The strikes on Moscow caused panic in Russia and drew harsh criticism of the Kremlin — ISW
The Ukrainian strikes on Moscow that took place on June 18 clearly exposed serious vulnerabilities in Russia’s air defense system.
Following these documented attacks, well-known Russian “military correspondents” began openly and sharply criticizing the strict censorship and the Kremlin’s apparent inability to protect its own population from the direct consequences of the war.
In a post that was subsequently quickly deleted, one Russian military blogger openly acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had managed to inflict significant damage on the city.
This occurred despite the presence of supposedly highly effective air defense systems around the aggressor’s capital.
The author emphasized that Ukraine is confidently extending combat operations into the interior of the Russian Federation, far beyond the usual border regions, and therefore called for an immediate strengthening of defenses for strategic facilities throughout the country.
Another popular propagandist harshly criticized Russian state media for deliberately and significantly downplaying the actual significance of the strikes in their reports.
According to him, those who have “become detached from the people” completely control state media platforms and have single-handedly created a completely false reality for society, where “everything is fine.”
Bloggers called on media professionals to stop distorting the facts and to begin presenting current events accurately and objectively.
Another military analyst added that Russia’s leadership needs to immediately change its approach to reporting, otherwise official reports will be even further removed from reality than they are now.
He expressed outrage over state media’s attempts to portray a so-called “special military operation” that is far from reality—one which, according to propaganda, allegedly affected only Ukrainian territory and not Russia itself.
In addition, the critic condemned the practice of automatically dismissing reports of Ukrainians’ successful movements on the battlefield as “fake news.”
The Russian “war correspondent” separately emphasized that from now on, ordinary citizens can “see with their own eyes” that the daily bombastic statements by official propagandists claiming that “everything is going well” are completely at odds with reality.
ISW analysts note that the way Ukrainian strikes are covered in state-controlled media clearly demonstrates the Kremlin’s attempt to exert total control over the information space.
Russian authorities have focused their efforts on concealing the extent of the destruction, downplaying the consequences of successful attacks.
The independent opposition outlet “Meduza” confirmed that the leading Russian state television channels, “Channel One” and “NTV,” completely ignored the attack on Moscow in their daytime news broadcasts.
At the same time, the propaganda channel “Russia-1” limited itself to merely dryly quoting a handful of official statements from the aggressor country’s defense ministry.
None of these major channels dared to air a separate, in-depth report on the emergency in the capital.
This is according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have increased Russia’s losses and eliminated another 1,370 occupiers
The Ukrainian Armed Forces eliminated an invader who was attempting to raise a flag near Kupiansk – video
