This week, for the first time, Russian Defense Ministry reports began to mention balloons that Ukraine allegedly shoots at Russia, analyzes the BBC.
The last mention was on Thursday morning - according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, three small balloons were shot down over the Voronezh region.
A day earlier, Bryansk Oblast Governor Alexander Bogomaz said Russian air defense forces shot down three Ukrainian weather balloons over the region that were believed to have been used for strikes.
A year ago, Russia launched balloons against Ukraine, but the Ukrainian military tried not to shoot them down. According to Ukrainians, the Russian military launched balloons during missile attacks to distract Ukrainian air defenses and force them to use missiles against them.
So-called corner reflectors were attached to the balloons - metal pieces with a special shape that imitated aerial targets. "The enemy wants us to spend our forces and means, in particular the anti-aircraft missile force, on these reflectors, which are worth nothing," said Yuriy Ignat, who was then a spokesman for the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
At the same time, the Ukrainian military said it had learned to distinguish the balloons from the rockets - and in at least two cases the decoys were shot down.
At the moment, Ukraine does not comment on the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defense about the use of balloons, so it is difficult to confirm the fact of the launch and to establish the purpose for which they could have been launched.