Russian leaflets offer Ukrainians escape from battle

 

 

Sputnik

As Ukraine’s manpower losses on the battlefield increase amid the failed counteroffensive, the Russian military is firing leaflets, offering an alternative to pointless death. 

The Kiev regime's [recent] counteroffensive has become nothing short of a meat-grinder, claiming the lives of at least 81,000 Ukrainian troops. Given that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have sustained huge losses in terms of military equipment and personnel, the Zelensky government has stepped up mobilization efforts, seeking to bring back draft-age adults from abroad. 

Kiev's Western backers are also urging Ukrainians to take up arms, with former UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace insisting that the desire to preserve the Ukrainian youth for the future pales in comparison with the necessity to intensify fighting. 

Literally being turned into "cannon fodder," Ukrainian troops have increasingly [more than 10,000 in last few weeks] started to surrender, with Russian military leaflets serving as a guide for them.

A typical leaflet could be styled as a Ukrainian, EU, or US banknote or a A5 flyer. It contains a text offering a combatant to lay down their arms and a detailed description of how to surrender safely. The leaflet also serves as a "pass" for a serviceman who has decided to give up. 

In addition, a radio frequency number (149.200 "Volga") and a Telegram account of Russia's Armed Forces are inscribed so that a Ukrainian soldier can seek help and get instructions. Sometimes Russian leaflets inform Ukrainian soldiers about a reward for military equipment. 

Small leaflets that look like banknotes have proven especially effective: on the one hand, money always attracts attention; on the other hand, it is small, allowing a Ukrainian soldier to secretly pick it up and hide it in his pocket or wallet.

In fact, the Russian military started to disseminate leaflets well before Ukraine's botched counteroffensive. 

In March 2023, a Russian intelligence source told Sputnik that leaflets in the form of Ukrainian hryvnia had been dropped on the positions of Ukrainian militants in the Zaporozhye direction. These leaflets called on Ukrainians to surrender and contained a radio frequency and a messenger bot address by which they could contact Russian representatives.

Russian leaflets can either be rolled and placed in artillery shells instead of explosives or dropped from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Ukrainian positions. While drones deliver leaflets to the line of combat, rocket artillery shells send them straight into enemy rear areas.