Since September, approximately 4,500 Russians have contacted the chatbot and hotline of the "I want to live" project, who decided to surrender.
Vitaliy Matvienko, the spokesman for the Coordination Headquarters for Prisoners of War Issues, announced this on the air of the telethon.
According to him, during the day, "I want to live" receives from 70 to 100 appeals — both from relatives of Russian men who want to be mobilized or have already been mobilized and from the very recruits of the Russian army — future and current. The military personnel of the Russian army is also applying.
"The main age category is 20-35-40 years old. Then there are 40+, but a smaller number of appeals," Matvienko said.
He explained the procedure of surrender:
- the Russian military must leave the necessary information about himself in the chatbot;
- when he is sent to Ukraine, he must contact the project representatives again and provide information on where he is and how exactly he wants to surrender;
- this information is transferred to special units that guarantee the safe exit of such military personnel;
- then the Russians are transferred to places of permanent residence.
Since Russia has increased liability for surrender, Ukraine is processing Russians who voluntarily surrender as prisoners of war.