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Kyiv, Ukraine — “Excuse me for disturbing you, I’m calling regarding my brother.”
The shaky voices at the end of the line are not calling to search for Ukrainians, however — they are looking for information on Russian soldiers.
In recordings shared exclusively with CNN by the Ukrainian officials operating the hotline, the desperation and uncertainty in the callers’ voices sheds light on how tightly Moscow is controlling communications about the war.
The recordings indicate that many Russian soldiers seemed to not have known what their plans were or why they were being deployed, and bolster reports of Russian soldiers being denied communication with their families.
A wife, speaking through tears, calls with a desperate inquiry about her husband:
Videos have appeared online since the invasion began on February 24 showing Ukrainian civilians and soldiers allowing Russian soldiers to call home and speak with their parents.
The hotline, called “Come Back From Ukraine Alive,” was established by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, which has acknowledged that the initiative is both a humanitarian and a propaganda tool.
Kristina, a pseudonym for the woman tasked with running the hotline, asked CNN not to disclose her identity for security reasons. She is a psychologist by training.
From an undisclosed location in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv she explained the aims of the hotline.
“First of all, we will help [the Russian solders] find their relatives who were deceived and without knowing where and why they are going and found themselves in our country. And secondly, we will help to stop the war in general,” she told CNN.
Since being established in the opening salvos of this war, the hotline has been ringing…
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Source : cnn
