Russians ready to leave their country: Putin’s announcement on mobilization of 300,000 reservists crowds out plane tickets

Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilization to bolster his troops in Ukraine sparked a rush on airline websites on Wednesday to try to leave Russia as quickly as possible.

The mobilization initially concerns 300,000 reservists, but a total of 25 million Russians could be mobilized to join the ranks of the army in eastern and southern Ukraine, according to the Defense Ministry.

Searches in Russia for the words “ticket” and “airplane” have more than doubled since the start of the week at 0600 GMT Wednesday, according to the Google Trends statistical tool, which tracks how many times a word appears on Google. was typed. Enter television address. The request to “leave Russia” was made 100 times more in the morning than usual.

The region of Belgorod, bordering north-eastern Ukraine and hit several times by Ukrainian attacks since late February, also tops the ranking indicating the location where this research was conducted.

increase in prices

Tickets for direct flights to Russia’s closest destinations – Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – all sold out for Wednesday, according to the Aviasales site, which is very popular for buying your tickets in Russia.

With Turkish Airlines in the direction of Istanbul, which has become one of the main exit routes from the country by aircraft since Western sanctions and the closure of European airspace, “all flights are complete” as of Saturday.

In AirSerbia, the next flight with available seats was posted for Monday 26, to reach Belgrade. Domestic flights to cities near the country’s borders have also exploded, as evidenced by these tickets from Moscow to Vladikavkaz (south) offered at more than $750. .. compared to barely $70 in general.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the first exodus of Russians was to resist the attack or fear of mobilization. No official estimate has been made public, but it has affected at least tens of thousands of people. An online petition on the change.org site to condemn the mobilization gathered 160,000 signatures in a matter of hours.