Which pressures were closing in on Moscow by 12 August 2022?
A retrospective on a cluster of diplomatic, legal and military developments reported between 10 and 11 August 2022 as the war in Ukraine continued.
What did the war look like from beyond the front line on 12 August 2022? The reports from the preceding two days point to a widening set of political and legal responses to Russia's invasion, alongside continued danger to civilians and to a nuclear site.
Diplomatic distance
On 11 August 2022, Estonia and Latvia formally withdrew from the Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries group. The withdrawals came amid tensions with China over its human rights record and its support of Russia's war on Ukraine. The same day, the Latvian Parliament declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism over the invasion.
Taken together, these steps show two Baltic states using formal instruments, a declaration and a withdrawal from a grouping, to express their positions on the war and on those seen as backing Russia.
Warnings from Central Asia
On 10 August 2022, Uzbekistan's embassy in Russia warned its citizens not to join Russian forces invading Ukraine. It said that anyone who did so would face criminal liability for mercenaryism on returning to Uzbekistan. The warning was a legal one, aimed at individuals rather than a statement on the conflict itself.
Civilians and a nuclear plant
The human cost continued. On 10 August 2022, a Russian missile strike in Nikopol Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killed at least 13 civilians and injured 11 others.
On 11 August 2022, at least ten shells hit the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Russia and Ukraine each blamed the other for the attack, which damaged an office building and the plant's fire station.
What the days showed
The pattern across these reports is of pressure applied on several fronts at once: parliaments and governments adopting formal positions, an embassy spelling out legal consequences for its citizens, and continuing strikes that endangered lives and a major energy facility. Each was a separate decision by a different actor, and each was reported within a two-day span ending on 11 August 2022.
