By Galina Korol | 2026-05-29

Ukraine's drones and missiles are now reaching cities more than 1,700 kilometers (1,060 miles) from the front, and for the first time since the war began, ordinary Russians are realizing the rear no longer exists.

On April 25, a drone struck a residential building in Yekaterinburg. No one was killed. But the psychological impact was immediate.

"Even though no one was killed, people finally realized the city is no longer deep in the rear," one resident told Bloomberg on condition of anonymity.

That single strike captured something the casualty numbers hadn't: the war had arrived somewhere Russians believed was untouchable.

The numbers tell the same story. Perm's airport was shut down three times last year due to drone threats. This year it has already been closed 15 times, with nearly half of those occurring in April and May alone.

In Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, there were no shutdowns at all last year. This year each city has seen five to seven temporary closures.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had also struck Cheboksary, a city 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from the Ukrainian border, using Flamingo cruise missiles.

"Distance is a relative measure when destroying everything and everyone involved in the terrorist regime becomes the day-to-day motivation," Andriy Strannikov, a major in the Ukrainian military and director of the Institute of Political Education, told Kontur.

A thousand cuts from a weaker adversary

Ukraine's campaign is targeting the economic engine of Russia's war machine. Strikes are concentrated on oil refineries, pump stations, export terminals, chemical plants, and military-industrial facilities. The goal is attrition, not a single decisive blow.

Anton Zemlianyi, a senior analyst at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, said the pattern reflects two simultaneous realities: Ukraine's growing strike capabilities and Russia's shrinking ability to defend its own territory.

"Basically we're seeing a demonstration of Ukraine's strength and Russia's weakness, as Russia is receiving systemic, painful strikes from a 'weaker' adversary," he told Kontur.

Zemlianyi described it as "a tactic of death by a thousand cuts," adding that Russia's so-called red lines have long since stopped functioning, while Kremlin threats serve mainly as domestic propaganda.

Ihor Chalenko, director of the Center for Analysis and Strategies, said Ukraine's approach is calculated rather than retaliatory.

"Ukraine is not engaging in directly retaliatory measures, but the asymmetrical steps when it comes to defense are expanding their geography," he told Kontur.

Russia's air defenses are collapsing

The reach of Ukraine's strikes is not accidental: it is the product of a deliberate, long-running campaign to dismantle Russian air defenses layer by layer.

Sergey Rose, a military analyst and co-founder of the Latvian Association for the Development of Russian Civil Society and Support of Russian Emigrants, said Moscow has stretched itself across too many priorities at once.

"The Russians are forced to constantly deploy new air defense systems to Crimea. But the problem is that Ukraine is carefully destroying those systems," he told Kontur.

Crimea became the starting point. After Ukraine's strikes on the Black Sea Fleet, Ukrainian sea drones began targeting radar systems and S-300 and S-400 air defense batteries along the coast. Ukrainian intelligence then extended that campaign to other Russian regions. The result is a defense network losing density faster than it can be replenished.

"This isn't a story about how Ukraine suddenly decided to strike far away. It's a very long, clever operation. First they knocked out the air defense and made holes in the protection, and then they started mass long-range strikes," Rose said.

Russia is producing roughly 12 systems per year while losing that many per month, Rose said -- a deficit no industrial output can close. Moscow has pulled systems from Kaliningrad, the Kuril Islands, and border regions near Finland to compensate. Air defense now concentrates around Moscow and nuclear facilities only.

Moscow's bubble bursts

On May 17, the Moscow region sustained its largest drone attack in a year. For a city the Kremlin had worked to keep insulated from the war, the effect was visceral.

"For years Putin tried to sell the public the idea that he was guaranteeing their security -- first from terrorism, and then from 'foreign enemies.' But now the fallout from his own war has come directly to Moscow. And that's eroding faith in the strength of the dictator himself and his weapons," Chalenko said.

Rose said Moscow residents' reaction was unlike anything seen a year ago. People posted videos with shaking hands. Calls to end the war have grown louder in a city that had long been a base of support for the invasion.

"People are starting to insult Putin directly and address him, saying, 'It's time to stop, old man,'" Rose said.

Strannikov said the strikes' psychological target has shifted from infrastructure to the Russian elite itself. A sense of physical danger, he said, changes mentality, motivation, and attitude toward the war.

"So it must be terrifying for the Moscow 'elite,' not for their position but for their lives and health. Therefore, Moscow needs to burn. This isn't a dream. It's reality," he said.