Russian President Vladimir Putin has appealed directly to Ukrainian troops and told them “it will be easier for us to agree if you take power in your own hands”.
During the address, he added it was “easier to negotiate with you” than the “gang of Nazis that has captured Kyiv” – an apparent reference to Ukraine’s current leadership.
“I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields,” he said at a televised meeting with Russia’s security council.
“Take power into your own hands, it will be easier for us to reach agreement.”
He went on to say Russian servicemen in Ukraine were acting “bravely, professionally and heroically.”
He claimed most Ukrainian military units were reluctant to engage the Russian forces.
Those unit offering resistance are mostly volunteer battalions made of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists, he claimed, providing no evidence for his claims.
Echoing an earlier Russian military statement, he accused Ukrainian forces of deploying heavy weapons in urban areas in several big cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, to use civilians as shields.
It comes as the Kremlin said Mr Putin had called Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko to organise sending a delegation to Minsk for talks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to discuss Ukraine’s neutrality.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin was ready to send the delegation in response to Mr Zelenskyy’s offer, which indicatedhe would be willing to negotiate dropping his country’s bid to join NATO as Russia has demanded.
Mr Putin has claimed the refusal to discuss keeping Ukraine out of NATO prompted him to order military action to “demilitarise” it.