Afrigather 
Sure for the battlefield, sounding harried and anxious, the Russian soldier positioned a hasty telephone name — to a Ukrainian army hotline.
“They are saying you may assist me give up voluntarily, is that proper?” requested the serviceman, explaining that he was quickly to be deployed close to the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Kherson.
“When Ukrainian troopers come, do I simply kneel down, or what? Do you promise to not movie me whereas that is occurring?”
In fluent Russian, the hotline operator calmly assured him he’d be given detailed directions on how one can safely lay down his weapon and switch himself in.
“If you get to the entrance strains, simply name us straight away,” she stated.
At a vital juncture in an extraordinarily bloody war, Ukraine’s army is concentrated on one process: eradicating Russian troopers from the battlefield. However confronted with a foe whose ranks are recognized to be riddled with unwilling fighters, Ukrainian army strategists realized there may be a couple of means to that finish.
With that, the “I Wish to Stay” outreach was born, aimed toward offering invading forces with step-by-step info on how one can abandon the ranks. Initially run by Ukrainian police, this system has had a ramped-up, military-operated model in place since mid-September.
On Russian-language social media, Ukrainians have unfold the phrase about this system’s website, meant as a portal for the surrender-curious or their family members. It has attracted greater than 13.3 million visits — 7.6 million of these from Russian territory, organizers stated.
Russian troopers additionally present private information by a chatbot on the encrypted messaging app Telegram — info Ukrainian authorities use to winnow down those that are severe about turning themselves in. The chatbot, along with the hotline, has drawn practically 10,000 contacts, based on organizers.
Citing safety causes, Ukrainian officers declined to reveal what number of surrenders have been brokered by way of this system. However hotline operators area calls across the clock from Russians who are soon to be mobilized, are within the midst of being deployed or are already on the battlefield. Callers may be jittery or stoic, defensive or remorseful, coolly businesslike or floridly emotional — typically all of these in a single dialog.
“So, this isn’t pretend?” one Russian soldier requested.
“It isn’t pretend,” the Ukrainian operator replied.
The ten-member hotline workforce, all active-duty service personnel with backgrounds in psychology, is tasked with offering callers with clear, concise directions, whereas being alert to indicators that the outreach may be a “probe” by Russian intelligence, meant to elicit details about Ukrainian strategies and intentions.
Nevertheless tense the backdrop, these dealing straight with would-be surrenderers attempt to “calm them down,” stated Vitaly Matvienko, a junior lieutenant who serves as spokesman for this system, which is run by the division for prisoners of warfare.
“Hello, I’m listening,” goes a sometimes low-key operator salutation in an audio sampling of current calls supplied by the Ukrainian army. Within the recordings made public, callers’ voices are distorted to defend their identities.
Hotline operators initially labored out of army headquarters within the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, however have been later moved to a secret location as a result of they’re now seen as a high-profile potential goal, Matvienko stated. The army refused to make any operators obtainable for interviews however stated they’re female and male, a variety of ages and all capable of chat simply in colloquial Russian.
With regards to surrenders within the area, either side are conscious that the second carries monumental threat for all concerned, he stated.
“Basically, it’s a really harmful course of,” stated Matvienko. However strict protocols, clearly specified by advance, enhance the chances of everybody staying alive.
Russians who wish to flip themselves in are informed to wave a white fabric, take away the magazines from their weapons, level the barrels to the bottom and eschew body armor and helmets. They’re assured that within the occasion they wish to be despatched dwelling in a prisoner swap, their paperwork will replicate that they have been captured, not that they gave up voluntarily.
If it’s a bring-your-own-tank give up, which occurs not occasionally, the turret is to be turned in the other way. If it’s a gaggle give up — additionally a reasonably frequent incidence, with a Russian squad usually fearing retribution from commanders however agreeing to behave collectively and surreptitiously — the highest-ranking soldier should determine himself.
If a surrendering soldier runs out of choices for separating himself from his unit, the hotline provides assist.
