The first explosions in Kyiv were heard during the night. For hours, the Ukrainian Air Force warned of jet-powered drones approaching the city from several directions - from Vyshhorod, Brovary and Kotsiubynske - and air defences opened fire. Russian sources have already dubbed the attack another "Geran night", after the name of the drones they send in waves. When a bombardment gets a name like a seasonal sale, it tells you how routine it has become.

The worst hit was the Solomianskyi district. According to city authorities, one drone fell on a non-residential building and another struck a 25-storey apartment block - at the level of the fourth floor, according to initial reports. At another site in the same district, a fire broke out in an open area next to a non-residential building after a drone came down. A non-residential building in the Podilskyi district was also hit. At least one person was injured, and emergency crews were sent to the affected sites immediately.

While the drone attack was under way, a missile alert was also declared in Kyiv, after a warning that ballistic weapons might be used. Residents of Boryspil, east of the capital, reported explosions and a fire. There is no official confirmation yet of what exactly was hit or how much damage was done. When the authorities stay quiet about a strike near the town that hosts the country's biggest airport, the question of what was actually burning stays open.

Almost at the same time, hundreds of kilometres away, strikes also hit Zaporizhzhia. Regional authorities confirmed several hits on buildings in the city, and a fire broke out at a medical centre after it was struck. Five people were evacuated from the damaged building. One man was lightly injured and given medical help, and according to initial information, there are no other injured. Whether the centre was a target or collateral damage, nobody is explaining for now. For the five people carried out of the building, the distinction is academic.

Explosions were also reported in Lutsk, in western Ukraine, far from the front line. Where exactly the strikes landed and whether there are casualties has not yet been announced.

The attack on 25 September came just two days after a major strike on Kyiv, when Russian drones hit several city buildings and Ukrainian authorities said two people were killed and dozens injured. A two-day pause, then again. The Balkans remember what it looks like when bombing stops being news and becomes a timetable. How many more named nights will pass before the world stops counting them?