Ukraine is asking Russian mothers to come pick up their sons captured in Putin's invasion

• Ukraine's defense ministry is asking mothers of captured Russian soldiers to pick up their sons.
• In a Facebook post, it gives detailed instructions for mothers to come to Kyiv for their children.

Ukraine's defense ministry is asking mothers of captured Russian troops to come pick up their sons.

"Mama! Your [prisoner of war] son is waiting for you!" the defense ministry wrote on a flyer posted to Facebook on Wednesday. "Ukraine has made the decision to return POW to their mothers if they come to Ukraine."

The flyer shows a collage image of a member of Russia's military overlapped with a woman in distress.

"We ask you to deliver this message to the thousands of miserable Russian mothers, whose sons have been captured in Ukraine," the defense ministry wrote in the Facebook post.

In the post, the defense ministry wrote a list of instructions for Russian mothers, which includes calling a phone number to find out if their sons are dead or captured.

Ukraine's defense ministry also described detailed directions for Russian mothers to physically retrieve their sons if they have been captured — which includes a journey to Poland's border with Ukraine, followed by an escort to Kyiv.

"We, Ukrainian people, in contrast to Putin's fascists do not make war with mothers and their captured sons," the defense ministry said. "We are waiting for you in Kyiv!"

The country's interior ministry previously had urged families to identify any captured or killed Russian troops, according to Radio Free Europe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that nearly 6,000 Russians were killed in the first six days of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

"Russian mothers are losing their children in a completely foreign country," Zelensky said in a video address. "Think of this number: almost 6,000 Russians died, Russian military, in six days of war."

Russia so far has not provided updated figures on its confirmed fatalities. The number of Ukrainian military deaths is also unclear.