What did 5 September 2022 reveal about Europe's energy strain?
A look back at a day when Gazprom tied Nord Stream 1 to sanctions, after Ukrainian gains in Kherson Oblast and a large Prague protest.
What did the news of 5 September 2022 say about the pressures bearing on Europe? Three reports from that day and the days just before it point in different directions, yet they sit close together.
On 5 September 2022, Russia's Gazprom announced that gas flows to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would not resume until sanctions against Russia were lifted. The statement tied the supply of gas directly to the sanctions policy.
Two days earlier, on 3 September 2022, an estimated 70,000 people marched in Prague, the Czech capital. They demanded that the government do more to control soaring energy prices and voiced opposition to the country's involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Political groups including the Communist Party organised the demonstration.
On the battlefield, there was a different kind of news. On 4 September 2022, Ukrainian forces recaptured the town of Vysokopillia in Kherson Oblast, which had been under Russian occupation since March. They raised the Ukrainian flag over the town's hospital. The recapture came as part of the Ukrainian southern counteroffensive.
Taken together, the reports show a war that was being fought on the ground in the south of Ukraine while its effects were also being argued over in the streets and energy markets of Europe. Gazprom's announcement on 5 September 2022 left the question of gas supplies linked to the sanctions that Kyiv's partners had imposed.
