Guillaume Dominguez, edited by Gauthier Delomez with AFP
modified to
11:34 a.m., September 23, 2022
Mobilization began in Russia. According to several Russian opposition media, recruitment began Wednesday evening, a few hours after Vladimir Putin’s speech decreeing partial mobilization in the offensive in Ukraine. In the region of Buryatia in southern Russia, the Méduza site reports that the 7,000 reservists registered in the register received a visit during the night from members of the Russian administration asking them to report immediately to the military registration office of the region.
First clips coming out of Russia this morning of draftees saying bye to their families. This from a small town in Yakutsk. Credits @taygainfopic.twitter.com/tlaVRoDgLT
—Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) September 22, 2022
Further east, in the town of Neryungri, the local media Taïga info is posting a video on its Twitter account in which we see volunteer reservists saying goodbye to their families as soon as they leave an improvised recruitment office, before Board the bus heading for the training camps. Similar videos taken in several cities across the country have been relayed on social networks since Thursday morning.
10,000 volunteers asked to be mobilized in Ukraine in 24 hours, according to the Russian army
Nearly 10,000 people have volunteered to be mobilized for the offensive in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, after Vladimir Putin’s announcement, the Russian general staff said Thursday. “During the first day of partial mobilization, about 10,000 citizens arrived by themselves at the military police stations, without waiting for their summons”, assured the Interfax agency Vladimir Tsimlianski, a spokesman for the staff.
The seventh paragraph of the decree in question
If we talk about 300,000 additional men in the ranks of the Russian army, this figure could actually rise to a million people according to information relayed by the opposition media, and revealed by the newspaper Novaya Gazieta. According to one of their sources close to the administration of Vladimir Poutine, the seventh paragraph of the decree of mobilization, published Wednesday, makes it possible to mobilize up to a million men.
This information was immediately denied by the country’s authorities, who, for their part, refuse to make the content of this decree public.
Rush on airline websites
If the mobilization has started, other Russians, on the other hand, are trying to leave the country to escape it. Shortly after the speech of the Russian President, a rush on airline websites has been noticed. According to statistical tool Google Trends, searches in Russia for the terms “tickets” and “plane” have more than doubled since 6 a.m. GMT on Wednesday, the start of Vladimir Putin’s recorded televised address.
Thursday evening, Germany also said it was ready to welcome these Russians, unlike the Czech Republic.