President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on ordinary people of his country and Russia alike to refuse to cooperate in Moscow’s invasion and occupation, and accused Russian forces in northern Ukraine of planting mines as they retreat, making it dangerous for people to return.

The Russians have even booby-trapped dead bodies with explosives, he charged in his nightly video address, posted early Saturday morning in Ukraine — Friday night in the US.

Even as Russian forces pull back from Kyiv, the capital, and the city of Chernihiv farther north, “in the east of our country, the situation remains extremely difficult”, he said. “The Russian militaries are being accumulated in Donbas, in the Kharkiv direction. They are preparing for new powerful blows. We are preparing for even more active defence.”

Zelensky’s video messages have galvanised support among Ukraine’s allies, but his new address had an ominous tone, threatening his own people with unspecified consequences for cooperating with the invading Russians.

“The responsibility for collaboration is inevitable,” he said.

He noted that the Russians have appointed people to take over local governments and enterprises in areas they occupied — pointedly calling them “gauleiters”, a term for a regional administrator in Nazi Germany.

“There will be problems for cooperation with them or with the occupiers directly. This is the last warning,” Zelensky said. He also asked Russians to resist conscription into the Kremlin’s military, which he said would result in “guaranteed death for many very young guys”.

New York Times News Service