On the night of May 23-24, Moscow launched the largest aerial offensive against Kyiv since the war began - over 50 missiles and 700 drones deployed against various targets across the Ukrainian capital. Among the targets: the "Kvadrat" shopping mall, the Lukyanivska metro station, the Lukyanivska market and the main building of Ukrposhta on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Explosions were registered at more than 40 locations across the city.

Russian sources claim "Kvadrat" wasn't a random target. According to their version, in this and similar facilities Ukraine had been hiding the production and assembly of drones - "unmanned aerial vehicles, storage of components, electronics, batteries, communications equipment." Civilian sites, they say, were being used as camouflage for military capacity. Naturally, not a single independently verified piece of evidence for that has yet been presented.

This is a classic wartime story - two sides claim two different versions, while on the ground there's destruction and casualties. At least one fatality has been confirmed so far; specific numbers for the mall are not known. What's certain: Oreshnik and similar hypersonic missiles, which Russia had announced long ago, are now being used in a real military operation, and Ukraine responds with growing requests for additional missile defense from the West.

Why does this matter for the Balkans? Because when Moscow shows it can hit the center of a European capital in a single night, every small country relying on external security guarantees has to ask itself whether those guarantees are worth exactly as much as people think. That doesn't mean Macedonia is a direct target. It means the danger of deep escalation in Europe is no longer theoretical. Energy prices, refugees, security pacts - all have a Balkan dimension. The war in Ukraine stopped being "distant" for us a long time ago.