Flight radar shows Russian exodus to escape Putin's mass conscription

Massive numbers of Russians scrambled to find one-way flights out of the country on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists.

Flightradar24, a Twitter account that tracks flights around the world, posted a video showing the high volume of flights leaving Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Russians seemed to be fleeing out of fear of a potential draft as the reservists were called to action.

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Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, it has struggled to continue fighting against Ukrainian troops.

Last week, several Russian troops were forced to withdraw from towns in the northeastern region of Ukraine.

Putin's move to mobilize more troops seems to be his way of intimidating Ukrainian troops and accelerating war efforts.

However, Russians are not happy about the move.

Thousands of Russian citizens took to the streets to protest the partial mobilization and a potential conscription leading to more than 1,200 arrests.

For others, a one-way ticket out of the country seems like the best solution.

According to the New York Times, flights to visa-free locations like Istanbul, Turkey, Dubai, UAE, Yerevan, Armenia, and Almaty, Kazakhstan were either sold out or extremely expensive.

One Russian media outlet published a guide to destinations Russians could travel to without a passport.

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