Traffic from Russia lines up waiting to enter Finland at the border crossing at Vaalimaa, Finland on 22 September 2022. Photo: AFP
Some Russian men headed swiftly to the borders after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation, with traffic at frontier crossings with Finland and Georgia surging and prices for air tickets from Moscow rocketing.
Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War II and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
Prices for air tickets out of Moscow soared above US$5000 for one-way tickets to the nearest foreign locations, with most air tickets sold out completely for coming days.
Social media groups popped up with advice on how to get out of Russia while one news site in Russian gave a list of "where to run away right now from Russia". There were long tailbacks at border crossings with Georgia.
A truck driver who crossed the Russian-Kazakh border on Thursday near the Kazakh city of Oral told Reuters he saw unusually heavy traffic from the Russian side. He asked not to be identified, fearing that might complicate his future travel.
"War is horrible," Sergei, a Russian who declined to give his surname, told Reuters as he arrived in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. "It's okay to be afraid of war and of death and such things."
One Russian man who gave his name as Alex told Reuters in Istanbul that he had left Russia partly due to the mobilisation.
"The partial mobilisation is one of the reasons why I am here," he said. "A very poor step it seems to be, and it can lead to lots of problems to lots of Russians."
He said he felt that not many Russians would want to be sent to fight.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that reports of an exodus of draft-age men were exaggerated. Asked about reports that men detained at anti-war protests were being given draft papers, Peskov said it was not against the law.
A forensic explosives expert examines a crater from a missile explosion at a freight railway station in Kharkiv, 21 September 2022, amid Russia's military invasion on Ukraine. Photo: AFP / Sergey Bobok
Some 10,000 volunteers have turned up to enlist for Russia's military campaign in Ukraine without waiting for call-up papers issued under a partial mobilisation, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Russian General Staff.
A tourism industry source told Reuters that there was desperation as people sought to find air tickets out of Russia.
"This is panic demand from people who are afraid they won't be able to leave the country later - people are buying tickets not caring where they fly to," the source said.
Traffic arriving at Finland's eastern border with Russia "intensified" overnight and remained elevated into daytime hours on Thursday, the Finnish Border Guard said.
"The number clearly has picked up," the Finnish border guard's head of international affairs, Matti Pitkaniitty, told Reuters, adding the situation was under control.
Traffic from Russia was busier than normal at the Vaalimaa crossing with three lanes of cars each stretching for 300-400 metres, a border official there earlier told Reuters. At about 1540 local time, traffic at Vaalimaa had quietened somewhat, according to a Reuters witness, with cars stretching over three lanes, each for some 150 metres.
The crossing is one of nine on Finland's 1300km border with Russia, the longest in the European Union.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland began turning away Russians from crossings at midnight on Monday, saying they should not travel while their country is at war with Ukraine.
Finland mulls barring Russians from entering
Finland said on Thursday it was considering barring most Russians from entering the country.
Finnish land border crossings have remained among the few entry points into Europe for Russians after a string of Western countries shut both physical frontiers and their air space to Russian planes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday the government was assessing risks posed by individuals travelling through Finland, and was considering ways to sharply reduce Russian transit.
"The government's will is very clear, we believe Russian tourism (to Finland) must be stopped, as well as transit through Finland," Marin told reporters.
"I believe the situation needs to be reassessed after yesterday's news," she added, referring to Putin's partial mobilisation order.
Finland opted to keep its frontier with Russia open following Moscow's 24 February invasion of Ukraine although it has cut back the number of consular appointments available to Russian travellers seeking visas.
Although traffic from Russia was busier than normal, the border guards said in a statement that it had not changed "alarmingly" in recent days compared with pre-pandemic times.
In far northern Norway there had been no changes in the number of Russians crossing, a police official told Reuters. Norway is not a member of the EU.
- Reuters