While talk of an end to the war goes on in diplomatic corridors, in Dnipro they are pulling bodies from the rubble. In a massive combined Russian attack on the Ukrainian city, at least 11 people were killed, among them a child born in 2023, and over 35 were injured. Six are listed as missing.

The numbers behind the attack show its scale: 729 aerial attack weapons - 73 missiles and 656 drones of various kinds - launched from the air, sea and land. Ukrainian air defence claims it intercepted or neutralised 642 targets. But even those that got through were enough to bring down a four-storey residential building full of people.

The most chilling is the detail described by regional military administrator Oleksandr Hanya: rescuers pulled the body of an eight-year-old boy from the rubble after a second strike hit while the crews were still working on the aftermath of the first. That isn't a targeting error - it's a tactic that has a name, and the target is precisely those who come to rescue.

"Residential buildings were destroyed in Dnipro. Eleven people were killed, among them a child," said Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko. And here comes the question the Balkans understand well from their own past: when one side bombs cities full of civilians while at the same time talking about peace, which of the two statements should we believe - the missiles or the words?