Tens of thousands of Russians have fled their home country since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, and even more are desperately seeking to flee after Vladimir Putin announced a nationwide military call-up in September.

Many of those seeking to leave have scrambled to find any proof of Jewish roots in their family history to be able to flee to Israel, where the Law of Return allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to obtain Israeli citizenship, as well as people who convert to Judaism.

Speaking to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the Times of Israel, 32-year-old Ivan Mitrofanov said: “In Europe, my Russian passport is toxic. I’ll go to Israel where we’re actually wanted.”

Mitrofanov is an IT worker, and is therefore exempt from the current call-up announced three weeks ago, but he is desperately looking for proof that his grandparents were Jewish to be able to leave Russia as he expects more mobilisation waves, and possibly the closure of the borders to military-aged men.

For that reason, he said he is "rushing to leave as a long as the borders are open".

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Russians queuing at the border crossing checkpoint in Vaalimaa, Finland, on the border with the Russian Federation on September 29. Fearing the border may close "forever" after the Russian President's mobilisation order for the war in Ukraine, Russians are rushing to flee (Photo by Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP via Getty Images)

At municipal administration offices across the country, bureaucrats are dealing with a huge increase in people looking for records to back up their claims of Jewish heritage. One worker in Western Moscow, Tatiana Kalazhnikova estimated that 9 in 10 inquiries were now related to people seeking confirmation of their allegedly Jewish roots.

She added sarcastically: “They want to leave Russia… for Israel where war never ends."

The desperation to leave Russia is such that the authorities attempted to close the Jewish Agency in Russia - which assists in emigration to Israel - through the courts, sparking a diplomatic crisis with Israel. The future of the agency remains unclear.

Five new private agencies have also opened to help Russians emigrate, showing just how many Russians are choosing Israel.

Many of those contacting the authorities for help are mothers, desperate to get their sons out of the country. One mother at a Red Cross centre in Moscow said: “Getting an Israeli passport is the only way for my son not to go to fight in Ukraine."

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Vladimir Paley, 55, a genealogist who specialises in Jewish genealogy, speaking during an AFP interview in Moscow on September 26 (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

Vladimir Paley, a specialist in Jewish genealogy, said: “With the mobilization, I mainly reply to the calls of mothers looking to expatriate their sons."

The 55-year-old said that he had received "10 times more requests" from both Russians and Ukrainians since the conflict began in February.

Israel says that applications from Russia and Ukraine have tripled, and the Central Bureau of Statistics said that 20,000 people arrived from Russia and over 12,000 from Ukraine.

One of Paley's clients said that people are fleeing "out of fear and disgust".

However, leaving Russia is a frantic process, leading to the sudden break-up of families after he decision to flee is often made in a matter of hours.

Andrei Trubetskoy, a 58-year-old former official of the Russian interior ministry, told the AFP that he realised that he wanted to leave back in February. He said that he “no longer wanted to have anything to do” with his own country.

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Jewish immigrants fleeing from war zones in the Ukraine arriving at the Israeli immigration and absorption office, at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on March 15, 2022 (Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

He and his historian wife searched archives and discovered that he had a great-grandfather who was a Chasidic Jew, so the couple started their preparations to leave, including learning Hebrew.

However, his wife changed her mind and the last minute, and the couple ended up divorcing. Trubetskoy now intends to leave for Israel alone.

Lyubov Borussyak, a sociologist at the Free Moscow University who has surveyed 150 families who chose to leave, described the decision to leave as "often impulsive".

She said: “Their goal is not to move to another country, but to leave Russia. It’s an emigration of panic and fear.”