On the night of June 18, Moscow and the surrounding region experienced what the publication described as Ukraine’s largest attack since the start of the war. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said nearly 200 drones had been destroyed. In Kapotnya, an oil refinery caught fire, and drones fell near the Sadovod market and the Mega Belaya Dacha shopping center. Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said 17 people, including two children, were injured in different towns across the region.
Against that backdrop, the outlet published letters from readers in Moscow and the surrounding area describing what they experienced. Many wrote about intense fear, nighttime explosions, the sound of drones overhead, and a deep sense of vulnerability. Several specifically said they received no warnings during the raid and had to look for information on their own, including through Telegram channels and social media.
One reader living near the refinery said she immediately went to an underground parking area after the strike, saw a friend’s building hit, and watched a drone fly over her home, yet said she still felt no hatred toward Ukrainians.
Other contributors described fears for their children and relatives, as well as anxiety over the lack of shelters, instructions, and clear guidance in case of another attack. Some said they had started to see the war as a disaster that had come too close, or as a reality that was now directly affecting the Moscow region.
Several authors said the attack did not change their view of the war because they had opposed it from the beginning and now wanted it to end even more urgently. Others wrote that this was the moment when the war stopped feeling distant. Across several letters, the same idea recurred: what happened was a consequence of a prolonged armed conflict, and the dominant emotions were fear, exhaustion, and sorrow for people on both sides of the front.