Russia is losing the war, and its people have had enough.
That’s the harsh reality that Vladimir Putin has to face, and yet he keeps trying to bury his head in the sand.
20,000 strikes later, and he still doesn’t get the message.
What he promised would never happen is here.
Moscow has been turned into a front line as Ukraine batters Russia’s most important city with strikes.
All over Russia, Ukrainian drones are flying and hitting their targets.
We’ll say it again: 20,000 strikes.
But there’s so much more to it than that, as Putin presides over a wannabe empire that is already dead and buried.
He just doesn’t know it yet.
Putin got yet another taste of the drone edge that Ukraine now has over Russia on June 30 and into the early morning of July 1.
And again, he and his cronies never saw it coming.
They had just launched their own aerial assault on Ukraine, with tragically predictable results.
As usual, Russia targeted civilians.
A Russian drone smashed into a civilian bus in Zaporizhzhia, injuring seven people in the process.
CNN reports that other strikes in the oblast killed one person and injured a further five.
This is the terroristic nature of Russia’s aerial campaign.
It’s also a sign of Putin’s desperation.
Russia tries to hit anything that it can just to showcase some semblance of power.
But Ukraine responds every time.
And that’s what Ukraine did to avenge those lost in Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine unleashed around 250 more drones at Russia than Russia had fired at them, sending a swarm of 419, 60 of which headed directly to the Russian capital of Moscow.
A space communications center was struck for the second time in a matter of weeks.
Moscow instructed its law enforcement to hide rather than help as Russian skies were once again blacked out by Ukraine’s drones.
Whenever Putin showcases his desperation, Ukraine responds by turning up the pressure, demonstrating to Russia’s leader that whatever he can do, Ukraine can now do much bigger and better.
This isn’t aerial parity anymore.
Ukraine has the edge.
But these isolated incidents don’t tell the full story.
For that, we need to take a wider view.
The numbers tell us everything.
Since 2025, Ukraine has launched 20,000 strikes on Russia, with each one having two purposes.
One, take out a Russian target.
That could be an oil refinery, a terminal, a manufacturing plant, or so many other examples of targets that keep the Russian war machine rolling.
And two, bring the war right back to the Russian people.
Ukraine’s drones are a constant reminder to those people that the invasion that their leader started, and was meant to be over in a matter of days, has evolved into a fight that Russia is far from winning.
The momentum has shifted.
In 2026, it’s Ukraine that is pulling ahead.
The numbers from the front lines aren’t any better.
For every one soldier that Ukraine loses, Russia loses eight.
That’s unsustainable.
And for the Russians at home, who Putin has for so long attempted to shield from the war that he started, it’s becoming more noticeable by the day.
Tens of thousands are heading into Ukraine, never to come back.
Whenever Putin or his cronies try to laud themselves for an aerial strike, Ukraine sends a reminder that it can do far more.
Families are being devastated all throughout Russia, rarely by drones striking military targets, but far too often by Putin himself as his never-ending thirst for war wrenches fathers, sons, and husbands away from their nearest and dearest.
This is the reality that Putin has created for millions of people throughout Russia, who are now feeling the war like they never have before.
That reality is harsh: Russia is losing.
We see the evidence all over Russia and the occupied territories.
In St.
Petersburg, which is Putin’s hometown and one of the jewels in the Russian crown when it comes to cities with status that are supposed to be well protected, we’re seeing Ukrainian drones strike targets.
In occupied Crimea, that longstanding symbol of Russia’s supposed dominance over Ukraine, schools are being shut down and gas stations are running out of their only product, all due to a masterful isolation campaign being conducted by Ukraine.
Authorities are warning Russian civilians to stay indoors, and the sound of air raid sirens is becoming a fixture of life all across Russia.
None of this was supposed to happen.
The war was meant to be contained in Ukraine, with the only attacks on Russian territory being made possible by Western-made weapons, and even then, only limited to the border territories.
