Russia safety score cut as Ukrainian deep strikes widen across Russian cities

We lowered Russia's safety score from 6.2 to 5.7 on Country To Live. Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has picked up speed in June 2026, with large drone waves reaching Moscow suburbs, western border regions, and industrial cities thousands of kilometres from the front. That raises day-to-day risk for civilians in places many movers once treated as far from the war.

This is a data call for people comparing countries on our site, not travel permission or legal advice. Moscow and Saint Petersburg can still feel busy, but air-defence alerts, airport closures, and refinery fires are now part of the picture in major hubs.

Why we changed the score

• Ukrainian strikes are larger and more frequent. The Moscow Times reports that deep strikes on targets more than 100 km inside Russia have more than doubled over the past year, with dozens of regions now seeing drone or missile incidents.
• The capital is no longer a quiet rear area. In mid-June 2026, one of the war's biggest drone waves hit the Moscow region, including an oil refinery strike that sent smoke over suburbs and shut several airports for hours.
• Tit-for-tat escalation continues. The Conversation's June analysis describes a quickening cycle of mass drone and missile exchanges on both sides. Even when most weapons are intercepted, debris and the strikes that get through injure people and damage housing.
• Other scores are unchanged for now. Economy, cost of living, and infrastructure on the Russia country page still reflect longer-term factors. Only safety moved this round.

What the number means on our site

Safety on Country To Live measures how comfortable we think a typical international mover would feel about day-to-day security, unrest, and crisis risk. A 5.7/10 keeps Russia in a middling band, but below peers many people compare, such as Kazakhstan or Finland.

If you are building a shortlist, run Russia in our compare tool next to those neighbours and read the safety bars side by side. You can also browse all country scores to see where Russia sits after this cut.

Before you plan a move

1. Read your government's travel advisory and insurance rules. Warnings often mention terrorism risk, arbitrary detention, and now the spillover of cross-border air attacks.
2. Separate Moscow office life from border-region risk. Belgorod, Bryansk, and Krasnodar face a different threat level than Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok, but long-range drones have widened the map.
3. Check our Russia country page for the full score breakdown, then revisit after the next data refresh if the air campaign calms down.

We will publish another update if deep strikes ease for a sustained period or if new official guidance shifts the risk picture materially.

This note explains our editorial scoring only. It is not legal, immigration, or personal safety advice.