Russia Bans Men in “Fighting Age Group” from Flying Out
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: Russia is understood to have banned flying out of the country of all men in the age group of 18 to 65 years after the President Vladimir Putin’s threat to intensify the operations in Ukraine, including a possibility of using nuclear arsenal.
The Russian media reports said Russian airlines have stopped selling tickets to Russian men between 18 and 65 (the fighting age). A section of the media also expressed the apprehension that a martial law could be imposed to prevent the men in the fighting age group from escaping from the country.
Flights out of Russia were nearly fully booked after President Putin made the announcement in a televised address that the country would mobilise reservists to fight in Ukraine. Direct flights to cities in nearby countries of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were all sold out for Wednesday, the Aviasales website, popular in Russia, showed. Turkish Airlines said on its website that flights to Istanbul, which has become an important travel hub to and from Russia, were fully booked until Saturday.
The media reports also said only those young men who have approval from Russia’s Ministry of Defence would be allowed to leave the country. After Putin’s address on Wednesday, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed that 300,000 men could be called up to serve.
There also were reports that in a desperate move Russia was trying to recruit convicts to join its war in Ukraine. The recruitments are being done by Yevgeny Prigozhin the head of mercenary outfit known as the Wagner Group. All prisoners have been promised a presidential pardon after six months and a salary of 100,000 rubles (1,400 pounds) a month. The media reports said among those approached to join the army in Ukraine were serial killers and “at least one cannibal.”
There is also a possibility that referenda would be held in the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine soon to give Putin a leverage to annex those parts of Ukraine and make it official Russian territory, reports said.
Russia’s “special military operation,” as Russia calls its Ukraine operation, which has been going on for more than six months, has led to the loss of life of thousands and displaced millions. But Putin is refusing to stop, even accusing the West of “blackmail and intimidation.”
