Ukraine’s deadly strikes are bringing the war home to Russians, and discontent is bubbling up

By Zahra Ullah, and Ana Archen

Zelenograd and Khimki, Russia (CNN) — When Elena Vladimirovna woke up around 4 a.m. to the sound of loud buzzing over her Moscow region apartment, she looked out of the window to see multiple drones overhead.

The noise quickly faded, and she thought the danger had passed. But then came a loud bang from close by.

“Below us, under the balcony, there is a canopy like a ledge. The drone fell on this canopy, and then it burst into flames, black smoke started coming,” she recalled. A room in her fifth-floor apartment caught fire.

The 56-year-old mother-of-two, who preferred not to give CNN her full name, said that she and one of her sons rushed towards the blaze with buckets and basins of water. But when they heard an explosion, they realized they should grab the dog and flee. Her building in Zelenograd was just one of many hit in a mass wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on May 17.

Residents of Russia’s largest cities have largely been sheltered from the daily realities of Russia’s war with Ukraine, now in its fifth year. But as Ukraine increasingly launches long-range strikes into the country, that situation is changing.

Beyond the direct threat posed by drones, Russians are facing growing fuel shortages as Ukraine’s strikes on oil refineries limit supply. Drivers in Russian-controlled Crimea contended with gasoline rationing this week after Ukrainian attacks restricted deliveries.

At the same time, the shrinking economy, new limits on internet access, blocks on popular messaging apps and concerns over state surveillance are adding to a wider sense of disquiet that is already starting to be reflected in polling data.

Ukrainian drones rained down on Russia’s second-largest city, President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg, hours before the Kremlin’s flagship business and economic forum (SPIEF) got underway on Wednesday. Black plumes of smoke clouded the skies as thousands of participants arrived in the city.

Underscoring Ukraine’s ability to strike deep into Russia and disrupt daily life for Russians, residents of St. Petersburg were then told to stay at home on Saturday, the final day of SPIEF, following a second Ukrainian drone attack in and around the city.

One resident of Kronstadt, a port city near St. Petersburg, told CNN that the walls of her home were shaking and vibrating from 3 a.m. local time on Saturday. She could hear the drones flying around. “It was impossible to sleep. The buzzing was so loud, I was scared our apartment building could be hit in some way,” she said, even though she knew the Ukrainians were likely targeting military sites in the area.

She could hear Russian anti-missile systems trying to shoot down the drones, she said. Kronstadt is located on Kotlin Island, about 19 miles west of St. Petersburg, and was founded as a maritime defense post for the former Russian capital in the early 18th century.

On May 17, at least three people were killed in the Moscow region after Ukraine targeted Russia with more than 500 drones, according to Russian authorities. The one that struck Elena’s building caused damage to multiple floors but no serious casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the wave of strikes “entirely justified.”

“This time, Ukraine’s long-range strikes have reached the Moscow region, and we are sending a clear message to the Russians: their government must end this war,” he said.

Elena said she was grateful to be alive. But several days later, there was still a gaping hole where a windowpane should be, and the re-built walls were bare and unfinished, a reminder of a conflict that to some Russians now appears to be creeping closer by the day.

“I hope no more of them come. We’re still alive. That’s the most important thing,” Elena said.

Then, quietly, she said she hoped the war would end soon.

‘There is no war for you, dear Muscovites’

As with many Russians living near the capital, the years of war and sanctions have shaped the background of daily life for Elena without fully disrupting it, leaving the violence feeling distant in a way that is unimaginable for Ukrainians who have been directly subjected to Russia’s military campaign.

Alexandra Arkhipova, a social anthropologist at the Paris-based École Normale Supérieure who researches Russian public mood and trends, told CNN that an informal social contract emerged between the Kremlin and residents of Russia’s major cities following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The authorities appeared to be sending a message that “there is no war for you, dear Muscovites,” she said.

“The mayor of Moscow put a lot of effort into making it look like there is no war going on. That was a commitment to residents in Moscow, ‘live your life, there is no war for you,’” she said.

Arkhipova, who lives in self-imposed exile and was labeled a foreign agent in 2023, believes that official messaging is now showing signs of strain, following a state clamp-down on internet access and the blocking of popular messaging apps including WhatsApp and Telegram. “On top of that, there are now additional taxes too,” she said.

Arkhipova said Russians were looking for ways to circumvent the new measures, which include the gradual introduction of the state-backed messenger app Max as a mandatory tool in public sector roles.

Some people are downloading apps that make their screens appear to show Max installed, she said, while others are buying “burner” phones – widely referred to as “MAXophones” – to keep their private communications separate amid fears of government surveillance.

‘Slavs are killing Slavs’

Elena’s neighbor Maxim – who also declined to give his last name – is one of those with a second cell phone.

“Look, I even have two phones now – one for MAX, one just mine. You get me,” Maxim said.

He was at his dacha, a weekend countryside cabin, when the drone struck the building on May 17. When he arrived back in Zelenograd, he discovered authorities had broken down the door to assess the damage.

“Who told them they can do that?” he said, gesturing to his front door. Maxim voiced frustration that repairs weren’t happening quickly enough and resentment at the intrusion on his privacy as workers came in and out.

But his anger appeared to extend beyond the disruption caused by the repairs.

“I’m half Lithuanian,” he said. “My entire family in Lithuania is simply shocked by the fact that Ukrainians and Russians are dying. That’s what matters most. Slavs are killing Slavs,” he said.

“I’m all for this to end. Hurry up, damn it!” he added.

‘I flinch at everything now’

Though gauging public opinion through polling is difficult in Russia due to laws that criminalize “discrediting” the armed forces, the Levada Center, an independent pollster, found in an April poll that 62% of respondents favored moving to peace talks, while only 27% said military operations should continue.

Although the poll was conducted before the most recent strikes, it appears to reflect a growing sense of fatigue and weariness in the capital, where the war is slowly coming home.

A mere 100 feet from Victory Square in the city of Khimki, about 11 miles northwest of central Moscow, another drone struck another residential building in last month’s mass attack.

A blackened hole now bruises the top two floors of a high-rise overlooking the square, which features a monument depicting a World War II veteran and a participant in what Russia calls its “special military operation” standing side by side.

Putin has repeatedly drawn a direct connection between Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The inscription on the monument points to that, reading: “By preserving the past we defend the future!”

When CNN visited Khimki, four days after the strike, Nadezhda was standing outside the building looking up at the exposed damage. She told us she was there on May 17 when the drone was flying above.

“My mom lives nearby. I arrived and was waiting for my mom and it flew over me. Then I heard a crash a second later and then my mom came out,” she said, adding that the pair tried to get closer to see if they could help but were stopped by rescuers.

Although no one she knew was injured, the close call left her shaken.

“I flinch at everything now, even if it’s just that some teenagers are setting off firecrackers, and I’m just so tense,” she said.

Yelena, who was walking past the damaged building with her 10-year-old son, told CNN her family had woken up the night of the attack to the sound of drones buzzing in the skies.

“It just went on and on,” she said. “I’d like peace. I wish this would all end soon.”

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CNN’s Darya Tarasova and Katharina Krebs contributed to this report.