This is an author column. What struck me in the discussion was not only the footage of smoke over Moscow, but how quickly the familiar line that everything is under control stops working when the war returns to the space of those who were encouraged for years not to notice it.
What happened
On June 18, Moscow and the Moscow region faced one of the most visible drone attacks since the start of the full-scale war. According to open reports from Russian media and officials, nearly two hundred drones were intercepted on approach to the capital, while some reached the area of the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya. Infrastructure sites, shopping areas, residential buildings and cars were damaged. Casualties were reported in the Moscow region, and Moscow airports faced serious disruption.
For me, however, the central point is not only the scale of the attack. It is the reaction. People are asking where the shelters were, where the warnings were, and why public safety is discussed only after explosions. Pro-war channels that spoke with confidence yesterday are now admitting that even around Moscow the air-defense system does not provide the sense of invulnerability that citizens were sold.
Why it matters
War does not stay somewhere far away when the state makes it its main political project for years. It is impossible to keep striking a neighboring country and then be surprised when risk, fear and destruction begin to return. This is not a reason for gloating. It is a reason to stop and honestly name the cause.
I want to say this plainly: I do not want civilians to wake up to explosions in Kyiv, Moscow or any other city. Civilians should not become hostages to decisions made by a government that starts a war and then shifts the consequences onto ordinary people.
My conclusion
Banning videos, arguing about who is to blame, or praising air defense after visible fires is not security. Security begins when the source of the threat is removed. And the source here is the continuing war.
If this war is not stopped, there will be more mornings like this. Not because anyone should rejoice in someone else’s fear, but because the logic of war always expands the zone of risk. The only honest way out is to seek an end to the war, refuse to normalize it, and stop accepting the phrase “everything is under control” in place of real responsibility.
That is my position as the author: smoke over any city must not become the new normal — not for Ukrainians, and not for Russians.