Russians fleeing the draft tell of three-day queues and bribes to cross border

‘We are terrified of being killed in a war we don’t want with Ukraine.’

Finnish customs officers talk to a man as they check a Russian vehicle at the Vaalimaa border checkpoint in Virolahti (Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian men desperate to avoid fighting in Ukraine following Vladimir Putin’s conscription order have told of three-day long border queues and bribing security officials with hundreds of pounds at makeshift “checkpoints”.

After his troops lost ground in recent weeks in Ukraine – which continued this weekend with the withdrawal of Russian troops from the key town of Lyman in the Donetsk region – president Vladimir Putin has doubled down on the increasingly bloody artillery war by declaring a partial mobilisation.

Moscow officials said the plan was to call up some 300,000 people with combat experience.

However, Russian media reported that the number of conscripts could be as high as 1.2 million. Human rights groups, as well as Russian citizens affected by the draft, say men who do not fit that criterion, prisoners and even anti-draft protesters are also being rounded up.

This has sparked frantic scenes at various borders, as tens of thousands of Russian men scramble to flee, although the routes out are gradually closing. This week Finland joined Poland and the Baltic states in shutting its border to Russian tourists, closing one of the few remaining routes to Europe.

Those who managed to escape have told The Independent that flights out of the country were costing as much as $10,000 (£9,200) per seat, and those who took land routes to places such as Georgia were facing three-day queues to get out. They also revealed they had to pay hundreds of thousands of roubles in bribes to local security officers to get out.

“There are thousands of men like me who just didn’t know what to do and had to drop everything in 10 minutes to pack up their lives,” said one man of military age, who asked for his identity to be protected, fearing for his safety.

“The head of the parliament said that they would check the people who fled the country and called us traitors. I don’t know what that will mean for me and my family that is still in Russia.

“I feel like a refugee only with a backpack. I need to settle my life somewhere.”

Passengers get off a bus from Saint Petersburg at Helsinki Airport (via REUTERS)

The young man, who has a pre-existing medical condition that should exempt him from service, said he became concerned when he heard of people being called up who were too old, had no military background and had medical conditions.

He became particularly alarmed when seeing officers handing out conscription letters at the metro stations in Russia’s major cities as well as traffic police on the roads.

Once you are handed the letter there is no way out of being drafted, he added.

He said he heard unconfirmed reports that a man from his town who was enrolled in the military on 22 September had already died in Ukraine, indicating conscripts were getting no training.

Like his friends, he said, he tried searching for flights online but the few flights available were going for as much as $10,000 per seat. He joined a group of friends who drove out through Russia’s southwestern borders.

“We realised there were 10km of queues of cars, which weren’t moving, and there were artificial checkpoints set up by members of security forces where people were paying money,” the young man continued.

Russian recruiters attend military training at the Patriot Park outside Moscow (AP)

“The bribes were 20,000 roubles [£300] per car or 5,000 roubles [£80] per person. Some people were paying local people over [£235] to find routes across the border that went via the back roads. The federal roads were at a standstill.”

Even after paying bribes, he said, people were abandoning their vehicles and trying to walk to Georgia, although by law you have to cross in a vehicle.

“I saw people crossing on unicycles just to get out,” he added.

Another young man who spoke to The Independent from Russia said even those ways out were closing as officials were serving sign-up papers to the men queueing to cross.

He said he was also looking for ways out after watching videos posted online showing the poor training and equipment the conscripts were getting, and the miserable conditions they were living in.

Video clips on Telegram appear to show new Russian conscripts being told to buy their own sleeping bags and medical packs.

I saw people crossing on unicycles just to get out

Russian man trying to flee conscription

“Most men don’t want to do this military service – we heard they get only one week training,” he said, asking again for his identity to be protected. “We are terrified of being killed in a war we don’t want with Ukraine.”

The plan sparked rare rallies in Russia, which were met with predictable force by police. There have also been several angry showdowns including a shootout at a conscription centre in Siberia and a drafted man who set himself on fire in Ryazan in the centre of the country.

Meanwhile, in an apparent effort to stop draft dodgers, regional officials announced the opening of offices at the Ozinki checkpoint in the Saratov region on Russia’s border with Kazakhstan and at the crossing in the Astrakhan region, also on the border with Kazakhstan.

This followed the creation of makeshift Russian draft offices near the Verkhny Lars border crossing into Georgia in southern Russia and near the Torfyanka checkpoint on Russia’s border with Finland. Russian officials said they would hand call-up notices to all eligible men trying to leave the country.

Putin on a screen in Red Square as he addresses a rally and a concert marking the annexation of four regions of Ukraine (AFP via Getty Images)

There has also been movement of men in occupied Ukraine fleeing to Kyiv-held territories amid rumours that conscription will start there soon.

“We have heard that conscription into the Russian military will begin on 4 October, with medical workers being the first to be drafted,” said Maksym, 39, who fled occupied Kherson this week and asked for his identity to be protected.

“We fled because of this conscription. It’s not just me – my son is 18 and of fighting age as well,” he added.

Russian policemen detain a person taking part in an unauthorised protest against Russia’s partial military mobilisation in Moscow (EPA)

Russia’s loss of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin, coming the day after Putin announced the illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine.“

The Ukrainian flag is already in Lyman,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday. “Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.”