But Ukraine has thrown Putin’s entire war on its head, and it’s done it by creating its own weapons that can now fly hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of kilometers to strike deep into Russia’s heart.
Nowhere is this harsh reality felt more than in Moscow.
Ukraine’s revenge attack for Zaporizhzhia is far from the only time that Ukraine has struck Russia’s capital in recent memory.
Moscow is becoming as much of a war zone as Kyiv, and Putin’s people are taking notice.
A drone strike against the city’s largest oil refinery in the middle of June was part of a massive strike that included around 1,000 drones and four Ukrainian cruise missiles.
That’s what the Russian Defense Ministry claimed it had intercepted, with 200 of those drones being launched at Moscow.
But the burning refinery and the black rain that followed as smoke filled the skies tell a very different story.
Ukraine’s drones are hitting home.
They’re forcing flight cancellations, and they’re being seen by people in the Moscow streets as they buzz toward their targets.
This can’t be hidden anymore.
The scale of Ukraine’s drone strikes is unprecedented, and they have shattered the narrative of indomitable Russia that Putin has tried to create.
Moscow has become a new front line.
Putin, of course, is trying to put a brave face on all of it.
The image of himself as the uncompromising leader that would always do what’s best for Russia was fragile, at best, and backed by a police state and rampant censorship.
That image is now being put to the test like never before, and it’s cracking under the pressure of Ukraine’s relentless long-range drone campaign.
It’s this very image that will make it impossible for Putin to capitulate, even when he knows that he should, and he isn’t being helped by his generals telling him that soldiers on the ground will achieve his objectives even as they’re dying in droves as they smash against Ukraine’s defenses.
In Moscow, Putin is trying to assure the elites and Muscovites alike that what we’re seeing now is just a blip.
But it can’t be.
20,000 strikes all across Russia since 2025 is bad enough.
Now that so many of those strikes are affecting the Russian capital, the evidence of Putin’s failure is undeniable.
Sure, Putin is trying to muster up more defenses.
On June 23, The New Voice of Ukraine reported that Russia had bolstered Moscow’s air defenses by pulling units away from the frontline troops who need them even more.
That will be little solace to the families of those on the front, who are being made even more vulnerable so that Putin can prop up his self-made image of Russia’s protector.
But even that isn’t enough.
One of the Pantsir systems that Russia moved from the front to the Moscow oil refinery that was still recovering from Ukraine’s mid-June strike only held two of the six missiles that it was supposed to hold.
Russia’s air defenses are running out of ammo.
What does Putin expect people in Moscow to do? Pick up Pantsirs and throw them at the drones.
The futility of this move was made clear by Ukraine’s July 1 revenge attack.
Do you remember that space communications center that we told you about earlier? The one that had already been hit before? That’s the precise sort of target around which Russia should be bolstering its air defenses, yet Ukraine was able to hit it again.
Drones traveled more than 500 kilometers to reach the Dubna satellite communications center,
and Russia’s defenses once again did little to stop them.
Zelenskyy later added that Ukraine’s drones had struck four similar centers in Moscow and the Vladimir region.
Even Putin has been forced to acknowledge Ukraine’s success, stating just a few days before Ukraine’s latest attack, “As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that’s obvious.
” It’s been obvious since 2025.
It has just taken 20,000 strikes for Putin to finally recognize that there’s a problem that was never supposed to exist.
Russia is losing right now, and the Russian people know it.
They see Ukraine’s drones flying into their territory daily.
They feel the impact of a struggling economy and high inflation, which has led to an astronomical rise in the cost of living.
Fuel is running low.
U.
K.
intelligence reports that at least 500,000 Russians are dead, and the number of soldiers who are casualties of the war rises to over 1.
4 million when taking the injured and those who’ve surrendered into account.
There are even reports that the lifespans of Russian soldiers in some areas of the front are as short as 20 minutes, highlighting the ruthless efficiency of the drone-infested kill zones in the regions that Putin’s generals are still trying to tell him will inevitably fall.
