President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing Russian soldiers, suggested that they lay down their arms rather than die on the battlefield in Ukraine.

"Every Russian soldier who lays down his arms will get a chance. A chance to survive. I appeal specifically to them, to the conscripts who were thrown into the cauldron of this war. Someone else's war. And to the rest of the Russian soldiers who still have a self-preservation instinct. Lay down your arms! It is better than dying on the battlefield, on our land," Zelensky said in a video statement on Thursday night.