Russians flee draft as war escalates
SOME draft-age Russians headed abroad yesterday to escape their country’s biggest conscription drive since World War II, while explosions shook south-eastern Ukraine on the eve of referendums planned there by pro-Moscow separatists.
President Vladimir Putin’s new mobilisation campaign escalates a war that has already killed thousands, displaced millions, pulverised cities, damaged the global economy and revived Cold War confrontation.
Though polls have suggested widespread domestic backing for Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, mass conscription may be a domestically risky move after past Kremlin promises it would not happen and a string of battlefield failures in Ukraine.
Anti-war protests in 38 Russian cities saw more than 1 300 people arrested on Wednesday, a monitoring group said, with more planned for the weekend. Some of the detainees had been ordered to report to enlistment offices yesterday, the first full day of conscription, independent news outlets said. Putin’s defence minister has said the call-up is intended to enlist about 300 000 men.
Prices for air tickets out of Moscow soared above $5 000 for one-way flights to the nearest foreign locations,
with most sold out for coming days. Traffic also surged at border crossings with Finland and Georgia. Russia scoffed at reports of a mass exodus as exaggerated.
Addressing world leaders at the annual UN General Assembly in New York, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the UN to create a special tribunal and strip Moscow of its Security Council veto power. The 15-member Security Council has been unable to take significant action on Ukraine because Russia is a permanent veto-wielding member, along with the US, France, Britain and China.
Russia’s military fired nine missiles on the city of Zaporizhzhia, hitting a hotel and a power station, said regional governor Oleksandr Starukh. At least one person died with others trapped under rubble, he said.
In the Russian-held southern city of Melitopol, also in the Zaporizhzhia region, a blast hit a crowded market. The city’s exiled mayor said it had killed three soldiers and was staged by occupying forces to accuse Ukraine of terrorism, while a member of the Russian-installed local administration accused Ukrainian special services of trying to cause chaos on the eve of a vote.
Pro-Moscow regional leaders announced referendums on joining Russia from today until September. 27 in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, around 15% of Ukrainian territory.
Russian-installed separatists said at least six civilians had been killed and six more injured in a missile strike on a market in the centre of Donetsk yesterday.