What did 6 July 2022 show about Donetsk and Europe's security?
A look back at a day of shelling in Donetsk Oblast and a conscription plan in Latvia, following a Fields Medal for a Ukrainian mathematician.
What did 6 July 2022 reveal about the war's reach? Two things stood out: the toll of Russian shelling in Donetsk Oblast, and a reaction far from the front line, in Latvia.
According to a report by Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, heavy Russian shelling in Donetsk Oblast killed at least twelve civilians and injured 25 others on 6 July 2022. The report came a day after the governor of the oblast urged civilians to evacuate as Russia advanced. Around 350,000 civilians had already left by then. On 5 July 2022, Ukraine said two civilians had been killed in a Russian missile attack on Sloviansk, also in Donetsk Oblast.
On the same day, Latvia announced plans to reintroduce conscription, which it had abolished in 2006, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The final decision rested with the country's parliament, the Saeima.
The period also brought news of a different kind. On 5 July 2022, the International Mathematical Union awarded the Fields Medal to four mathematicians at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki: Hugo Duminil-Copin of France, June Huh of the United States, James Maynard of the United Kingdom, and Maryna Viazovska of Ukraine.
