As Russians flee, some find draft notices waiting at the border
The Kremlin has dispatched still more forces to shore up its faltering war effort, but the units are headed not to Ukraine but to Russia’s borders with other countries, where on Tuesday they were confronting young Russian men trying to join an exodus out of the country.
As the avenues for Russians to escape a draft order issued last week narrowed, the Federal Security Service sent armored vehicles to the frontiers, where some men waiting to flee were being served military call-up papers, state news media reported.
The rush to the borders began within hours of President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week of a military call-up affecting hundreds of thousands of Russians, and the flow has become only bigger since then.
Though the Kremlin dismissed reports that it may soon forbid nearly all military-age men from leaving the country, many Russians were taking no chances.
On Tuesday, at the borders of Georgia, Kazakhstan and even Mongolia, their numbers continued to swell, at times raising tensions.
In Kazakhstan, responding to calls that the 4,600-mile (7,403km) border with Russia be closed, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev urged “humanity, patience and organisation”, saying the Russians had been “forced to leave because of the current hopeless situation”.
With cars lined up for miles at its border and waits of more than 48 hours, Georgia said it would allow visitors to enter on foot. The number seeking entry almost doubled over the past week, to about 10,000 a day, the country’s interior minister said.
The forces of Russia’s Federal Security Service were deployed at border crossings to ensure that reservists not leave the country “without completing border formalities”, the service said.
After facing months of heavy casualties, Russia may need all the help it can get to sustain its war efforts.
Western officials estimate that as many as 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war, and in recent weeks Russian forces have been pushed out of territory they seized earlier in the fighting.
Faced with the losses, Putin, after long resisting a large draft, last week ordered a “partial mobilization”, calling up 300,000 people to join the fight. The order was described as applying only to those with military experience, but across Russia, and especially in remote areas and among ethnic minority groups, there were numerous reports of people with no experience being swept up.
The leaders of some European countries, already struggling to accommodate the historic numbers of refugees fleeing Russia’s war, have debated what approach to take to all the young men now fleeing Russia itself.
Russian citizens have been fleeing to the European Union in droves since the military call-up, the EU border agency said Tuesday. From Sept 19-25, nearly 66,000 Russian citizens entered EU countries, up 30 per cent from the previous week, the agency said.
Some Russians may find a welcome from one Central Asian neighbor, Mongolia. A former president of Mongolia, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, has called on Buryats, a Russian ethnic minority, to flee there to avoid mobilization.
“Don’t shoot Ukrainians,” he said in a video address recorded in English. “Don’t shoot your sisters and brothers, children and elders.”