“Who would have declared such a war on us in Moscow?”

After six consecutive days of drone attacks on the Moscow region this week, one would think the shock of sudden late-night explosions might compel some Russians to consider what Ukrainian civilians have endured during 550 days of relentless Russian attacks.

Instead, some residents near the Russian capital have taken to social media to vent about the inconvenience of being woken up in the middle of the night, question why the “international community” isn’t coming to their rescue, and blame Ukrainian “terrorists” for targeting civilian areas. (Never mind that Moscow has repeatedly attacked residential areas in Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed drones.)

No injuries have been reported in the recent string of attacks, and Russian officials claim to have shot down most of the drones that they say caused only “minor damage” to a building in Moscow City and several broken windows elsewhere. Kyiv has not confirmed or denied involvement in the drone strikes.

Russian media widely covered the attacks, airing interviews with residents who showed off their broken windows.

“It was scary to go up to the window,” said one man recounting his shock to wake up and find his window shattered. “This is the first time anything like this has happened to me.”

Separately, he told Deutsche Welle, “At first, there was panic. I thought the building had been hit by a shell.”

“It’s very scary. What if it hits the house next time?” another resident told DW, noting that she has a young child in the home. “Who would have declared such a war on us in Moscow?” she asked, unironically.

archive link: https://archive.is/xFkDe

  • Llewellyn@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Secret of passivity of an average Russian is in eternal “maybe” in our heads: maybe government won’t notice me, maybe I will be spared, maybe a situation will fix itself somehow. We even have special term for it: “авось”.
    It’s all learned helplessness.

    As for me personally - I have decided that if they will try to conscript me then I will try to flee or go to prison rather than actively participate in that war.

    • uphillbothways@kbin.socialOP
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      1 year ago

      I’m sorry to hear it’s like that, and sad to report it’s getting that way here, more and more; though we don’t have a word for it, yet.

      You sound like a good person. Glad to have chatted. Best luck.

    • ElZoido@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      So it looks like you think “maybe” it is not going to affect you, and you are only willing to do anything once it does. I think that is in general how everyone there thinks. “Maybe it won’t affect me” but by the time it does it is already too late to react. If you want to flee, do it now. Don’t wait for the “maybe”. Because if you do, it will be too late to react.