Three Years In: How Moscow’s War In Ukraine Has Reshaped Life In Russia

For Dmitry, a father of two in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Russia’s three-year invasion of Ukraine has been a nuisance in his life more than anything else.

The IT professional, who opposes President Vladimir Putin’s policies, has seen business revenue hurt by Western sanctions, prices for some goods like cars surge, and his son exposed to what he considers dangerous nationalistic propaganda at school.

But on the whole, Dmitry — who has always spent his vacations at the family’s dacha or in the nearby Altai region — says life hasn’t changed that much since the invasion. Now nearly 50 years old, he has weathered his share of big shocks over the years, including the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Russia’s ruble crash and debt default in 1998, and the global economic crisis of 2008-09 that hit Russia hard.

“Things are difficult because of sanctions as Russian software just isn’t as good as U.S. technology. But I have enough money to cover expenses — except for a new car,” he said, adding that automobiles “are now very expensive” and increasingly Chinese.

Like others who spoke to RFE/RL, Dmitry asked that his last name not be given over safety concerns as the state clamps down hard on all forms of criticism.

For Viktoria, a mother of two in Moscow who has relatives in Ukraine, the initial shock and fright from the start of the war have dissipated. The shortage of some medicines caused by hoarding in the early days of the fighting has long been forgotten. The spike in prices for many goods has been offset by higher wages. And the many new attractions that have opened in Moscow over the past three years have made life more enjoyable in some respects.

The biggest impact has been the inability to travel to the West, she said. Once an annual visitor to European capitals like Paris or Rome, Viktoria and her family have largely vacationed in the Middle East or inside Russia since 2022. Russia’s tourism industry has seen a surge in investment after the West slammed its door on the country in protest over the invasion. Altai, the Caucasus, and Sochi on the Black Sea are now destinations for her and her Muscovite friends, she said.

“None of my friends have really experienced difficulties” because of the war, she added. “But I am from Moscow and the situation in the regions is different.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which marks its third anniversary on February 24, 2025, has become one of the defining moments of the 21st century, exacting a devastating human toll and shattering the Western-led world order that has been in place since World War II.

And just as its consequences play out differently around the world, they are also unfolding unevenly inside Russia, leaving some of its 144 million citizens largely untouched, others benefiting and still many more losing — most notably their rights and their lives.

Regions Feel The Strain

Muscovites — with the exception of the politically active or members of select minority groups like migrants and the LGBTQ community — have indeed been largely spared the war’s worst impacts, such as conscription, as Viktoria noted.

In the regions — places like Belgorod on the border with Ukraine and Buryatia, one of the poorest parts of Siberia — the impact has been significant and wide-ranging, from a surge in jobs and salaries to innumerable deaths and injuries.

Men from the regions comprise the majority of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine and for them, participation in the war has been a lottery ticket with the prize for coming back alive being incredible financial remuneration by local standards.

Soldiers’ salaries are multiples higher than local wages, giving those who survive the opportunity to buy their first apartment, a better car, or afford their first overseas vacation. The significant role high salaries play in driving men in poor regions to volunteer to fight at the front is reflected in how they described their military service to Current Time as “work.”

The war has, in effect, been a large transfer of wealth from the government’s national wealth fund to the poorest regions in the form of troop wages, benefit payments, such as for war deaths and injuries, and orders for military weapons and equipment. Russia is boosting defense spending this year by a quarter to $150 billion. Many of Russia’s military factories are located in the regions.

“The war spending has created a consumer boom across the country, not just in Moscow. But that is not sustainable. As soon as a peace deal is done, that will stop and incomes will go down a lot,” Chris Weafer, founder of the research firm Macro-Advisory, told RFE/RL.

Body Bags And Coffins

But the war has also brought pain and suffering to Russia despite it largely being fought in Ukraine. The Kremlin has been tight-lipped about casualties, but former U.S. Defense Secretary Llyod Austin said in January that Russia had suffered more than 700,000 casualties to date in the war, putting enormous stress on the country’s historically underfunded health care system. Ethnic regions like Buryatia have borne the burden of war deaths.

The arrival of black body bags and coffins containing dead soldiers in small towns and villages around the country were a shocking sight at the start of the war. Now, three years in, the number of Russian soldiers killed in battle has soared into the tens of thousands, according to independent investigations by RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities, the BBC, and other news outlets, prompting the Kremlin to make the death total a state secret lest it spark social unrest. Hiding the true extent of the country’s losses, however, has not prevented Russians from becoming desensitized to the news of another neighbor’s death.

“Initially, every death was discussed, and we attended funerals And now I don’t even know who was the last one to die, or if they died at all, or how many of them,” a 40-year-old teacher in Ulan-Ude said.

The war has brought destruction to some Russian regions and diverted funding from education and other services. Belgorod is regularly the target of shelling while parts of neighboring Kursk have been seized by Ukraine, bringing the war home to at least a small portion of Russia’s population. Energy and military facilities in Russia’s most western regions — from St. Petersburg to Krasnodar — are also regularly struck.

Repressive State

With the launch of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin accelerated the crackdown on freedom of expression, association, and privacy — with liberals, LGBTQ individuals, migrants, and women experiencing the worst of the repression.

People expressing opposition to the war have been routinely rounded up on extremism charges and sentenced to long prison terms. LGBTQ organizations have been outlawed and gay bars shut. Meanwhile, migrants from Central Asia have been coerced into fighting and others deported.

Russia’s opposition movement has crumbled as leaders have been jailed, killed, and chased out of the country, while their followers have either fled abroad for safety or halted their public criticism amid fear of arrest.

Putin has also ramped up patriotic indoctrination at all levels of society, especially in schools, where pupils are taught to “love the motherland” and encouraged to serve the country.

The potent mix of war, indoctrination, and repression have divided society, with Russians frequently snitching on neighbors who dare to criticize the war in personal settings, such as at a doctor’s office.

Meanwhile, as the war worsens Russia’s already dreadful demographic situation, the government is throttling back access to abortion and stepping up incentives for women to have more babies.

Following the Kremlin’s signaling on the issue, more than a dozen Russian regions have passed laws banning “coercion to abortion” in recent months.

East In, West Out

Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine has also broken decades-old trade ties to the West. U.S. and European firms — including manufacturers and retail chains – have pulled out of the country. Domestic and Asian companies have taken their place.

“If you walk around the streets, you notice that a lot of the familiar Western brand names and shops are not there. There are a lot of either Russian companies selling similar products or Asian products,” Weafer said. “And you definitely see a lot more Chinese cars on the roads.”

The European tourists that flocked to Moscow and St. Petersburg during the high summer months have been replaced by Arab and to a lesser extent Chinese visitors, he said, as Russian airlines, banned in Western countries, develop new and more routes in the Middle East and Asia.

The war has forced Russia to reorientate its economy toward Asia, China in particular, after the West curtailed or halted energy imports and cut the country off from its financial markets.

Even if diplomatic and business relations with the West are fully restored following a peace deal, trade and other ties with Russia are unlikely to revert back to their prior state, according to Weafer.

“Russians won’t necessarily go back to the old habits of buying Western goods or traveling mainly to the West, because they have gotten used to the new brands and destinations,” he said.

With reporting by Current Time