​A few hours after Vladimir Putin announced the first mobilization since World War II, Oleg, a Russian reserve sergeant, received an order in his mailbox to report to a local conscription point in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. He said he will flee the country, even though his wife is pregnant and he will miss the birth of the child, but he will not allow Putin to turn him into a “murderer,” The Guardian reported, according to News.ro.

As a 29-year-old Russian reserve sergeant, Oleg said he always knew he would be on the front lines if he was drafted, but hoped he wouldn’t have to fight in the war in Ukraine.

“My heart ached when I received the summons. But I knew I didn’t have time to despair,” he said.

He quickly packed all his belongings and booked a one-way ticket to Orenburg, a city in southern Russia near the border with Kazakhstan.

“Tonight I will cross the border by car,” the young man admitted in a telephone conversation on Thursday from the Orenburg airport.

“I don’t know when I will come to Russia again,” he added, referring to the prison terms Russian men risk for escaping the draft.

Oleg said that he will leave his wife, who is due to give birth next week.

“I will miss the most important day of my life. But I simply won’t let Putin turn me into a murderer in a war I don’t want to be a part of,” the man said.

The Kremlin’s decision to announce a partial mobilization prompted men of military age to leave the country, triggering a new, possibly unprecedented exodus in the coming days and weeks.

The Guardian spoke to more than a dozen men and women who left Russia after Putin announced the so-called partial mobilization, or plan to do so in the coming days.

Escape options are limited, they say. Earlier this week, four of the five EU member states that border Russia announced that they would no longer allow Russians to enter their territory on tourist visas.

Flights are sold out, including for next week

Direct flights from Moscow to Istanbul, Yerevan, Tashkent and Baku, the capitals of visa-free countries for Russians, are sold out for the coming week, and the cheapest one-way flight from Moscow to Dubai costs about 370,000 rubles – the price too. high for most.

And so many, like Oleg, were forced to get creative and manage some of the few land borders that were still open to the Russians.

Border guards in Finland, the last EU country still allowing Russians to enter on tourist visas, said they saw an “exceptional number” of Russian nationals trying to cross the border overnight, while eyewitnesses also said Russian-Georgian and Russian- Mongolian border borders were experiencing extreme traffic.

Russia’s national airline Aeroflot has said it will refund people who were unable to fly as planned if they are reinstated following President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization, the Guardian reports.

The Kremlin has dismissed reports of Russian men of working age fleeing after Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization as “exaggerated”.

However, in Russia, plane ticket prices have increased due to high demand and queues at the border.

Read also:

• The most expensive flight ticket Moscow-Dubai, after Putin announced the mobilization of reservists
• IMAGE OF THE DAY International flights from Russia after Putin announces partial mobilization of reservists
• VIDEO The first footage of forced mobilization in Russia: men in Siberia tearfully say goodbye to their wives and children