The announcement of the call for reservists provoked a rush on airline websites. Initially, the mobilization affects 300 people, but, according to the Ministry of Defense, 25 million Russians are among those who can be called up to join the ranks of the Army in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.
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In the arrivals area of Yerevan airport in Armenia, Sergei, 44, looked haggard and exhausted after hastily fleeing Russia with his 17-year-old son, Nikolai, for fear of being sent to the front in Ukraine.
“The situation in Russia made me decide to leave. We decided not to wait to be drafted into the army,” she told AFP. He is one of thousands of Russians who have left the country since the invasion of Ukraine, a phenomenon that appears to have increased since President Vladimir Putin's announcement on Wednesday.
On social media, videos appear showing queues of cars on roads that cross the border with Siberia, for example. Others teach options for leaving Russia.
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Sadness and uncertainty are feelings shared by other Russians who arrived on the same flight to Armenia, a country in the Caucasus where they can stay up to 180 days without a visa. “It's not a good thing to go to war in the 39st century, to say the least,” says XNUMX-year-old Alexei. He doesn't know if he will be able to return to Russia one day. “It all depends on the situation.”
Since Vladimir Putin's mobilization order, the majority of people arriving in Yerevan are men of combat age. Many of them seemed scared and reluctant to share their reasons for leaving everything behind.
Protests
On Wednesday, more than 1.300 people were arrested across Russia in protests against the mobilization, according to the specialized NGO OVD-Info.
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Escape stories
Dmitri, 45, explains that he fled to Armenia with a single backpack, leaving his wife and two children behind, with “no idea” what he will do. “I don’t want to go to war. I don't want to die in this senseless war. It’s a fratricidal war,” he summarizes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday (22) that reports of an exodus of Russians were “greatly exaggerated”. However, flights from Russia, very limited and expensive since the adoption of Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, have been sold out for the next few days to almost all destinations still available.
On social media, many fear an imminent closure of borders, which would deprive Russians of any exit, including by land. According to the latest data from the Armenian Immigration Service, in June almost 40 thousand Russians arrived in the country since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. In Georgia, a neighboring country, 50 arrived in the same period, according to official data.
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On social media, videos of recruits being placed on buses are already going viral:
Source: AFP
