The Security Service of Ukraine has revealed the heartbreaking final texts messages sent from a unidentified Russian soldier to his mother before he was allegedly killed.
On Monday (28 February), Sergiy Kyslytsya read out the messages at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
"I’m scared, we’re hitting everyone, even civilians," the soldier wrote in Russian.
"We had been told that people would welcome us here but they jump under our vehicles, not letting us pass.
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"They call us fascists. Mom, it’s so hard."
The soldier told his mother that he is no longer in Crimea doing training exercises and says: "We were told that [civilians] would welcome us."
When his mother asked if she could send him a package, he replied that 'the only thing I want now is to hang myself'.
The heart-wrenching messages have so far only been verified by Ukraine sources, reports The Independent.
In an emergency meeting of the Security Council, Kyslytsya said that Kyiv was 'sitting within Russian crosshairs right now' and that 352 people, including 16 children, had been killed as of Monday in the fighting.
He accused Moscow troops of attacking hospitals and ambulances in a determination to 'kill civilians', adding: “There is no debate. These are war crimes.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed Mr Kyslytsya’s statements in a late-night address on Monday.
In a video posted to social media, the leader said that in five days Russian forces had launched 56 missile strikes and 113 cruise missiles in Ukraine.
He added: "Today, Russian forces brutally fired on Kharkiv from jet artillery. It was clearly a war crime.
"Kharkiv is a peaceful city, there are peaceful residential areas, no military facilities.
"Dozens of eyewitness accounts prove that this is not a single false volley, but deliberate destruction of people: the Russians knew where they were shooting.”
"There will definitely be an international tribunal for this crime — it’s a violation of all conventions. No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people," he added.
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Topics: Russia, Ukraine, World News
Anish Vij