DESPERATE Russians are frantically attempting to flee the country to avoid being catapulted to the frontline amid Putin’s call up.
Huge queues have built at the borders with Finland, Georgia and Mongolia as tens of thousands try to escape being sent into the tyrant’s “meatgrinder”.[/b]
Protest erupted in 38 cities after Putin announced a partial mobilisation in a TV address to bolster crumbling efforts in Ukraine.
But they have been met with baton-wielding cops, with at least 1,386 people arrested.
As the fear of conscription ripples through Russia, some men have been hauled out of bed in the middle of the night and told they had four hours to pack their belongings and obey the mobilisation order.
There were reports of people cowering behind doors and refusing to accept the military summonses.
In Luchegorsk, men who refused to open doors at night were handed the summonses when they arrived at work this morning.
Some 60 men were taken to Bikin, in Khabarovsk region, and sent into the hands of the Russian military machine.
Footage showed Russians enlisted by Putin’s mobilisation being taken to training camps.
One man made a last-ditch attempt to escape the enlistment office in Blagoveshchensk by leaping out of a first-floor window.
There were, however, long tailbacks at the border crossings with Georgia while others rushed for the exits to Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
Putin’s chilling announcement sparked thousands of men to scramble to airports out of fear of being conscripted.
Pictures show long queues for planes as ticket prices soared in the face of desperation.
At airports, men seeking to leave Russia were being filtered into sinister queues to check if they were liable to be mobilised.
If so, they were being blocked from departing even if they had tickets and visas for another country.
I will not let my husband go. I’ll break his both legs. His duty is to raise his children.
One-way flights out of Russia were almost fully booked this week, airline and travel agent data showed Wednesday, in an apparent exodus of people unwilling to join the conflict.
By the late afternoon, a ticket for a flight from Moscow to Heathrow was listed at a staggering £10,051.
Tickets for the Moscow-Belgrade flights operated by Air Serbia quickly sold out for the next several days.
Meanwhile, heartbroken women have threatened to break their husbands’ bones so they were unfit for the call-up.
A wife from Tyumen in Siberia said: “I will not let my husband go. I’ll break his both legs. His duty is to raise his children.”
Soon after Putin’s announcement aired, panic soon flooded social networks, which surged with advice on how to avoid the mobilisation or leave the country and avoid being sent to fight in the Ukraine war.
Google searches for “how to break a hand” soared within moments.
The authorities issued a special warning issued to potential recruits that they face legal sanctions if they self-harm by breaking arms or legs to avoid the call-up.
Other ploys were men seeking to wed women with multiple children.
Anna, a Muscovite, 46, said: “A friend, a single mother of five was proposed to today.
“She laughed so hard when she told me about it, and said looks like she will be super popular in the near future.