Who Are the Russians Resisting Putin's Ukraine War Draft? | Focus on Europe

Putin has announced an emergency partial mobilization because of the war in Ukraine, but many Russians are refusing to join.

Protests Grow in Russia over Call-up to Fight in Ukraine - BBC News

President Putin’s order to call up another 300,000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine is being met with widespread protests.

Reports have circulated on social media of people with no military experience being drafted, as well as others who are too old or have disabilities.

Thousands of Russian men have been heading for the country’s borders as they attempt to evade conscription.

Huw Edwards presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Steve Rosenberg in Moscow.

Guerre en Ukraine : fuir ou protester, les réponses des Russes à la mobilisation militaire édictée par Poutine

LE MONDE : Depuis la mobilisation militaire « partielle » décrétée par Vladimir Poutine le 21 septembre, qui concerne officiellement 300 000 réservistes, les manifestations se succèdent et des milliers de Russes tentent de fuir le pays. Synthèse d’une actualité sans précédent.

Des recrues russes devant un centre de recrutement militaire à Bataysk, lundi 26 septembre 2022. AP
Face à la contre-offensive ukrainienne, le président russe, Vladimir Poutine, a annoncé, le 21 septembre, la mobilisation de centaines de milliers de Russes pour combattre sur le front. L’ordre est devenu immédiatement effectif et un décret a été publié peu après sur le site du Kremlin. Le Monde fait le point sur cette mobilisation et ses conséquences.

Le décret de mobilisation comporte dix points : tous ont été publiés, sauf le 7e, qui reste confidentiel et inquiète les Russes : il concernerait le nombre de civils russes qui doivent rejoindre l’armée. Le média d’opposition Novaïa Gazeta Europe a écrit, citant des sources au Kremlin, qu’un million de Russes pourraient être concernés. Ce que Dmitri Peskov, le porte-parole du Kremlin, a démenti.

Après l’allocution de Vladimir Poutine, le ministre de la défense russe, Sergueï Choïgou, a précisé que 300 000 réservistes étaient concernés par cet ordre de mobilisation, soit à peine « 1,1 % des ressources mobilisables » dans le pays, estimé à quelque 25 millions de personnes. Ces renforts seront déployés pour « consolider » et « contrôler » les lignes arrières, le long d’« une ligne de front qui fait plus de 1 000 kilomètres » dans le sud et l’est de l’Ukraine. Les hommes ayant une formation spécialisée (tankistes, servants de pièces antiaériennes…) seront mobilisés en priorité, a-t-il insisté. » | Le Monde avec AFP et Reuters | mardi 27 septembre 2022

Russians Are Terrified, and Have Nowhere to Turn

Conscripted Russian men attending a farewell ceremony in Bataysk, Russia, on Monday. | Arkady Budnitsky/EPA, via Shutterstock
OPINION : GUEST ESSAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES: “Hello, I have a pregnant wife and a mortgage. My wife is panicking, and I have no money to go abroad. How can I escape the draft?”

This is a message we received at Help Desk, a website I and other journalists set up in June to help people — with information, legal advice and psychological support — affected by the actions of the Russian government. The writer, after completing his mandatory military service seven years ago, was being drafted into the war in Ukraine. The Russian government was not interested in who will pay the mortgage or take care of his pregnant wife. It simply wanted more fodder for its war.

In the days since Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization,” clearing the way for hundreds of thousands of men to be conscripted into his failing war effort, we’ve fielded tens of thousands of messages like these. Some were plaintive; others were defiant. Some were simply defeated. Along with Russians desperately trying to board flights, crossing borders or attacking recruitment centers, they testified to the same desire: to avoid the draft.

The truth is, they probably can’t. While presented as a limited measure affecting only those who previously served in the army, in practice, the government has free rein to conscript as many people as it wants. The initial number of 300,000, for example, already seems an enormous undercount. In the face of a monstrous regime hellbent on war and widespread international isolation, Russians are caught in a disaster. And judging from the response so far, they are terrified. » | Ilia Krasilshchik * | Tuesday, September 27, 2022

* Mr. Krasilshchik runs Help Desk, a website that offers advice and support to people affected by the actions of the Russian government.

Russians Paying £25,000 for Seats on Private Planes after War Mobilisation

THE GUARDIAN: Passengers heading to Armenia and Turkey amid fears Russia could soon close borders to men of fighting age

EU and UK sanctions on Russia prohibit the leasing or insuring of aircraft for use in Russia, limiting supply. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Demand for seats on private jets has boomed in Moscow after Vladimir Putin ordered the first mobilisation since the second world war and wealthy Russians look for a way out of the country amid reports that authorities plan to close the borders to men of mobilisation age.

Passengers are said to be predominantly heading to Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, which allow Russians visa-free entry. They are paying between £20,000 and £25,000 for a seat on a private plane, while the price to rent an eight-seater jet ranges from £80.000 to £140,000, which is many times more expensive than the normal fare.

“The situation is absolutely crazy at the moment,” said Yevgeny Bikov the director of a broker jet company, Your Charter. “We would get 50 requests a day; now it is around 5,000.”

