Wednesday 21 September 2022 12:44 PM Russians race to flee country as flights sell out with terrified civilians ... trends now

Terrified Russians are scrambling to flee the country today with one-way flights out of Moscow sold out after Vladimir Putin sparked mass panic by ordering a troop mobilisation in a dramatic escalation of the Ukraine war.

The desperate despot ordered the call-up of 300,000 military reserves - a first in Russia since the Second World War - and issued a chilling new threat to use nuclear weapons against the West, telling world leaders to back off Ukraine while warning: 'I'm not bluffing'.

The chilling move caused a desperate race to escape from a potential conscription, as the few remaining flights out of the country were snapped up at exorbitant prices, with some fetching tens of thousands of pounds.

According to Russian investigative news outlet RBK, all plane tickets to countries where Russians would not need a visa, including Turkey, Armenia and Georgia, have sold out, while flagship airline Aeroflot is not displaying any available flights for today.

Google data showed earlier that a family of three would have to fork out £44,000 to get to Johannesburg today in a 45-hour trip with three layovers, while the cheapest flights from the capital to Dubai were costing more than £4,500 - about five times the average monthly wage. 

By noon, flights to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan stopped appearing online amid the chaos.

Bus tickets were also sold out, and searches for 'how to leave Russia' also topped Google traffic at the time Putin's speech was originally scheduled, data shows.

The tyrant's announcement, made in an early-morning television address, raised fears that some men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave Russia. 

Russian Railways and Aeroflot said they hadn't 'yet' been ordered to ban men aged 18 to 65 from boarding. 

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the call-up would be limited to those with experience as professional soldiers, and that students and those who had only served as conscripts would not be called up.

Nevertheless, the move has raised fears of mass conscription in the worrying escalation of the war.

A new word was even invented to describe the hell Putin has unleashed - 'Mogilisation', from the Russian word 'Могила' [Mogila] - or grave, the morbid fate awaiting thousands drafted into the army.

Meanwhile a mixture of fear, anger, and dissent was spreading across Russian social media networks.

Users even coined a new word - 'Mogilisation' from the Russian word 'mogila' or 'grave' - to describe the expected fate of those taken away to fight. 

'I am super worried for my young male friends and my boyfriend,' said one woman, 28, from a city thousands of miles east of the Kremlin where the Russian president issued his fateful TV call-up.

Lilianna D demanded: 'I recommend mobilising the entire Duma [parliament] and their families first of all. And let people see how loyal they are.'

Andrey Shipilov, a Cyprus-based Russian journalist, posted: 'A friend from Russia has just messaged…an entire institute's [graduates], all reserve officers, have already been called up this morning'. 

Putin's gambit comes after Ukraine routed a large part of the Russian army last week, leaving him backed into a corner of his own making and facing the possible collapse of his so-called 'special military operation'. 

But rather than back down, the Russian leader has instead chosen to double down and hold the free world to ransom - putting Russia and its huge nuclear arsenal on direct collision course with Ukraine and its allies, who have already vowed not to accept the results of 'sham' referendums or to stop liberating occupied territory.

Speaking ahead of Putin's speech last night, President Zelensky dismissed 'noise' from Russia and said it will not alter Ukraine's resolve. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba likewise vowed: 'The Russians can do whatever they want. It will not change anything. Ukraine has every right to liberate its territories and will keep liberating them whatever Russia has to say.'

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodrymyr Zelensky, spoke out this morning after Putin's announcement - calling it 'predictable' and saying it show the war is not going to plan. President Joe Biden is expected to give a speech to the UN later today when he will rally Ukraine's allies to stay the course.

Podolyak said mobilisation will prove extremely unpopular within Russia, and accused Putin of trying to shift the blame for starting an 'unprovoked war' and crashing the economy on to the West.

It is thought the mobilisation will press around 300,000 people into the Russian army - around twice the size of the force that Putin invaded with.

But it is unclear when exactly these men will become available, and the move will do nothing to solve Russia's chronic lack of equipment, supplies and other logistical issues that have spelled disaster for its invasion so-far. 

Putin had resisted declaring any kind of mobilistion until now, apparently fearing backlash from Russians who may have been supporting his 'special military operation' only because they had nothing to lose.

But the Russian leader dramatically changed tack under pressure from allies, propagandists and hardliners after another humiliating military defeat near Kharkiv last week which had sparked calls for him to resign.

He was at pains to stress that the mobilisation is only partial, and will not affect ordinary citizens, conscripts or students. Those called up to service - starting today - will be those with experience of service and combat, he insisted.

Speaking after Putin, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu gave a rare update on Russian casualty figures, preposterously claiming that only 6,000 Kremlin troops have been killed in the war so far.

Ukrainian losses, he said, were ten times that: 61,000 dead in addition to 49,000 wounded.  

In a speech delayed for 13 hours overnight - triggering wishful rumours of a coup inside the Kremlin - Putin delivered his twisted interpretation of the war to date.

He attempted to rewrite history to paint the West and NATO as the aggressor - saying they had pushed Ukraine into a war with Russia, despite ordering an invasion of the country himself just seven months ago.

Ukraine began the war back in 2014, he said - referring to the date of Russia's last invasion - when the 'Nazi' regime in Kyiv had turned the military on its own civilians in an attempted genocide following what he called a 'coup' to oust the country's last pro-Kremlin leader.

In Putin's retelling, the West 'refused a peaceful solution' and instead began rearming Ukraine for an attack on the Donbas - leaving him with no choice but to launch a pre-emptive war to protect people.

He falsely claimed that peace negotiations with Ukraine were deliberately undermined by Kyiv's bloody-minded Western allies, who then began training and equipping its armed forces with the goal of destroying Russia.

Attacks on schools and hospitals are not the work of the Russian army, as reams of evidence suggests, but are in fact the work of Ukrainian Nazis and nationalists, he said.

Facing these threats, Putin said he has no choice but to accept the requests of his puppet leaders in occupied Ukraine to hold referendums on joining Russia, and no choice but to call up his military reserves.

He added: 'In its aggressive anti-Russian policies, the West has crossed all lines... There are plans in Washington and Brussels to move the military action on to Russian territory. 

'They are not just talking about Russia being destroyed on the battlefield, they are talking about political, cultural, and all other types of sovereignty with complete pillage. Now they're talking about nuclear blackmail.

'Those who make such statements will be reminded that our country also has various weapons of destruction and with regard to certain components they are even more modern than the NATO ones.

'If there is any threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to protect our people we will certainly use all means available to us. I'm not bluffing.

'Russia citizens can be certain that the territorial integrity of our motherland, our independence and security will be assured. I shall stress - by all means available to us

'And those trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the tables can turn on them

'In our historic tradition our people had it in their destiny to stop those how are trying to subjugate our motherland and it will happen now.'

The allegations are an almost exact inversion of everything Russia has been accused of doing, and is a common trope of Kremlin propaganda.

Referendums will begin this week into next week, according to Russia occupation authorities, with the results expected to be announced shortly after.

Police and officials will go door-to-door to ensure people cast their votes, they said, leaving few doubts about which way they will be voting. 

Ballot boxes will also be set up inside Russia itself, ostensibly to allow those who have already fled those regions a chance to cast a vote - but in all likelihood will be stuffed with fake ballots.

Early 'polling' released by Russian state media last night showed - unsurprisingly - that more than 80 per cent of people in the four regions want to join Russia.

In Donetsk and Luhansk - the focus of Putin's war effort - the reported figure was over 90 per cent.