No jokes at the top of this one either. Monday morning, Ukrainian drones hit Nizhnekamsk, an oil-refining city in Russia's Tatarstan, some 750 miles east of the border: at least 13 people killed, a child among them, 75 wounded, and Ukraine's General Staff saying the target was the Taneco refinery. It's the deadliest Ukrainian strike inside Russia in more than two years. That's the event — identical for every newsroom on earth. Our job is the sentences, because this war remains the cleanest lab for headline grammar in the business, and Monday every outlet took the same exam with the sides reversed. * NBC News wrote the bluntest line of the morning: "Ukraine kills 13 in drone strikes on Russian city Nizhnekamsk, home to major oil refinery." Not a drone attack, not a strike — Ukraine, the nation, kills. Here's the detail worth your time: the article under that headline is AP's wire copy, and AP's own first sentence hedges the toll to "authorities in the Tatarstan region said." The rented story came with a hedge; the landlord's headline stripped it off. That's how much of a headline is a choice — same words below the fold, different verdict above it. * AP's own headline kept the machinery visible: "Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk kills 13, authorities say." Weapon as subject, toll attributed. Fair enough — the count comes from Russian officials and can't be independently checked. But run the consistency test, because we literally keep this file: on Friday, AP headlined "Russian attacks kill 4 in Kyiv and surrounding region as air defenses fall short" — and that toll, from Ukrainian officials, ran without an "officials say" in sight. Both numbers come from governments at war. Only one arrives wearing a disclaimer. * CNN went with "Ukrainian drone strike kills 13 inside Russia, authorities say, in deadliest attack in two years" — hedge retained, superlative promoted. And credit where due: CNN's body carries the sentence most of Monday's coverage skipped, noting Russia's daily aerial assaults on Ukraine "still vastly outnumber Kyiv's retaliatory attacks." One clause of proportion in a story built to be read without any. That sentence is doing quiet, honest work. * The BBC filed "At least 13 killed in Ukrainian drone strike deep into Russia." Victims as subject, shooter demoted to a prepositional phrase. Which would be unremarkable — except a week and a half ago, when the missiles flew the other way, the BBC wrote "Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least nine, Ukraine officials say." Strikes as subject, active kill, first word of the sentence. When Russia fires, the BBC leads with the actor; when Ukraine fires, it leads with the body count. Al Jazeera built Monday's headline the same passive way — "At least 13 killed in Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Nizhnekamsk" — and has the same mirror problem in its files. * And then RT: "Ukrainian drones kill 13 in Russia's Tatarstan." Subject, verb, toll — active voice, no hedge, grammatically the most decisive sentence RT has produced all summer. We know, because we keep RT's homework. When Russian missiles killed nine in Kyiv, RT's headline was "Several waves of missiles hit Kiev – reports (VIDEOS)" — missiles traveling alone, sourced to a shrug. When Russia killed 17 around Kyiv five days ago, RT opened with "Missile barrage hits Kiev (VIDEOS)" — weather, with footage. Monday, suddenly, drones have a nationality, a verb and victims. At RT, agency isn't a grammatical feature. It's a setting that toggles with the passport of the shooter. * To be clear about what we're not saying: Ukraine did this, a hostel took a hit, a child is dead, and every headline that says so plainly is accurate. Active voice is not the crime — it's the control condition. The one-question test we wrote after Kyiv still stands: does the headline say who fired? On Monday, remarkably, everyone could answer it. The real test is whether the same sentence structure survives when the missiles reverse direction. AP nearly passes. The BBC flunks quietly. RT flunked in writing, twice, and would like you to enjoy the videos.