A morning in Moscow that is still going on. A series of explosions in the Russian capital and its surroundings, during the night and early morning of 17 May, set off sirens and the chaotic flight of residents from ordinary residential areas. According to confirmed data - 3 dead, 16 wounded. The figures in situations like this always grow in the hours that follow.

A wave of Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow and the suburbs of Khimki, Mytishchi, Zelenograd and Krasnogorsk. The Russian air defence allegedly shot down 124 drones around the capital - a number that by itself describes the scale of the attack. Sheremetyevo airport temporarily suspended operations.

The casualties are a textbook example of how „a successful defence” doesn't mean zero damage. A woman was killed in Khimki when a drone hit a private house. Two men in Mytishchi were killed by debris from a downed drone that fell onto a construction site. That is the reality of air defence: even when the system works, something falls. And what falls comes down on people trying to live a normal life.

The mayor of Moscow stated at a telephone press conference: „Minor damage has been registered at the impact sites”. That is the standard low-key communication of the Russian authorities - it works in the city, it doesn't work in the suburbs. The noise of explosions in Mytishchi, footage of burning residential blocks and three dead bodies are not „minor damage”.

The war has reached a point where attacks on the major Russian cities are no longer news. They're routine. That is what astonishes the world - not the attack itself, but the normalisation of the attack. The Balkans, which lived through their own bombing campaigns in the 1990s, understand this better than most. At first it feels catastrophic. Then it becomes daily. At some point it feels normal. That is the war's biggest victory - when horror becomes routine.