed.
Kuzminov was awarded half a million dollars for changing sides and taking Russia’s military equipment with him.
In an interview published by Ukraine’s defense-intelligence agency last week, Kuzminov said that he chose to defect because he did not want to be involved in war crimes, according to a translation by CNN.
“What is happening now is simply genocide of the Ukrainian people. Both Ukrainian and Russian,” the 28-year-old added.
The “I Want to Live” hotline was launched just before Russia announced a mass mobilization of reservists in September last year. It is run both over the phone and on Telegram.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office blocked the site in mid-October last year, by which time it claimed to have received more than 2,000 inquiries.
By March this year, around 10,000 Russian soldiers used the hotline to offer their voluntary surrender, officials said at the time.
