Zhgun, a 45-year-old film director, marched through the streets of Moscow with other anti-war protesters Wednesday night, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to mobilize another 300,000 reservists to bolster his troops fighting in Ukraine.

“When Putin called for the mobilization, I knew I could not stay indifferent,” Zhgun said.

Across Russia, demonstrators spilled into the streets this week in the country’s first nationwide anti-war protests since Russian troops invaded Ukraine back in February.

HOW IT STARTED: Biden details new Russian sanctions as death toll climbs in Ukraine.

Western analysts said the demonstrations and the exodus are clear signs that Putin is struggling in Ukraine and at home.

“This is confirmation that the war is not going well and that Putin has not really mobilized the population in support of this war,” said Will Pomeranz, director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, a Washington-based think tank dedicated to Russian and Eurasia research.

Confronted with steep battlefield losses, expanding front lines and a conflict that has raged longer than expected, the Kremlin has struggled to replenish its troops in Ukraine.

Until Putin’s callup of troops, the first since World War II, many Russians had been detached from the war, Pomeranz said.

“There hadn’t been a real call for sacrifices of the Russian population to engage in this war,” he said.

The war in Ukraine "was popular when Russia was winning, and it was popular when young Russian men were not at risk of being sent to war," said Stronski, a senior fellow at Carnegie's Russia and Eurasia Program.

Vishnevsky called police stations, asking that public officials let defense lawyers in to see their detained clients.

The bus Tolkachev took across the border into Finland was filled with 25- to 45-year-old men escaping the draft, he said.

“In this respect, Russia’s political regime is similar to Central Asian states,” said Tolkachev, who as a university student researched and wrote about queer issues.

Many in Russia wondered how the Kremlin was executing the combat plan in Ukraine and how long the drafted soldiers would be trained for the war.

Putin described the call-up of forces as a “partial mobilization,” but Stronski said it appears to be much broader.

Zhgun, who has been joining political rallies since the first Russia Without Putin protest in 2001, has had trouble finding a job since the fighting erupted in Ukraine

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