A Rubicon has Been Crossed: No One in Russia No Matter How Distant from Ukraine Can Feel Entirely Secure, Shoigu Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 27 – Since the start of 2026, Ukrainian drones have hit targets in almost a third of Russia’ federal subjects, many like those in the Urals far from the frontline of Putin’s war in Ukraine. As a result, Sergey Shoigu says, “not one Russian region is a secure location” anymore, a sign that the distinction between front and rear has been obliterated.

            The words of the former Russian defense minister and current secretary of the Russian Security Council show that a Rubicon has been crossed. For more than four years, most people in Russia were content to accept the Kremlin’s false claims that the war did not threaten them directly, but that has now become impossible.

            That undermines the Kremlin’s claims and raises questions about the way in which the war has come home to Russia like “a boomerang,” and it unsettles Russians who live far from the battle lines in Ukraine and had thought that however many burdens they had to bear, they were at least safe (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/04/27/effekt-bumeranga).

            While one could hope that Russians could force Putin to make peace so that they could recover a sense of being invulnerable, the more likely result, given Putin’s personality and policy preferences is that the Kremlin leader will use this sense of uncertainty to justify even more radical moves against Ukraine – and quite likely against Russians as well.