Russians Break Own Bones in Scramble to Flee Putin’s Brutal Mobilization

(Social media photo shows young Russian men trying to leave the country at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.)

Military-age Russian men are scrambling to flee the country or breaking their own limbs in order to avoid getting drafted in a brutal mobilization announced yesterday by Moscow’s atrocious dictator, Vladimir Putin.

Flocking to Airports and Border Crossings

Putin’s announcement that a full-fledged mobilization of military-age males came as somewhat of a surprise, seven months into his monstrous invasion of Ukraine.

A total of 56,000 members of the official Russian military have died in battle in Ukraine so far; if mercenaries and proxy troops are added, Putin’s manpower losses would reach 100,000.

A recent estimate put Russia’s total losses at more than 155,000 – counting the dead, the wounded, the missing, and those taken captive.

Putin’s Defense Ministry and close crony, Sergey Shoigu, announced shortly after his dictator boss’ mobilization speech that for now, only some 300,000 military reservists would be summoned.

However, the very announcement itself caused young Russian men to immediately book flights to destinations that don’t require visas for them, such as Armenia, Georgia, and Turkey.

Thousands have flocked to airports and border crossings, including on the borders with Finland, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia in order to evade the first mobilization in Russia since the Second World War.

(Social media photo shows mobilized Russian men on a bus in the Far East.)

‘Break a Leg at Home’

Because of Putin’s mobilization declaration, reports from Google made it clear that searches about “how to” break a leg or an arm “at home” have skyrocketed in Russia. Many would rather suffer homemade injuries than go and perish in their dictator’s crazy, criminal war.

A Russian wife from the city of Tyumen in Central Russia, Siberia, was quoted by The Daily Mail as saying she would break her husband’s legs in order to keep him from going to war.

To counter such acts, however, Russia’s authorities announced there will be legal action against those who avoid the draft by hurting themselves.

The mobilization order was apparently applied as of Thursday morning, starting in the Russian Far East.

Videos began to emerge of reservists saying tearful goodbyes to their families, wives, and young children as they were loaded on buses to be taken to fight defenders of Ukraine.

Nighttime photos from airports in Moscow, such as Vnukovo, showed massive traffic jams and hundreds of young men trying to board outgoing flights.

However, those were quickly summoned for interrogation by Putin’s intelligence officers. It remains unclear how many of those trying to leave are getting turned back.

A total of 1,386 anti-war protesters got snatched by the Russian riot police in a total of 38 cities during protest rallies against the mobilization last night. In spite of the police brutality, more rallies were supposed to be held on Thursday night.

At the same time, however, the Putin regime found a horrific way to punish the male protesters. Many found themselves being handed mobilization papers in police stations where they were arrested for protesting against that same war.

Military-obliged men who were the first to be mobilized in the Russian Far East were given exactly four hours in order to prepare their bags and show up at rallying points.

This article appeared in BeyondNews and has been published here with permission.

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