“We are able to coordinate with particular models that can extract you secure and sound,” one operator informed a apprehensive caller.
Like a lot on this battle, the “I Wish to Stay” program employs each high-tech methods and easy communication instruments.
Russians dealing with deployment can talk with the Ukrainian facet utilizing the Telegram chatbot, and earlier than leaving for the entrance, they’re urged to acquire and conceal a primary flip telephone — not a smartphone — and use that to name the hotline.
Ukrainians say they’ve heard from Russian troopers already on the battlefield who discovered of the hotline by word-of-mouth or from a scrawled-on slip of paper handed from hand at hand.
In Russia’s battle to subdue Ukraine, now in its second 12 months, considered one of Moscow’s biggest benefits is the sheer variety of troops it may well throw into the combat, Western army analysts say — which is why Ukraine is prepared to attempt novel techniques to scale back these numbers.
Along with the 190,000 Russian troopers who took half within the preliminary multipronged invasion that started in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin final 12 months ordered the mobilization of 300,000 extra, lots of whom at the moment are in Ukraine. And one other main mobilization is predicted as Russia seeks to mount a spring offensive.
However regardless of a greater than 2-to-1 Russian advantage in its standing army, Moscow’s faltering efficiency has been blamed on troop high quality, which has deteriorated because the warfare goes on. Western army observers constantly cite poor morale, substandard coaching and shambolic provide practices as key components in a string of Russian battlefield routs final autumn.
“With a purpose to snatch a victory of types from the jaws of defeat, Putin should now depend on the overwhelming numbers supplied by mass mobilization,” analyst Peter Dickinson wrote in a report final month for the Atlantic Council. “This can be a tried and examined Russian tactic, however it additionally carries appreciable dangers.”
Deploying 1000’s of untrained troopers “to combat towards battle-hardened and extremely motivated Ukrainian troops may outcome within the form of carnage that breaks armies,” he wrote.
At first of the invasion, some Russian troops apparently believed they might be welcomed by Ukrainians as liberators. However fierce army resistance, coupled with widespread reveals of disdain and defiance from civilians, quickly disabused them of that notion.
Final autumn’s mobilization by Putin prompted a huge exodus of fighting-age men from Russia, with a whole bunch of 1000’s settling in Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan and different close by international locations to keep away from being conscripted.
Western analysts say it has grow to be extra broadly recognized inside Russia that Moscow’s commanders have scant regard for the lives and welfare of their very own troops.
January and February noticed an uptick in Russian-language social media postings about harrowing area situations and chaotic management — accounts broadly echoed in months of intercepted calls dwelling from deployed Russian troops.
In mid-February, a British army intelligence evaluation stated Russian forces have been struggling what seemed to be the very best casualty charges because the early weeks of the warfare — many occurring close to the hotly contested town of Bakhmut. Whereas Ukraine has suffered heavy attrition as nicely, Russia misplaced exceptionally giant numbers of troops and armored automobiles in a failed try final month to storm the Ukrainian-held japanese city of Vuhledar — an apparently bungled opening volley in a much-vaunted Russian spring offensive.
Ukrainian officers hope that such setbacks will serve a twin function: inflicting a expensive defeat, and prompting Russian troopers to acknowledge the typically suicidal position they’re anticipated to play in human-wave assaults on fortified Ukrainian positions, which have been a recurring characteristic of current preventing.
“With their very own eyes, they see they’re nothing greater than cannon fodder,” Matvienko stated. “They see considered one of their comrades being ordered to walk into a minefield to discover a path, and he will get blown up, and one other is informed to go subsequent, and he’s blown up too, and on it goes.”
Episodes like this, he stated, can impress a determined sense of self-preservation.
“They notice that is actual and never some warfare film,” he stated. “And the thought has to happen to them: ‘How do I save myself?’”
One caller, sounding indignant and despairing, used an expletive to explain the prospect of sudden demise in battle.
“A single mortar shell, and it’s finished,” he stated. “Who wants this warfare?”
This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.
