Tickets for direct flights to destinations closest to Russia are all sold out for Wednesday and all flights to Istanbul are “sold out” until Saturday, according to the Aviasales site, popular in Russia to buy tickets.
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Would the Russians try to flee the country? The announcement by Vladimir Putin of a “partial mobilization” to reinforce his troops in Ukraine led, on Wednesday, September 21, to a rush on the websites of airlines to try to leave Russia as quickly as possible.
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Mobilization initially concerns 300,000 reservists, but according to the Defense Ministry, a total of 25 million Russians can be mobilized to join the ranks of the army in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Searches in Russia for the terms “tickets” and “airplane” have more than doubled since 06:00 GMT Wednesday, the start of the week, according to the Google Trends statistical tool, which tracks how often a word was typed on Google. of Vladimir Putin’s recorded televised address. The request “Leave Russia”it was performed 100 times more in the morning than normal.
The Belgorod region, bordering northeastern Ukraine and hit several times since the end of February by Ukrainian strikes, is also at the top of the ranking.
Tickets for direct flights to the destinations closest to Russia – Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan – are all sold out for the day on Wednesday, according to the Aviasales site, very popular in Russia for buy their tickets.
In the direction of Istanbul with Turkish Airlines, which since Western sanctions and the closure of European airspace has become one of the main exit routes from the country by plane, “all flights are full” until Saturday. At AirSerbia, to reach Belgrade, the next flight with available seats was posted for Monday 26.