Compassion can bring down Putin

AMID all the terror, rage and vengefulness, it was an instinctive act of human compassion that brought home the senselessness of Vladimir Putin’s bloody war.

A young Russian soldier stood in a field surrounded by the people he’d been sent to kill. Freezing and frightened, the captured invader must have expected a beating, or at the very least a torrent of abuse.

Instead, he got a cup of tea and a sandwich… and the chance to videocall his mother and tell her he was alive.

A caring young Ukrainian woman loaned the teenage soldier her phone.

But as his mama’s face popped up on the screen, he broke down in tears, leaving the stranger to speak on his behalf.

“Everything is OK,” she said, stroking the lad’s back.

“Natasha, God be with you. We will call you later. He is alive and healthy.”

Video of the heartwarming incident has been shared on both Ukrainian and Russian social media.

And many more clips are flooding the internet, showing bewildered captives in tears after discovering they were duped.

One is seen telling his mother: “They told us it was going to be a peacekeeping mission… but we started a war. Mum, we’re bombing cities.”another says: “Mum, get me out of here. We are killing civilians.”

Back home in Moscow, paranoid Putin is ramping up the phoney propaganda and desperately trying to stifle dissent.

Which means locking up kids clutching peace flowers and ordering the Enlightenment Ministry to run special school lessons teaching them his “truth”.

The state-controlled TV is also pumping out fake news and accusing Ukrainian soldiers of war crimes.

But good will always triumph over evil.

And the proud Ukrainians are showing Putin that he will NEVER rob them of their humanity. Of course they want retribution for the tin-pot dictator, but they refuse to harbour hatred for his innocent, misled citizens.

Ukrainian officials have even told Russian mothers they can travel to Kyiv to collect their captive sons.

A defence minister explained: “We, Ukrainians, unlike Putin’s fascists, are not at war with mothers and their captive children.”

The country has also launched a “Come back alive” telephone line for parents to get in touch.

I’m sure that caring Ukrainian woman kept her promise to ring the soldier’s mother back too.

Then grateful Natasha will have phoned everyone she knows to tell them their leader is a lying warmonger.

That’s how the Ukrainians will defeat Vladimir Putin in the battle for Russian hearts and minds.

One compassionate call at a time.