The war in Ukraine is still being fought from the air and with drones, and Moscow claims it has dealt a new blow. The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that it destroyed two Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets at the Voznesensk airfield in the Mykolaiv region, allegedly just as they were preparing to take off.

According to the Russian version of events, one aircraft was out of its shelter and already armed, while the other was inside, refuelling from a tanker. The strike, they claim, was carried out with two „Geran" drones. Moscow stated that, besides the aircraft, the attack also destroyed a fuel tanker, a special airfield vehicle, and part of the flight and technical staff preparing the planes.

As always in this war, the numbers and descriptions come from one side and are hard to verify. It's worth remembering that every such announcement is also a weapon in itself - the image of a precise strike on an enemy who „didn't even get to take off" serves both the front and the home audience. When an army reports on its own successes, scepticism isn't cynicism, it's basic caution.

Separately, the Ukrainian air force reported the loss of one MiG-29 in the Poltava region during combat operations, with the pilot managing to eject. That too is part of the same brutal ledger of a war that has dragged on for years, where every lost aircraft is both millions in damage and a human story. In the Balkans we know all too well how these daily tallies sound - and how easily the numbers become a habit, while behind each one stands someone's life.