Zelenskyy warns Russian troops to flee Ukraine amid Putin's fresh annexation bid

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday responded with defiance against Russia's provocative step of baselessly declaring four regions of Ukraine to be a part of the Russian Federation. In dire warnings to the Russian forces, during his nightly address, Zelenskyy told Russian soldiers and the Russia-backed separatist officials: “If you want to live, run" in Russian.

The embattled leader of Ukraine, further iterated to the occupying forces, “If you want to live, surrender. If you want to live, fight on your streets for your freedom," referring to a mass exodus of the Russians into the neighbouring countries escaping the mobilization. He also hailed the position of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling the referendums a violation of the UN charter. "Such actions won't have any legal force, grossly violate the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and won't be recognized by the world," Zelesnkyy reiterated UN Chief's statement. 

'Ukrainians will never surrender': Kyiv's Def Min

Ukraine’s minister of defence, Oleksiy Reznikov, told a conference of security experts that many Western nations had believed during the initial days of the war that Ukraine’s government would collapse just days after the invasion. "But they were proved wrong," he asserted. "The Ukrainians will never surrender,” the minister added, categorically stressing that the country will not cede its territories and will fight.  Russia on Thursday formally voted for referendums to annex parts of Ukraine across four occupied regions to officially incorporate in the Russian Federation. Armed troops had gone door-to-door with Russian-backed election officials to collect the ballots over the span of five days to capture an estimated 15 per cent of Ukraine. 

Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had earlier made claims that the officials in the four Russian-backed regions will be deemed criminal suspects for their role in conducting referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukrainian authorities warned as Russian-backed officials of what Ukraine called illegal votes to annex Ukraine's territories including Luhansk, Kherson and Donetsk.

"The Security Service of Ukraine established and collected comprehensive evidence base on the organisers of the Russian pseudo-referendum in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the SBU has said. "The Ukrainian special service established that these individuals played key roles in the organisation and holding of a fake plebiscite in eastern Ukraine," it added. Ukraine's Security Service announced that the people who have been identified as suspects include Volodymyr Vysotsky, "head of the Central Election Commission of the DPR," Olena Kravchenko, "head of the Central Election Commission of the LPR," Oleksandr Kofman, "head of the Public Chamber of the DPR" and Maryna Filipova, "adviser to the head of the Luhansk People's Republic."