for more on that, ivan watson joins us from hong kong. the pictures of the mass exodus are certainly dramatic. so many russians trying to get out or trying to figure out other ways of escaping being dragged into the war. >> reporter: we are seeing this phenomenon in the 36, 48 hours since putin announced he was going to drag 300,000 men into the military to fight his war in ukraine. instead of scenes of patriotic russians saying we are going to go defend our country, we are seeing lines ten kilometers line reported at the borders with kazakhstan. the border crossing with georgia. people waiting 10, 12 hours to try to get through to evade the possibility of receiving draft orders to go into the russian military. we have also been hearing that the flights are sold out. and, that the price of those tickets on planes out of the country have gone through the roof. cnn caught up with one young man, a 29-year-old who made it to the georgia capital through a bus service. he said half of his familiars ukrainian. he was angry he couldn't go see the

. >> for more we're joined by ivan watson in hong kong. ivan, the pushback against these so-called referenda seem to be growing. >> reporter: they are. you know, you do have supporters of this. these are the russian-installed kind of occupation officials in occupied territories of ukraine, some of whom have gone on record saying this is a dream come true. they want to reunite with what they call their mother land, russia. and then we had pro-government rallies that were organized and allowed to take place in st. petersburg and in moscow on friday, shows of support for these referendum and kremlin officials who said that the referendums pass and support joining russia, that the kremlin would move quickly to annex these territories and then would view any attack on them from ukraine as an attack on russia itself. so you can kind of see how the logic is being prepared here. meanwhile, ukrainian government officials are urging ukrainians to boycott these votes. they're calling them a sham. they're accusing russians of making people vote at gunp

ivan watson is joining me with more.g luke warm support from president xi, the meeting with modi didn't go as well as putin might have hoped? >> we did not see putin in this time where his military has just suffered some pretty serious setbacks in the ukraine war. we did not hear a resounding show of support in this military adventure from modi nor his close friend xi jinping the president of china. both of these leaders of enormous countries that with deep economic relationships with moscow are clearly concerned about conditioflict so much so putin said it himself. listen to what he said. >> translator: i know your position on the conflict in ukraine and i know about your concerns. i know that you share these concerns. and we want all of this to end as soon as possible. but the leadership of ukraine has claimed that they refuse to engage in negotiation process. >> of course for ukraine's part, it would argue russia launched the invasion in the first place and needs to end its occupation of ukrainian territories and dest

. >> for more, we're joined by ivan watson in hong kong. it seems like there is more and more opposition growing to these so-called rev ren today. >> reporter: well, it is a mixed bag. if you look at the officials in russian occupied areas where the referendum is taking place, they are on record saying this is a dream come true, that they want to be reunited with what they call their motherland, russia. it is being denounced by the ukrainians who are pointing out that in many of the videos, there are uniformed troops with weapons next to these ballot boxes and they are arguing that this voting is being carried out at the point of a gun point. from my own reporting in ukraine, kim, months ago i'd say in april, i was talking to ukrainians fleeing russian occupation saying that there was talk of organizing frureferendus early as march and april to this same goal. if you want a broader strategy, the spokesperson for the kremlin dimitry peskov is on record saying that if these referendums pass, that annexation could then than very quickly and th

cnn's ivan watson has more. >> reporter: two leaders united by their dislike of the u.s.king his first trip in more than two years. face to face with his russian counterpart, vladimir putin, who quickly addresses the elephant in the room. >> we understand your questions and concerns in this regard. >> reporter: questions and concerns about russia's deadly war in ukraine, a shift in tone from the last time these two men met. xi and putin announced a friendship with no limits at the beginning of the olympics and called for a new world order not dominated by washington but only weeks later putin launched his invasion of ukraine and it has not gone according to plan. russia's military battered. its economy increasingly isolated. putin now needs china more than ever but in his public comments the chinese leader made no mention of ukraine. the white house argues when it comes to this war, chinese friendship does have limits. >> we haven't seen the chinese do anything overtly to support the efforts by mr. putin inside ukraine. clearly they haven't publicly condemned it. i think

