Timelapse video exhibits planes leaving Russia as hundreds try to flee the nation

A timelapse video exhibits planes leaving Russia in a mass exodus triggered by the Kremlin asserting that a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals might be referred to as as much as battle within the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Flight tracker Flightradar24 confirmed scores of planes leaving airports in Moscow and St Petersburg earlier this week.

The map video exhibits the routes the planes took out of Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday (20 and 21 September).

UK defence minister James Heappey mentioned Vladimir Putin had ordered a partial mobilisation that would have an effect on as much as 300,000 reservists as a result of the Russian president is “rattled” by troops’ ongoing struggles in Ukraine.

Mr Heappey instructed the House of Commons: “Putin’s remarks sparked mass panic in Russia yesterday with one-way flights out of Moscow immediately selling out.

“Putin is rattled and his tactics transparent. He is implicitly acknowledging his heavy losses and his armed forces’ ability to achieve any of their objectives.”

One-way tickets out of Russia had sold out or soared in value following the frenzy of fighting-age males determined to depart for international locations with visa-free entry.

While many international locations around the globe – together with the UK and people within the EU – have banned Russian residents as a part of sanctions over the battle in Ukraine, various nations stay allies of Russia.

Google Flights exhibits ticket costs for journey this week to international locations that Russian residents can fly to with no visa, together with Turkey – which maintains honest relations with Russia.

But when The Independent checked to see if flights have been out there, most tickets appeared to have offered out.

Where flights can be found, the costs at the moment are largely prohibitive for common residents.

A flight to Cuba, an in depth ally of Russia, isn’t out there till October – and a one-way financial system flight to Havana for the subsequent out there date would price nearly £5,000.

A seat on a flight to Turkey isn’t out there till 30 September. It was listed on Google Flights for the comparatively cheap value of £700 however was unavailable to ebook on the time of writing.

The Russian reserving web site Google results in says: “Unfortunately, there are no tickets for this route for the dates you specified.”

The identical message got here up when making an attempt to ebook a flight to Russia-friendly Armenia for subsequent week, at present listed for about £500.

Russia’s ally China is essentially closed to worldwide arrivals due to its Covid restrictions. But, if it was open, one-way financial system tickets vary from £4,000 to Beijing and nearly £9,000 to Shanghai – and the earliest date for journey can be subsequent week, based on Google.

In response to stories of absolutely booked flights, the Kremlin labelled them “false information”.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was reported within the Washington Post as saying: “The information about a certain feverish situation in airports is very much exaggerated.”