Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he has ordered the partial mobilization of reservists to Ukraine to fight his invasion, online searches for "how to break an arm at home" reportedly skyrocketed throughout the nation.
Additionally, many Russians have also reportedly bought one-way tickets out of the country.
Putin's shock announcement comes after he waged a bloody escalation of violence against Ukraine in February this year.
Since 2014, relations between Russia and Ukraine have been tense, due to the political status of Crimea and the Donbas (which are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine). Reuters has estimated that, so far, up to $350 billion of property has been damaged, 14 million people have been displaced, and at least 29,900 people have died.
Speaking in a nationally televised address on Wednesday (September 21), Putin revealed that he would be deploying up to 300,000 reservists over the coming months to fight in Ukraine - this is more than double the size of the initial force that was deployed during the February invasion, Al Jazeera reports.
Minister of Defence, Sergei Shoigu, did state that this call-up would be limited to men who had military experience and that students and conscripts would not be called, per the report.
The 69-year-old, who has served as Russia's President three times for a combined 18 years, made the address after Ukrainian forces launched a sudden counterattack, recapturing Kharkiv province and forcing Russian forces to retreat.
Putin had stated that a partial mobilization would be "fully adequate to the threats we face," despite Russia currently being under investigation for over "30,000 war crimes", according to Ukraine's prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin. These war crimes include murder, mass systematic rape, torture, and wanton destruction of cities and towns, per Forbes.
As reported by the New York Post, Putin also directed a message to NATO during the address, advising them that his country has "various means of destruction," and if their "territorial integrity is threatened" they would "use all the means at our disposal."
In a matter of hours after the President's announcement, Google searches in Russia for "how to break an arm at home," or "как сломать руку в домашни? условия? ," skyrocketed, a Newsweek report has revealed - evidently showing that Russians could be thinking of resorting to desperate means in order to find ways around deployment.
The same Newsweek report displayed further data from Google trends about the search queries coming from Russia, detailing that the past week saw zero searches (out of a scale of zero to 100 - with 100 representing the point of highest interest) for "how to break an arm at home." However, two hours after Putin's speech, that number had swiftly risen to a 38 out of 100.
Also ranking high on Russian Google searches were queries for Aviasales, which is the nation's most popular flight booking site. Reuters reported that one-way flights out of Russia were rapidly selling out and prices surging to unreasonable highs.
In fact, Al Jazeera reports that searches to "leave Russia" had increased to over 100 times its usual rate, revealing that the most popular direct flights out of the troubled nation were Moscow to Istanbul, Turkey and Moscow to Yerevan, Armenia, were completely sold out within 24 hours. Russians are able to enter Turkey and Armenia without visas.
Unsurprisingly, fares for the flights soared exponentially, with flights to Turkey rapidly increasing from 22,000 roubles ($365 US) to 70,000 ($1,160 US) in less than a week.
With conflict increasing between Russia and Ukraine, neighboring countries have seen mass migration as millions of both Ukrainians and Russians have fled the war - especially when there seems to be no end in sight.
.jpg_DxGeHs?tr=h-184)
