I like this picture the most. There are several to choose from.
A traffic jam near Russia's border with Georgia on Sept. 25, 2022.
Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies.
Putin ordered mobilization on the 21st. It has been like this at the borders and flights out of Russia since then.
This is what the Russian call up is like:https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1574476679539527680. When soldiers need their own sleeping bags and to ask their families to get first aid kits, then soldiers need to get their wills in order and practice using body bags. Those that live are going to use a lot of body bags.
Ukraine's response to the call up? https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1573915201866539008:
"We're finished with the Russian professional army, it's time to do away with the amateur army" - Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The post in #6 show high support for the war in Russia. What the last week show is the reality of how conditional that support really is. Conditions that are not easy to poll in dictatorial countries because asking and answering the right questions honestly is unwise.
The Russian people say they support the war, say all the right things and pay their taxes, as long as the government and army fight and leave them out of it. For seven months, they have been told from the state controlled news, all is well, they are winning, there will be no mobilization. While at the same time, knowing they will go to jail if they call the invasion a invasion and not a special military operation.
There is the old Russian joke, "as long as they pretend to pay us we pretend to work". Under Putin, its been "as long as the government pretend to lead us, we pretend to trust them". Since the mobilization all the masks are coming off in Russian society.