‘Playtime is over’: Troop clip that spells big trouble for Putin

Recently recruited Russian reservists have been filmed fighting back after being told that “playtime is over” in a disturbing new video.

Recently recruited Russian reservists have been filmed fighting back and looking dejected after being told that “playtime is over” in a disturbing new video.

In the video shared by the US ABC’s Patrick Reevell, recently recruited Russians are seen being sternly addressed by their commanding officer.

Responses from these new recruits seem mixed, as some sit in solemn quiet while others shout at their new leader.

Another revealing video. Scene inside a mustering station in Russia where an officer yells at angry, resentful men who have been mobilized.
“That’s it- playtime’s over. You’re soldiers now!”
pic.twitter.com/oTfomvgsUf

— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) September 23, 2022

“Shut your mouths and act accordingly,” the commanding officer can he heard yelling above the frustrated grumbles of recruits.

“Why are YOU yelling,” one shouts back.

After some more angry back and forth, the commanding officer puts his foot down: “You are all military men now. That’s it, the games are over. You are military”.

This comes as thousands of Russians flee Putin’s brutal regime, amid plans to conscript a further 300,000 troops to serve in the Ukraine war.

Over 6,000 Russians attempted to cross into Finland today, leading the nation to introduce new visa restrictions.

Putin ordered the mobilisation of Russian civilians on Wednesday morning, in a “chest-banging” speech on TV in which he also made a thinly veiled threat to nuke the West.

Disturbing ‘elections’ taking place

The clip emerged as Western nations overnight slammed new referendums in Kremlin-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine.

The voting, on whether Russia should annex these parts of Ukraine into its own territory, opened on Friday, dramatically raising the stakes of Moscow’s seven-month invasion.

Even as polling got under way however, Ukrainian forces said they were clawing back territory from the Moscow-backed separatists in the very lands Russia wants to assimilate.

The votes in the four regions are the latest development in a ferocious war that UN investigators said had seen actions — including executions and torture — that amounted to war crimes.

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A woman walks by a destroyed building on September 23, 2022 in Izium, Ukraine. Picture: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Kyiv’s western allies have dismissed as a sham the referendums in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

US President Joe Biden vowed “swift and severe” costs if Russia followed through and annexed the regions.

Even China, Russia’s closest ally since the war began, acknowledged to Kyiv that the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected”.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba at the UN General Assembly on Friday.

Authorities in the Russian-controlled regions are going door-to-door for four days to collect votes. Polling stations then open Tuesday for residents to cast ballots on the final day of voting.

It was also possible to vote at the building in Moscow that represents the Donetsk breakaway region.

Putin declares mobilisation of military

This all comes a couple of days after Vladimir Putin gave a dark new speech declaring Russia would mobilise its army, warning he was “not bluffing” when it came to using Russia’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

The Russian President warned that his nation would use “all means available to us” to achieve its goals in Ukraine, accusing NATO of a unfairly pursuing Russia as it commits atrocities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via a video link in Moscow on September 23, 2022. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov / Sputnik / AFP.

“In its aggressive anti-Russian policy the west has crossed all lines,” Putin said, further accusing the West of plotting to dismantle the Russian Federation and use nuclear blackmail.

“When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff,” he said.

Russians flee

The European Union is facing a tough balancing act over how to deal with Russians fleeing military mobilisation, as some countries look to block entry and others offer possible refuge.

So far, the numbers coming to the EU seem modest as the bloc had already curtailed travel from Russia by banning direct flights and toughening up visa rules in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

But despite the small scale, the issue is stirring debate in Brussels as EU members adopt starkly differing approaches to Russians looking to escape the fighting — some voting to block “deserters”, others to protect “anyone who courageously opposes Putin’s regime”.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said on Friday that it was “monitoring” the situation, amid calls for the bloc to issue guidelines to its 27 member states over how to tackle any arrivals.