‘Most dangerous stage’: The view from Russia as Ukraine war escalates

Last week, a defence industry site in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was struck by a Russian medium-range ballistic missile, which President Vladimir Putin described as a response to “NATO’s aggressive actions against Russia”.

Early reports that Dnipro was hit by an intercontinental ballistic missile proved inaccurate.

Moscow’s deployment of the new weapon, named Oreshnik, followed a series of Ukrainian rocket strikes into western Russian territory using United States-supplied ATACMS long-range missiles, targeting military facilities in the regions of Bryansk and Kursk.

In his statement, Putin acknowledged that the Ukrainian attacks caused casualties among Russian troops.

“I’m scared,” said a young St Petersburg resident who requested anonymity.

“It’s especially infuriating because … my whole family is in Ukraine,” she told Al Jazeera. “When [Russian missiles] are flying there, it really sucks, and when [Ukrainian missiles are] flying here, it’s scary. There’s no happy medium in this situation.

“There was hope that everything would gradually begin to calm down because nothing has flown to my [Ukrainian] hometown, Zaporizhzhia, for a long time. And now it’s started again

“But you know when they say there will be a third world war, Russia will come for Switzerland, all of that, I don’t think so, but let’s wait and see. What’s happening now is of course totally f*****.”

Evgeniya, in her 60s, said her life is going on as normal.

“I don’t pay attention to such things. Nobody knows what will happen, so why panic? I just went on a long holiday from Moscow to [St Petersburg].”

Even so, there are some who echo the Kremlin’s warnings.

“I think that [this mess] will catch up with the West,” said 51-year-old Alec, a St Petersburg resident.

with twice the intensity. In my head is purely chaos, of course.”

But others appeared less concerned about the escalation, which some observers fear could transform into a Russian nuclear standoff with NATO.

“I don’t think rockets will fall either on Moscow or on London although [Ukrainian] drones are already flying over Moscow,” said Dasha, a Muscovite in her early 30s who asked Al Jazeera to withhold her surname.