From the New York Times, I'm Serena Tavernici, and this is the Daily.

As Russia's loss is mounted in Ukraine, its president, Vladimir Putin, announced a draft.

Almost immediately, several hundred thousand Russian men fled the country.

But many more stayed.

My colleague Valerie Hopkins talked to Russians caught up in that mass mobilization this fall.

I asked her what they thought about going to war, and what it might mean for the regime of Vladimir Putin.

It's Thursday, December 15th.

So, Valerie, just to set the table here, you went to Moscow a few days after Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, announced a draft.

And just as a reminder, this was a huge moment, right?

Both for Putin who'd been losing on a battlefield for months, and for many Russians, most of whom weren't in the military,

and were just living their lives, and might suddenly have to go off and fight this war that he started.

So, what did you see when you got to Moscow?

So, I've been to Russia several times in the past few months.

I first went earlier this summer and was really struck by how normal everything seemed,

and how parties and normal life was just continuing, even if the price has got a bit more expensive.

But now when I went back after mobilization, that was when Moscow started to feel really, really different.

I was trying to put my finger on it.

The more time I spent out in pool halls or in restaurants and bars, I realized that disproportionately, there were way more women than men.

I found myself constantly trying to count men in all the places I went to, like gyms that were just full of women without male trainers.

I also went to a barber shop that had really struggled with this business because both the barbers and the customers, like half of them were gone.

So, on a Friday afternoon, when many pushmen are getting ready for the weekend, want to get their beard waxed or have their hair cut, there were two or three barbers and only one customer.

Single women said that they would go on dating apps and find no one that they were willing to go on dates with.

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