Perhaps they will, in time.
But the scars buried into the Russian skin run deeper and deeper.
And for many inside Russia, enough is enough.
They want the war to end, and they’re increasingly willing to tell a President who has managed to cow them for so long that the war is over.
Russia has lost.
Accept it.
That could well change everything for Putin.
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The anti-war voices in Russia are getting louder, and they’re all telling Putin the same thing: Pull us out.
In a July 1 report, the Kyiv Post revealed that Ukraine’s largest attack against Moscow has triggered a sharp rise in anti-war sentiment all across Russia.
The outlet cites research by a non-governmental organization named Join Ukraine, which has analyzed social media chatter in the wake of Ukraine’s strikes.
After checking out 41,883 posts that generated a combined total of 594 million views across Telegram and other social media channels, that research concluded that anti-war sentiment across Russia has increased by a staggering 235%.
The June 18 attack on the Moscow oil refinery seems to have become a turning point, and the more recent revenge strike against Moscow is likely to lead to another spike.
What we’re seeing here is an information agenda that Putin has relied upon for so long changing, and it’s not in his favor.
On top of the 235% upswing in anti-war posts, the study also revealed that criticism of the Russian authorities and their handling of Ukraine’s attacks is growing.
There are increasing doubts about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defenses, which should be no surprise, given the impact that Ukraine’s drones are clearly having.
Putin’s government is being accused of failing to protect its citizens, the study reveals.
Yuliia Yelenich of Join Ukraine sums it up perfectly: “As long as the fighting remains far away, it is easier to ignore or view it through the lens of propaganda.
But when drones reach Moscow or other major cities, Russians begin thinking about their own safety, questioning the authorities, critically evaluating official statements and demanding an end to the war,” Yelenich reports.
This is anathema to Putin.
This is as clear as any evidence yet that his status as Russia’s great protector is being brought into question.
Even with the police state he has created and all of his crackdowns on social media and the internet in Russia, the dissent is not only getting through, but it’s rising.
And there’s much more.
Beyond the social media chatter, there are other signs that Putin’s people want him to finally accept that the Ukraine invasion, as he envisioned it, is lost.
In a June 19 report, Pravda revealed that a project called Faridaily, which was created by Russian journalist Farida Rustamova, had gotten access to a source within Russia’s United Russia political party, which Putin leads.
That source revealed that focus groups run by the party have increasingly shown that Russian people are willing to accept an end to the Ukraine war that “falls short of victory.
” 60% have said that they are war-weary, and that fatigue will only grow as more of Ukraine’s drones reach Moscow.
A few days later, on July 1, TVP World revealed that a survey carried out by the Kyiv-based Institute of Conflictology and Analysis of Russia has found that 81% of the 1,600 Russians surveyed expressed support for an end to the Ukraine war as early as tomorrow.
Those pushing for “complete victory” for Russia accounted for just 9%, which is the lowest number yet recorded by this particular survey.
Peace is on the lips of the average Russian, and Putin can’t even look to his own approval ratings for assurance that he’s doing what the average Russian wants.
Those ratings are tanking.
According to a June 30 Newsweek report, the Kremlin-backed Public Opinion Foundation has found that 69% of the 1,500 people they quizzed say that they trust Putin.
That may seem high.
Many Western politicians would
kill for these types of trust figures.
But there are a couple of things to consider here.
First, this is the lowest trust level for Putin since he launched his Ukraine invasion.
And second, this is a poll that comes from a Kremlin-backed source, meaning the numbers are likely fudged, and the people being quizzed are still wary about a knock on the door from the secret police if they express too much disapproval for Putin.
And yet, even with those factors in play, close to a third of Russians are now openly saying that they don’t trust Putin as far as they can throw him.
The message is being sent loud and clear, time and time again: Russians are sick of the 20,000 strikes.
