hello and welcome. many russian citizens are trying to flee the country to escape the military mobilisation announced vladimir putin. tickets for direct flights between russia and serbia have sold out and there are long queues on other border crossings. they are holding referendums in one of four contested areas on whether they want to join the russian federation. the west describes these as a sham. this isjohn kirby. we believe that these will be sham referenda, they will not be legitimate and they will not be free orfairand they are preordained to allow mr putin to say, look, this is russian territory and now, ukrainian attacks are on the motherland, not on ukrainian territory, which is, of course, not true. and as you heard jake sullivan, our national security adviser, say yesterday, we are not going to recognise that and so many other nations around the world aren t going to recognise that. this is nothing more than a ploy by vladimir putin to try to gain, through some