Residents of a Russian village under fire scarcely two miles from the Ukrainian border have called on Vladimir Putin to have their backs — but the Russian leader appears to be turning his on theirs. According to a new report in the Moscow Times, the people of the village of Tyotkino in the Kursk region have petitioned the Russian strongman to provide protection against cross-border shelling from Ukraine, thus far to no avail. 

The petition, posted on the Russian social media platform Vkontakte, reads in part, “Recently we have been living in permanent fear: Why was Tyotkino shelled for 45 minutes on 19 May with no return [fire from the Russian side]? Why did about 100 shells land on civilian houses and factories?” 

The Moscow Times, one of the last remaining free voices in Russia’s heavily censored domestic media market, noted that the number of attacks on Russian territory has risen since Moscow’s forces pulled back from northern Ukraine after an aborted attempt to seize Kyiv and successful Ukrainian counterattacks near the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks on Russian territory, the paper reported, nor has it formally denied being behind them.  

While Russian media tends to obfuscate or completely ignore any alleged Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, some of the news does slip through. Kommersant reported that the governor of Russia’s southern Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced via Telegram that a man in the Russian village of Zhuravlevka, on the border with Ukraine, received a deep shrapnel wound and was getting medical treatment, without specifying details about the “ongoing shelling.” Last month Russia alleged that Ukrainian helicopters launched an attack on a fuel depot in Belgorod, which is situated just north of Kharkiv.

Tyotkino is home to about 3,200 residents. The Moscow Times reported that a truck driver making a delivery to a distillery there was killed in shelling last week, the second civilian death inside Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. That incident was said to be the third attack on Tyotkino in 48 hours. 

The Russian petition also reads, “We are asking to increase the protection of our borders, to create some kind of a buffer zone on Ukrainian territory so shells wouldn’t be able to reach us and we can live, work, and sleep safely at night.” The reasons for Russians having to resort to such a petition to ask for protection could be twofold.

First, villages and towns on the other side of the border in Ukraine are still coming under fire from the Russian guns trained on them — and, with not inconsiderable gall, the authors of the petition even admit to “providing help and support to the Russian servicemen.” Yet Russian resources in terms of simple manpower are positioned for offense not defense, and are likely already overstretched. 

Second, Mr. Putin has rarely been accused of caring too much for the welfare of everyday citizens inside Russia’s borders, cronies and oligarchs excepted. Watching innocents perish in the cross-fire that he instigated is likely considered by the Kremlin to be a bearable cost of doing the business of trying to subdue an increasingly emboldened Ukraine. If anyone in Moscow is watching at all.