In February, Shoigu offered to surrender to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in exchange for stopping the invasion; in Kyiv they said that they were ready to discuss the surrender of the Russian Federation

The Washington Post published a large material on the Independence Day of Ukraine about the first days of the Russian invasion and the defense of Kyiv. Among other things, it says that in the first days of the war, the Russian authorities directly and through intermediaries offered the leadership of Ukraine surrender.

Shortly after the start of the invasion, Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, called Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the President of Ukraine, and demanded Ukraine's surrender. According to WP, Yermak sent Kozak and hung up.

After that, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Aleksey Reznikov was contacted by his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin. He offered his services as an intermediary and conveyed to Reznikov the offer of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on the surrender of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Reznikov replied that he was ready to discuss only the surrender of Russia.

On August 24, Ukraine celebrates Independence Day. In addition, today marks six months since the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As the Agency notes, during this time Russia managed to seize and hold about 83,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, which is comparable to the area of ​​Austria. However, most of these lands, mainly in the Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine, were occupied by Russia in the first three months of the invasion. Since the end of May, Russia has managed to take control of only 1,000 square kilometers, while losing control of 100 square kilometers.

Explaining the slow pace of the Russian offensive, Shoigu said on Wednesday that "everything is being done to avoid casualties among civilians" and "this slows down the pace of the offensive." “We are going for it consciously,” the minister says.

Sources: The Washington Post , Agency , Interfax