"I Want to Live," the Hotline Created by Ukrainians to Save the Russians Mobilized at the Front by Putin but Who Want to Surrender.
Calls or contacts via the Telegram group "I want to live" do not stop night and day.
In offices as banal as they are secret, somewhere in Kyiv, phones ring from morning to night. Simple plastic handsets, neutral and procedural voices: in appearance, a banal telephone switchboard. But at the other end of the line, somewhere in Russia or directly on the front line, Russian soldiers are asking to surrender.
The phone line they call is aptly named: “I want to live.”
A report from a Western media outlet allows us to learn more about this unusual call center.
“Someone gave me your number," begins one of them. That someone told me I can turn myself in, of my own free will.
- Are you already mobilized? replies the operator, as normally as possible.
- Yes, I am. I will be deployed to Kherson soon.
- Go to our Telegram group. Address yourself to our automatic chat. Fill in the form.
- I can't. Our commander has confiscated our phones. Maybe I can find a disposable phone... But God forbid I have to use it there. I especially want to know what to do when the Ukrainians attack us. Should I throw myself right into my lap? What should I do?
- When you arrive at the front, call us immediately, the operator repeated.
- I understand... But I am not alone. We are a whole group. We have been told that we will be imprisoned for ten years if we surrender to the enemy.
- If you surrender on your own, Russia will consider you ‘captured on the battlefield.’ This is all to your advantage.
- Is there any guarantee that I won't be shot, beaten, or filmed?
- We have several testimonies of men who surrendered on their own. They chose to be filmed to promote surrender. After your capture, if you have the opportunity, you can be exchanged and choose to return to Russia. Or if not, seek asylum in Ukraine or elsewhere, like the Netherlands or Germany."
Petro is the press officer of “I want to live”, this unusual hotline created by Ukrainians to save those Russian soldiers sent to Ukraine as cannon fodder by Putin's dictatorship. Petro also represents other structures in charge of prisoners of war. He wears a military uniform. He and “I want to live” are an integral part of the Ukrainian army, even if the switchboard operators are simple civilians.
Petro says: “Russians who wanted to surrender used to contact our police. In the calls we intercepted between soldiers on the front and their families back home, we noticed how often these phrases came up: 'I want to come back alive' and 'I want to live'... On September 18, 2022, 'I want to live was born. There were only two of us at the time, but soon the messages and calls multiplied. We had to open other offices, our program quickly became very popular ..."
While Petro won't say the exact number of Russians who surrendered, there have reportedly been more than 2,500 surrender requests, and the switchboard's Telegram group is followed by nearly 40,000 people.
“Russian soldiers trust us because everything is encrypted,” says Petro. “Our reputation is mostly based on word of mouth, they pass on our contact ... We don't need to demoralize them or convince them. They watch their comrades lose their legs and arms, and they wonder what they are doing there and at what cost ... Those who call us are on the front line, some even in extreme situations, as surrounded by our troops. Others call us from Russia because they have just been mobilized. Finally, families also contact us. They want to help a loved one. We have been contacted from the United States or Belgium."
A recording illustrates this call for help from a family. The conversation is in Ukrainian, and the voice of the caller is that of an old person:
“I am Ukrainian but my grandson lives in Russia. He says he does not want to fight against his grandparents, but he is in the army, and he has no choice, his turn will come ... I want to help him to surrender, so we can bring him home.
The operator answers, as she does to all the others:
- He must fill out the form and send it to our Telegram bot. Then to add later in the conversation:
- Your grandson must inform our country that he does not want to fight. When he surrenders, it will be an asset. This procedure doesn't work the same for everyone, it's case by case.
- I'll tell him. Can he contact you on Telegram without the FSB monitoring him?
- Yes, but avoid Viber (a very popular app in Russia and Ukraine)."
In the form that the Russian soldier must send to “I want to live,” he will have to specify, among other things, the name of his unit and his location. “The front is huge,” Petro explains. “We always advise them to have a second phone because their commanders confiscate their phones. Then they call us and we can set up surrender operations.”
Despite the obvious risk of ambush, Petro maintains “that after a thorough investigation, Ukrainian special forces can be sent to a front to ensure the surrender of Russian soldiers.”
The real objective of “I want to live” remains unclear: to demoralize the enemy, even more, to capture as many Russian prisoners as possible to multiply the exchanges against Ukrainians, or a real escape for the Russian mobilized? In any case, the hotline responds well to a crisis of morale that Russia is trying to address with new laws punishing surrender with ten years in prison.
“These laws scare Russian soldiers who contact us,” admits Petro.
Since November 7, 2022, it is impossible to call this “toll-free number” from Russia. Consultable everywhere, the Telegram group “I want to live” is particularly active. Information aimed at demotivating Russian soldiers circulates daily: “in the Bakhmut sector, officers make a soldier go from the front to the rear for 5,000 rubles” or “in Svatovksky, soldiers who have been mobilized for less than a month, without food or water, were abandoned by their commander in the middle of a bombardment.”
Next to this are testimonies of Russians who surrendered and who give the impression of a much more livable detention than the front. There is also mention of the “Freedom of Russia” legion: a unit specifically composed of Russian opponents, for those who, after their surrender, would like to join the Ukrainians.
A legion that also returns in a recorded conversation:
“I am not yet mobilized but it should not be long. How can I join your camp?
- There is the legion 'The Freedom of Russia' for that. The Russian soldier is astonished before realizing:
- So it's not all a fake?”
Olga (her name was voluntarily changed during the Western media's reporting), one of those operators at the “I want to live,” switchboard testifies, “I am a simple civilian. I had experience in other call centers, that's all. It's different here. The war has made everything different.”
On how she works, Olga explains, “It's a day and night job that never stops. Our exchanges with Russians who want to surrender are based on a script and an algorithm. Sometimes the conversation becomes more spontaneous, especially when we talk to the family of a mobilized person, then people can be very emotional ... But we are ready to deal with anything.”
Petro acknowledges that this “open line” is criticized by some Ukrainians while claiming “to treat the Russians better than they treat ours.” For her part, Olga helps the opponent escape his fate without qualms. “People need help. We only have to help those who want to surrender. Those who want to survive.”
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