Ukraine’s attack on Moscow is another sign the war is not so distant anymore for Russians

It’s getting harder for officials in the Kremlin to cast the war in Ukraine — now in its fifth year — as something so distant that it doesn’t affect the daily routines of Russian civilians.

From irritating internet disruptions to this month’s scaled-down Victory Day parade and a massive weekend aerial attack in the Moscow region that killed three people, Russia’s full-scale war no longer seems a distant conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cast the attack in Moscow’s suburbs as a just retribution for the relentless and deadly Russian missile and drone strikes on the capital of Kyiv and other cities last week.

All these assaults have come only days after President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump both suggested that the war in Ukraine was nearing its end.

One of the biggest attacks by Ukraine so far

The Russian Defense Ministry reported Sunday its air defenses downed 1,054 Ukrainian drones in the previous