Some people are only just realising how close America is to Russia

Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, fulfilling the fears of many that the ongoing conflict would result in violence and death.

Dozens of people have died after Russia attacked Ukraine with airstrikes in a “full-scale invasion”. The airstrikes have hit cities and civilians on the scene have been captured on video pilled in cars and trains, desperately attempting to flee.

President Vladimir Putin ignored ongoing condemnation from world leaders in proceeding with the attack, making this Moscow’s most aggressive action since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Putin previously threatened any foreign country that attempts to interfere with “consequences you have never seen.”

The chilling implications of what this attack means for the rest of the world have sent people in panic globally.

For Americans on the social media app TikTok, they expressed their concern with how close Russia is to the US geographically, with some admitting they didn't realize the distance was minimal.

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"Who else didn't know we were this close," read the text overlay of one video with the TikTok user showing a map of the two nations.

"Yea my godfather said he could see Russia when stationed in Alaska," commented one user.

"Everyone knows about Alaska it was part of Russia at one time sold it to America, should of been Canada who should of got it," read another reply.

At its closest point, the distance between the United States and Russia is less than 4 kilometers. The island of Big Diomede is in Russian territory, and not far away from that is Little Diomede, which belongs to the US.

On Twitter, the discourse proved to be the same, with many citing the specific map layout they've been accustomed to seeing their whole lives.

"Absolute ignorance, I saw where people weren’t aware of how geographically close to Russia the US is because they’ve only seen map layouts lmaooo," wrote one person.

"Most people don’t know how close Russia is to the US because most map layouts but Russia is deadass a couple hundred miles from Alaska," wrote one user.

"Growing up with a world map that has Africa in the middle, I never realized how close the US and Russia were to each other," read one tweet.

"I’m going to sleep differently tonight — I had NO idea that Alaska was above Canada and that close to Russia 😭🤣 I knew it was above the US but not that high up! Wow," said one person.

"I don’t think people realize how close in distance Russia is to the US," warned another Twitter user.

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