The video, posted by BBC reporter Will Vernon, shows a line of young men walking through a crowd to a big red bus to join the Russian army. As the men shuffle toward the bus under the watchful eye of three Russian policemen, a child can be heard crying in the background. “Dad, bye, please come back!” the child cries, according to Vernon’s translation. The child is not seen in the clip. Vernon did not reveal the location of the video, but said he spoke with locals who confirmed the video’s accuracy. Similar footage has been released from the far reaches of Russia. Video from Siberia’s Yakutsk region showed couples embracing in an emotional farewell as men were loaded onto a bus bound for war. The video shows a line of young men walking through a crowd to a large red bus to join the Russian army. Twitter / @BBCWillVernon Another video circulating on social media shows a crowd surrounding a similarly painted bus, with a destination sign reading “Makhachkala,” a city in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan. Putin’s mobilization order was devoid of details on Wednesday – so much so that the Russian Defense Ministry set up a hotline to field questions.
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“Nobody said anything to me in the morning. They gave me the draft notice that I was to come here at 3 p.m. We waited for 1.5 hours, then the recruiting officer came and said we are leaving now,” a 25-year-old Moscow resident named Dmitry told Russia’s Ostorozhno Novosti news agency. “I was like, ‘Oh great!’ I went outside and started calling my parents, my brother, all my friends to say that I was taken.” The Moscow resident discovered he was being recruited when he arrived at the scene. Twitter / @BBCWillVernon Dmitri’s father – who came to see him off – embraced his son. “Be careful,” he said. The rallies come as Russia is reeling from a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive earlier this month that cut supply lines and pushed occupation troops out of most of Kharkiv province and parts of the eastern Donbass region. Russia’s new conscripts will enter a war the Kremlin appears to be losing, joining an army with sinking morale. Those who oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin are reportedly putting themselves at risk.Twitter / @BBCWillVernon Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky switched to Russian during his Wednesday night speech and addressed the people of Russia directly. “You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders and tortures of Ukrainians,” Zelensky said, adding that they were “thrown to death.” Russians had four options to save themselves, he continued: “protest, fight back, flee or surrender to Ukrainian captivity.” For those wishing to leave, Europe had encouraging words. German Interior Minister Nancy Feiser said on Thursday that any Russian who “courageously opposes Putin’s regime and therefore puts himself in greater danger” can apply for asylum in Germany. With Post cables
