Russian ethnic minorities bearing brunt of Russia's war mobilization in Ukraine

For about seven months, Aleksey had been largely untouched by the war in Ukraine. Like many others in the big cities of Russia, he was able to continue working and living his life. 

But that changed in mid-September, after Aleksey boarded a flight headed for his hometown of Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, which sits around Lake Baikal in the Siberian region of Russia. (Aleksey is not his real name; CBC agreed to change his name to protect him from potential reprisals.)

Aleksey was going for a short trip to visit friends and family he hadn't seen since moving to the western side a few years ago. The roughly 6,000 kilometres between the two regions means planes sometimes have a layover in countries south of the Russian border.

This was one of those flights, which meant Aleksey had to take his passport with him — something for which he would later be extremely grateful.

That's because on Sept. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists — young men who had previously gone through the country's mandatory conscription — in order to continue the war in Ukraine. 

While Putin declared the mobilization to be nationwide, those most affected are Russia's ethnic minorities — among them, the people of Buryatia (referred to as Buryat).

Aleksey had spent a few days in Buryatia before Putin's televised address, hoping the president's decision wouldn't result in a mass conscription of his people.

"We still had the hope that this would all settle, the draft notices wouldn't come," said Aleksey.

But it wasn't worth the risk of waiting it out. That night, he and his friends quickly packed their bags and co-ordinated their escape. Aleksey's international flight to Buryatia meant he had his passport with him, making a last-minute departure from Russia feasible. The next day, he and his friends left. 

But not all Buryat are as lucky.

The recent Russian mobilization comes as Ukraine reclaims an increasing percentage of its previously lost territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touted the army's recent counteroffensive victory in Lyman on Saturday, as videos of Ukrainian soldiers taking down Russian flags and hoisting their own began circulating. 

Melissa Chakars, a professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia and an expert on Buryatia and the Mongolian peoples of Russia, called the mobilization a "big shift in the war."

"[Putin] claimed that [drafting] was going to be spread throughout the regions so people were expecting that a certain percentage of people from each region [were] going to be taken," said Chakars.

She said that while people from the more central cities, especially Moscow and Saint Petersburg, had been able to operate without much fear of the draft, Putin's mobilization announcement had "changed things."