Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the night between Friday and Saturday could be one of the toughest for Kyiv yet. According to monitor channels run by Ukrainian intelligence, Russian strategic aviation, Iskander systems, the coastal missile complexes Bastion and naval ships have been placed on standby. A combined strike is expected - drones and missiles. The target: the Ukrainian capital and its surroundings.

What makes tonight different from the previous nights is the scale. Last weekend (May 24), Russia released about 90 missiles and 600 drones in a single night. What Zelensky is now saying will happen - may be bigger. Ukrainian officials are calling for the emergency delivery of Western air defence systems, especially the ones that intercept ballistic missiles. The existing air defences, they admit, cannot cover every vector.

This is happening after three months of the Kremlin and Washington running a parallel chess game. Only a few weeks after the warning about Oreshnik - the new Russian missile that has caused small panic in NATO circles - Moscow is sending an even bigger signal: the escalation is not over. Zelensky notes: "Russia continues to lean on missiles and a prolonged war, not on diplomacy."

For European countries - including the Balkans - this is not just a distant Ukrainian problem. Every successful strike on Kyiv ratchets up the pressure of refugees who have not yet arrived, on an energy market that has been playing roulette for three winters now, and on a political atmosphere in which war fatigue is turning into danger. The question no one wants to ask: how far can the escalation go before one side makes the wrong move?

Tonight in Kyiv, no one will sleep. The question is whether next week there will be anything to comment on - or just to count.