Russians fleeing the draft tell of three-day queues and bribes to cross border

‘We are terrified of being killed in a war we don’t want with Ukraine.’

Finnish customs officers talk to a man as they check a Russian vehicle at the Vaalimaa border checkpoint in Virolahti (Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian men desperate to avoid fighting in Ukraine following Vladimir Putin’s conscription order have told of three-day long border queues and bribing security officials with hundreds of pounds at makeshift “checkpoints”.

After his troops lost ground in recent weeks in Ukraine – which continued this weekend with the withdrawal of Russian troops from the key town of Lyman in the Donetsk region – president Vladimir Putin has doubled down on the increasingly bloody artillery war by declaring a partial mobilisation.

Moscow officials said the plan was to call up some 300,000 people with combat experience.