. >> for more, we're joined by ivan watson in hong kong. , take us through the reaction to the so-called referendum both in ukraine and the international community. >> right, first of all, a kremlin spokesperson says that the rush government could move quickly to formally annex these russia-occupied parts of ukraine where the referendum are currently being carried out. russia installed officials in these areas they're saying things like this is a dream come true. and they're going to embrace returning, as they put it, returning to the russia motherland. the ukrainian government is calling this is sham. and accusing the russian forces of basically forcing people to vote at gunpoint. look at this video, security cam video. we heard from the russia occupation administration in the whew hand sk and zaporizhzhia region, they're actually bringing ballot boxes to the people to try to get them to vote. in this case, a video from the city where they are coming in with the ballots and a chechen fighter and hand joud videos show men in uniform at place

ivan watson is joining me with more. warm support from president xi, the meeting with modi didn't go as well as putin might have hoped. is that fair to say? >> reporter: i think so. i think the kremlin was hoping to illustrate that vladimir putin is not as internationally isolated as some of his critics would argue at this meeting of the shanghai cooperation organization in uzbekistan. but it was clear that he didn't have some of that swagger that we associate with the russian president at this meeting. in fact, when he did sit down with the indian prime minister, he received a lecture of sorts urging him to follow a path towards peace. take a listen. >> translator: it is not an era of war and i have spoken to you many times over the phone on this issue that democracy, diplomacy and dialogue are all the things that make it clear to the world that in the coming days, how can we move on the path of peace. >> reporter: and putin himself addressed that he knew that the indian prime minister had concerns about russia's prosec

promising to work together and support one another as cnn's ivan watson reports. this is the first time the two strongmen have met in person since the start of the invasion of ukraine by russia. and a lot has changed for both of them. >> reporter: two leaders united by their dislike of the u.s. xi jinping making his first trip outside of covid locked-down china in more than two years. face to face with his russian counterpart vladimir putin, who quickly addresses the elephant in the room. >> translator: we highly appreciate the balanced position of our chinese friends in connection with the ukrainian crisis. we understand your questions and concerns in this regard." >> reporter: questions and concerns about russia's deadly war in ukraine. a shift in tone from the last time these two men met. at the start of the beijing winter olympics in february xi and putin announced a friendship with no limits and called for a new world order not dominated by washington. but only weeks later putin launched his invasion of ukraine, and it has not gone according to plan. russia's

cnn's ivan watson is in hong kong this morning with more. >> reporter: boris and amara, a creme len spokesmanrussian government could move rapidly to formally annex russian occupied parts of ukraine where pro-russian officials have been organizing these referendum votes to try to justify breaking off from ukraine. to bolster this effort, there were large pro-government rallies staged on friday in moscow and in st. petersburg. but we're not seeing widespread support for vladimir putin's announcement on wednesday of what he calls partial mobilization of hundreds of thousands of men to go fight for the russian military in ukraine. we've seen signs of tearful far farewells, and we've also seen this bizarre phenomenon where the flights out of russia right now are almost sold out with ticket prices soaring and long lines reported and surging of travelers at the russian border with finland, the russian border with georgia, where cnn was filming at the border terminal today, and russian men -- almost all the travelers were men of fighting age said they were waiting 10, 12 hours to cross the border. m

ivan watson joins us with what we can expect from the meeting. >> reporter: this is a meeting of two leaders who are unitedan of the u.s. the last time they got together face-to-face was at the beginning of the beijing winter olympics in early february and put out a statement where they basically hinted at creating a new world order not dominated by the u.s. what a difference the past couple of months have been. shortly after that, vladimir putin ordered the invasion of ukraine and he's coming to this meeting more isolated than he's ever been, with his military hurt and embarrassed about that war. and he needs china more than ever. as for xi jinping, this is his first time outside of china since the beginning of the pandemic. he wants to show support for his russian ally. china has been happy to buy cheap russian oil, gas, and coal but stopped short of sending weapons to help in the war. china doesn't want to face western sanctions. so we can expect some kind of symbolic statement. china wants support on taiwan. and to prove a point, both navys are conducting joint patrols and sharin