Ukraine To Hand Over Captured Russian Soldiers To Their Mothers: 'Collect Them In Kyiv'

Ukraine has called on the mothers of Russian troops captured during the neighboring countries' ongoing conflict to take their sons back home.

"A decision has been taken to hand over captured Russian troops to their mothers if they come to collect them in Ukraine, in Kyiv," the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement released Wednesday.

Aside from providing a telephone hotline for Russian parents to confirm if their sons were killed or captured in the war, the MoD also gave instructions on how mothers can travel to the Ukrainian capital to collect surviving prisoners.

"We Ukrainians, unlike Putin's fascists, do not fight mothers and their captive children. We are waiting for you in Kyiv," the MoD said.

Ukrainian authorities posted several videos that featured supposed Russian soldiers who surrendered during the conflict.

A group of prisoners who allegedly belonged to a Russian brigade claimed that they were told the invasion of Ukraine was a military exercise and that they were lied to, a video uploaded by the U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty showed.

"People were demoralized. No one wanted to go, but they said, 'You will be enemies of the people. And since this is wartime, you can even be shot,'" one alleged Russian prisoner said.

The soldier also explained that Russian troops were used "like cannon fodder" and that no one from his unit wanted war.

"[The men in my unit] just want to go home. They just want peace," he said.

The families of Russian soldiers also claimed they were unaware that their relatives were involved in the invasion, which was launched on Feb. 24 under the pretext of demilitarizing Ukraine.

Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed that 498 of its troops have died since the start of the war, while another 1,597 personnel have been injured, NPR reported.

These figures differed from those provided by the Ukrainian MoD, which claimed in its most recent report that Russia has suffered around 9,000 combat losses in the first seven days of the conflict.

Russian losses also included 217 tanks, 900 armored fighting vehicles, 30 aircraft and 31 helicopters, among many other vehicles, according to the MoD.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials have repeatedly emphasized the death toll of Russian soldiers since the start of the invasion, with the head of state expressing empathy for them and their families back home, a report by Time said.

The second round of peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia is expected to kick off in Belarus Thursday morning, according to Reuters.