Over 1 million Russians reach out to surrender hotline as Moscow loses grip over war: Kyiv

The Russian-Ukraine crisis has now reached its 10th month, and reports have emerged that more than one million residents of the Russian Federation have reached out to the Ukrainian surrender hotline and used its website. This development comes as Russia is facing a major setback in several Ukrainian territories that were previously under its control.

The Ukrainian government's press secretary Andriy Yusov stated that more than 1.2 million people have contacted the surrender hotline named "Hochu Zhit," which means "I want to live," or visited the website to inquire about their options to surrender. "The lion's share of them are people who are in the territory of the so-called Russian Federation," Yusov said.

Notably, this development has come at a time when Russia has already lost nearly 100,000 soldiers in the battle. "At the moment, these are no surrender intentions, but inquiries into how they and their relatives can save their lives in this bloody, unjustified war of Putin's occupiers against Ukraine," Yusov said.

What is the Hochu-Zhit project?

Launched on September 18 by the Ukrainian government, the objective of the project is to help Russian military members safely surrender. The surrender platform consists of a chatbot that can be used by Russians to declare their desire to not fight in the Ukraine war. Also, a telephone hotline has been created to help people discuss the process of surrendering.

"They save their lives, and fewer will be at the front," said project spokesman Vitaliy Matvienko while speaking to the Kyiv Post last month. "When they are sent to Ukraine, they contact our specialists again, and we identify their location and then plan a programme of safe exit from that territory. The special operations forces organise the safe exit, and the person finally reaches the territory controlled by Ukraine," he added.

Earlier in October, Matvienko told the Post that around 3500 Russians had expressed the desire to surrender using the chatbot or hotline. However, it was not revealed how many soldiers had completed the surrender process. "There are results, and they are considerable; this applies both to individual [soldiers] that surrender themselves but also to whole divisions," said Yusov.

Image: AP