What did 13 July 2022 show about the war's wider pressures?
A retrospective on a day of shelling in Bakhmut, a Kaliningrad transit decision and warnings about Iranian drones.
What did the war look like on 13 July 2022, once the military and diplomatic reports of the preceding days are set side by side? Three strands stand out: continued fighting in the east, a sanctions dispute in Europe, and a warning about Russia's search for new weapons.
Shelling in the Donbas
On 13 July 2022, heavy Russian shelling was reported in Bakhmut, in Donetsk Oblast. At least one person was killed and five others were injured in a town that had been largely evacuated. The reports placed the strike within the Battle of Donbas.
A strike behind the lines
On 12 July 2022, a massive explosion hit the city of Nova Kakhovka after Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian arms depot. The attack had been launched on 11 July 2022, according to later accounts, and Russia said Ukraine used HIMARS missiles, which it had recently acquired from the United States. Russian state news agency TASS claimed that a market, a hospital and civilian housing were also damaged and that several civilians died. Russian 22nd Army Corps general Artem Nasbulin was allegedly among the dead.
Kaliningrad and Lithuania
On 13 July 2022, the European Commission allowed Russia to resume shipping embargoed goods by rail to its exclave of Kaliningrad. The decision followed Russian threats against Lithuania. The transit of military equipment through Lithuanian territory stayed prohibited.
Drones from Iran
On 12 July 2022, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Iran would provide Russia with hundreds of drones, along with training for their use.
Taken together, the day's reports showed a war fought on several levels at once: civilians and soldiers under fire in the Donbas, strikes on Russian-held rear areas, and political decisions in Brussels and Washington about transit, sanctions and arms supplies.