The Kremlin’s decision to announce a partial mobilisation has led to a rush among men of military age to leave the country, sparking a new, possibly unprecedented brain drain. Miles-long traffic jams have formed at Russia’s border crossings, while most one-way commercial plane tickets have sold out for the coming days. » | Pjotr Sauer | Tuesday, 27 September 2022

Lavrov to UN: Annexed Ukraine Territories Will Have Russia's 'Full Protection' | DW News

Russia says thousands of reservists have answered the call to fight in Ukraine – while others have been fleeing the country, or staying and protesting against Vladimir Putin’s mobilization order. As Moscow bolsters its war effort, Russian-installed officials are holding sham 'referendums' that would lay the groundwork for Russia to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine. Ukrainian officials and witnesses say residents are being coerced into taking part, often at gunpoint. At the UN General Assembly, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the four regions will be under Russia's 'full protection' if they are annexed by Moscow.

Ukraine War Comes Home to Russians as Putin Imposes Draft

THE NEW YORK TIMES: As Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” enters a new chapter, Russians are being plucked from villages around the country for training and military service.

A day after President Vladimir V. Putin announced a call-up that could sweep 300,000 civilians into military service, thousands of Russians across the country received draft papers on Thursday and some were being marched to buses and planes for training — and perhaps soon a trip to the front lines in Ukraine.

Mr. Putin’s escalation of the war effort was reverberating across the country, according to interviews, Russian news reports and social media posts. As the day wore on, it became increasingly clear that Mr. Putin’s decision had torn open the cocoon shielding much of Russian society from their leader’s invasion of a neighbor.

Mothers, wives and children were saying tearful goodbyes in remote regions as officials — in some cases, ordinary schoolteachers — delivered draft notices to houses and apartment blocks. In mountainous eastern Siberia, the Russian news media reported, school buses were being commandeered to move troops to training grounds.

Russian officials said the call-up would be limited to people with combat experience. But the net appeared wider, and some men decided it was best to head for the borders.

Yanina Nimayeva, a journalist from the Buryatia region of Siberia, said that her husband, a father of five and an employee in the emergency department in the regional capital, had been inexplicably called up. She said he received a summons to an urgent 4 a.m. meeting where it was announced that a train had been organized to bring men to the city of Chita.

“My husband is 38 years old, he is not in the reserve, he did not serve,” Ms. Nimayeva said in a video addressed to regional officials. » | Anton Troianovski, Valerie Hopkins, Ivan Nechepurenko and Alina Lobzina | Published: Thursday, September 22, 2022; updated: Friday, September 23, 2022

Many Flee to Avoid Getting Drafted, but Where Can They Go? | DW News

Vladimir Putin's escalation of the war is running into increasing opposition within Russia. Police have arrested more than 1,000 people demonstrating against the call-up of reservists at nationwide protests. And Flights to foreign destinations are also selling out, as many fear it could be their last chance to leave.

‘It’s a 100% Mobilisation’: Day One of Russia’s Drive to Build Its Army

THE GUARDIAN: Reports ethnic minorities may be disproportionately affected while protesters in Moscow drafted on arrest

There were emotional scenes in the eastern Siberian republic of Buryatia as drafted men said goodbye to their families. Photograph: Ayuna Shagdurova
Summons delivered to eligible men at midnight. Schoolteachers pressed into handing out draft notices. Men given an hour to pack their things and appear at draft centres. Women sobbing as they send their husbands and sons off to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The first full day of Russia’s first mobilisation since the second world war produced emotional showdowns at draft centres and even signs of protest, while it appears Russia could be considering far more than the 300,000 new conscripts claimed by the defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

One woman in a small village in the Zakamensky region of Buryatia in eastern Siberia, said she first felt something was amiss when the dogs began barking about midnight. » | Andrew Roth in Moscow | Thursday, September 22, 2022

‘I will cross the border tonight’: Russians flee after news of draft: Border guards cite ‘exceptional’ number of people leaving the country after ‘partial mobilisation’ announcement »

Men Flee Russia as Mobilization Begins »

Protests & International Condemnation: How the World Reacts to Putin's Escalation of the Ukraine War

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare televised address to the Russian people on Wednesday morning when he announced a "partial mobilization," saying the measure was needed to protect Russian people from what he called "the entire war machine of the collective West" in Ukraine.

Putin followed the announcement with repeated assurances that this mobilization is just "partial." He emphasized that it only concerns reservists and those who have previously served in the army or have military experience.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also addressed the public, saying conscripts and students would not be called up to fight and that only 300,000 people would be drafted under the new mobilization measure.

The measure was not completely unexpected. Discussions about whether Russia would need more soldiers took on a new urgency this month after Ukraine retook control over more than 6,000 square kilometers (about 2,320 square miles) of territory that had been under Russian control.

Throughout the war, there have been reports about a drive in Russia to enlist more men to fight, including advertisements on jobseeker websites promising fast cash. In mid-September, footage circulated on social media that allegedly showed Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin recruiting Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine as part of the Wagner mercenary group.

Military experts argue the recent Russian retreat marks a turning point in the war. Putin's announcement Wednesday made the call to arms official. But his order, published on the Kremlin website, has raised questions. The document outlined the legal status of the soldiers being drafted in 10 points, but the seventh point was never published. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said it concerned the number of conscripts and was intended only for administrative use. That has raised questions about whether the Kremlin only intends to conscript 300,000 soldiers.

Hundreds Arrested and Flights Out of Moscow Sell Out amid Russia Military Call-up - BBC News

Russian police are reported to have arrested hundreds of protesters rallying against the Kremlin's decision to call up thousands of extra troops to fight in Ukraine.

Russian human rights group OVD-Info put the total at more than 1,300, with the largest numbers arrested in St Petersburg and Moscow.

Flights out of Russia sold out fast after Vladimir Putin's announcement.

Mobilisation in Russia

“The House Is On Fire”
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