They’re sick of Moscow being turned into a target.
And they’re increasingly sick of Putin still acting as though his invasion is something that needs to be seen through to the end, four years and well over 1.
4 million casualties later.
You might think that Putin is finally willing to listen.
After all, he’s starting to acknowledge all of this strife.
But if you think that, then you don’t know Putin.
Such clear evidence of his own defeat and anger among his own people won’t cause Putin to stop.
It’ll just lead him to do what he has always done: Protect himself.
Putin is so rattled by what he sees as the clear change in sentiment among his people combined with Ukraine’s increasing dominance in the aerial war that he is surrounding himself with yet more people who can
keep him insulated from all of it.
On July 2, just a day after Ukraine once again sent drones flying into Moscow, the Kyiv Post reported that Putin has issued a new decree that expands the central administration of Russia’s Federal Protective Service, or FSO.
For those who don’t know, the FSO is the collection of goons tasked with protecting Putin against threats.
This is the fourth such expansion that we’ve seen since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion.
Before 2022, the FSO hadn’t expanded since 2010.
Now, this is a bad enough idea in its own right.
Putin has already handed over so much to the FSO that it is overseeing all Russian state communications and is responsible for vetting all of the staff who ever come into contact with Putin.
Russia’s leader is sacrificing power that could be turned against him as his paranoia grows.
But that paranoia is the real problem.
What this latest expansion shows us is that Putin knows that he’s in danger.
He’s scared, not just of Ukraine and its drones, but of everybody.
He can see the decline in the public’s opinion of him (the FSO monitors that, too), and he is now doing everything that he can to protect his own skin as he loses his grip on his war and his people.
This is how Putin is losing the Ukraine war.
The drones flying to Moscow are the symptom of a disease that spreads deeper into Russia with each passing day.
If things were going well, Putin wouldn’t have to expand the FSO’s power.
He wouldn’t need to worry about opinion polls, because his people would still fear him enough to play along with the grand protector charade.
But the quarter-century-long bluff has fallen apart.
Putin is heading for a fall, and he can even see it coming.
Now, he’s trying to get as many bodies between him and an increasingly angry population, all as his legitimacy, such as it was, is being eroded from underneath him.
And so, we come back to the 20,000 strikes since 2025 and the drones that just flew over Moscow.
Alone, these strikes won’t win the Ukraine war.
But they’re part of something much larger.
These strikes are the catalyst for the discontent we see in Russia today.
Moscow has been turned into a war zone, and it’s clear for everybody in Russia to see.
People hundreds of kilometers away from Ukraine now fear for their safety, and they’re increasingly pointing the finger of blame for that situation at Putin.
The system that Putin has built around himself is looking less stable than it ever has.
The elite aren’t as loyal as Putin needs them to be.
Putin can’t point to a functioning economy or the implied stability that comes with a lack of dissent anymore.
It’s all starting to fade away.
Russia’s leader has lost his grip.
But the true failure for Putin, and what will ultimately result in him losing the war that he started, is that he refuses to budge.
That’s what the expansion of the FSO really means.
Despite all of the pressure
from Ukraine and his own people, Putin is still extremely unlikely to come to the negotiating table and settle on a version of peace that doesn’t give him everything that he wants.
Putin is a stubborn man.
Too stubborn.
Even as he sees Ukraine’s long-range sanctions take effect and watches as Ukraine pulls ahead of Russia on the long-range front, he will stay the course.
Putin will keep on making promises that he can’t keep.
20,000 strikes will turn into 30,000, 40,000, and then many more besides.
And all the while, he will try to ignore the simple fact: Russia is losing right now.
With Ukraine showing no signs of slowing down and his people turning against him, Putin’s stubbornness will be his ultimate defeat.
For Russia itself, its supposed strongman leader is sending the country down the path to ruin.
The wannabe Russian empire is already dead and buried.
Allies have been pushed toward the West.
Russia’s economy is already crippled.
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
