At first, they wanted Kyiv "in three days": Russians began to fear drone attacks and Ukrainian sabotage

The fiasco of Russia's plans for a quick victory in the war against Ukraine in the "Kyiv in three days" series and reports of large-scale losses at the front caused a shift in the mass consciousness of the citizens of the aggressor country. For the first time since the beginning of a full-scale invasion of a sovereign state, they began to fear the transfer of hostilities to the territory of the Russian Federation.

These are the results of the National Anxiety Index survey conducted by KROS. They were published by the Russian newspaper Kommersant without providing any graphs or screenshots of the data.

It is noted that the Russians admitted that the main reasons for their fears are "sabotage by the Ukrainian military" and drone attacks, which have recently become the norm not only for the border regions, but also for Moscow and St Petersburg.

In particular, in the first quarter of 2023, citizens of the terrorist state were most afraid of sabotage on the territory of the country. The total anxiety index associated with them was 683.4 media units (the anxiety reproduction unit used in the study). The authors of the study stated that Russians were most concerned about the "raid of a group of saboteurs" in the Bryansk region on March 2.

Also, residents of the country that attacked a sovereign state with war are concerned about regular attacks by "Ukrainian" drones on regions far from the frontline. We are talking about "cotton" in the Tula, Kaluga and Moscow regions. Russians are also concerned about the constant reports of the FSB about the prevention of terrorist attacks and the detention of people allegedly involved in their preparation.

The second place among the fears of Russian citizens is the course of the war (634.6 media points). Russian media outlets point out that in 2022, military operations in Ukraine were the main source of anxiety among Russians, but earlier this year they gave way to events inside Russia. However, propagandists claim that Russians are concerned about "the timing of the end of the war and the protracted fighting in Bakhmut".

"For both the media and social media, one of the most sensitive topics is the loss of Russian troops. Various versions and guesses about the size of the 'real' losses are expressed on social media," the authors of the Russian study noted.

The "conflict" around the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the "persecution" of the UOC-MP in Ukraine suddenly took third place among the main fears of Russian citizens. This topic scored almost six times less than sabotage and war - 136.7 media points. However, researchers claim that the fate of Moscow priests in Ukraine "worries" Russians even more than mobilisation (118.8), rising prices and falling living standards (106.9), the "neural network attack" on humans (92.3), household gas explosions (88.7), and the wear and tear of imported equipment and the shortage of spare parts (39.8) in their own country.

The Russian experts ranked the fears of their compatriots based on an analysis of media news ("media index") and posts and comments on social media ("social media index"). If a topic was actively covered in the Russian media but did not resonate with social media users, the authors of the study classified it as a "pseudo-fear" of Russians.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, at the same time, panic is growing in Russia over Ukraine's alleged strikes "on Moscow" on May 9. The propagandists also do not rule out that the announced counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces may be accompanied by dozens of "small but resonant and painful strikes" on Russian cities.

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