RED SCARE

Russian Panic Over Putin’s War Runs Rampant as Attacks Spiral

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has dragged on into its fifth year.

Russian civilians are taking desperate measures to ensure that they do not become the next victims of Vladimir Putin’s war.

For several months, Ukraine has been bombarding Russia with long-range drone attacks targeting oil refineries, online retailers, and other strategic targets in order to hinder Moscow’s economy and war efforts.

With the four-and-a-half-year invasion now coming closer to home, more Russians are taking steps such as adding transparent protective sheets on their window panes to protect against Ukrainian drone blasts.

“These are unsettled times for us ​right now, and I decided to protect my family,” one Russian, Yuri, told Reuters while putting protection on his Moscow high-rise apartment windows.

Yuri said he decided to get his own shatter-resistant film after a drone blast blew shards of glass into his friend’s apartment in August, which caused minor injuries to those inside.

He is not the only one to take such action. Russian firm Solartek, which produces sticky sheets that stop shards of glass from flying off following a blast, has seen demand skyrocket 50 percent this year as the frequency of Ukraine drone strikes increases.

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“Right now it has become so popular that there is even a shortage of protective film on the Russian market,” Pavel Levit, manager of Solartek, told Reuters.

Oleg Khanin, head of insurance brokerage Soyuz, which offers drone strike packages, has also seen a boom in business because of the war.

“You could say there used to be almost no demand at all,” Khanin said. “Now ⁠the opposite is ​happening: we sit in our office, and clients from all over Russia are calling all of our phones and writing ​to all of our email addresses.”

Putin has tried to insist that the invasion of Ukraine is going well, despite suffering numerous humiliations.

However, the Russian public does not share that optimism. According to polling by the state-run Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), more than half of respondents have described the mood among people they know as “anxious” in all but one weekly FOM survey since late April.

This includes a period when Russia experienced crippling fuel shortages as Ukraine repeatedly targeted the country’s oil refineries, resulting in long lines at the gas pumps.

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Elsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Thursday that Kyiv had targeted “eight Russian infrastructure facilities that support the war” over a 24-hour period, including an oil refinery in the Yamalo-Nenets region.

“Russia continues its terror against Ukraine every day. And every day, it receives a just response. Thank you to every warrior, to everyone ensuring our long-range capability and accuracy,” Zelensky posted on X.

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