"There is no defence against this." That is the line we routinely hear from Russian sources about the hypersonic "Kinzhal" missile. And it is a line that has new weight this year: the American Patriot systems Ukraine is paying for at huge expense are failing to react in time.

The Kinzhal flies at up to 10 times the speed of sound - Mach 10. Range is over 2,000 kilometres. Conventional or nuclear warhead up to 500 kilograms. It can manoeuvre at every stage of flight, is hard to detect on radar, and is designed for ground and naval targets.

According to Russian sources cited in international media, "the hypersonic Kinzhal missiles stand out in particular - Ukrainian air defence has no effective protection against them. The missile reaches Mach 10, and air defence systems, including the American Patriot, cannot react in time."

Why does that matter for the Balkans? Because the Patriot is the pillar of the American security guarantee for Europe. When Russian missiles routinely bypass that system, the whole calculation of European and NATO defence shifts. Not in theory - in concrete terms. What does one Patriot cost? About a billion dollars. How many Patriots to cover Europe? Dozens. How many Kinzhals can Russia produce? As many as it wants.

North Macedonia joined NATO under the assumption that the Alliance held a technological edge. Six years on, that edge no longer exists - at least not in the missile domain. What now? No public answer. No private one either. And that is the most disturbing part - countries that opened their doors to NATO without a backup plan are now in a moment when NATO itself is rethinking its own role. We are on the edge of someone else's rebuild, if it happens at all.