Kathrine Frich
Russians are taking matters into their own hands.
Living in a city usually means ignoring the noise outside your window.
But when the distant rumbling turns into a genuine threat, normal routines change fast.
Suddenly, everyday people find themselves preparing for the unthinkable.
A booming new market
As the conflict in Eastern Europe stretches into its fifth year, the fighting has quietly crossed the border. Ukraine has ramped up long-range drone attacks on Russian soil.
These strikes primarily aim at strategic assets like oil refineries. Yet the blasts are close enough to residential areas to cause real alarm.
According to The Daily Beast and Reuters, Russians are taking matters into their own hands. Many citizens are rushing to buy shatter-resistant films for their windows.
Flying glass
One Moscow local, identified as Yuri, explained his reasoning to Reuters. He decided to act after a drone blast blew glass shards into a friend’s home in August.
“These are unsettled times for us right now, and I decided to protect my family,” Yuri said.
He is not alone in this mindset. Solartek is a Russian company that manufactures sticky sheets designed to keep glass intact after an explosion.
Manager Pavel Levit told Reuters that demand for their products has skyrocketed 50 percent this year. “Right now it has become so popular that there is even a shortage of protective film on the Russian market,” Levit noted.
Buying peace of mind
The scramble for safety extends to financial protection. Oleg Khanin runs the insurance brokerage Soyuz, which offers packages covering drone damage.
“You could say there used to be almost no demand at all,” Khanin explained to Reuters.
He added that the situation has completely flipped. “Now the opposite is happening: we sit in our office, and clients from all over Russia are calling all of our phones and writing to all of our email addresses.”
Official data backs up this widespread unease. Surveys from the Public Opinion Foundation reveal that over half of respondents describe the public mood as anxious.
Striking back
The drone campaign shows no signs of slowing down. Ukrainian leaders view the cross-border strikes as a necessary tactic to cripple military logistics.
Taking to X on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed hits on eight Russian facilities.
“Russia continues its terror against Ukraine every day. And every day, it receives a just response,” Zelensky wrote. He also thanked his forces for their long-range accuracy.
For civilians far from the frontline, the reality of war is knocking on their doors.
Sources: The Daily Beast, Reuters, X, Public Opinion Foundation
