What the war's risks looked like by 11 September 2023

What did the war look like on the eve of 11 September 2023? Reports from the preceding two days pointed to risks reaching well beyond the front line.

On 10 September 2023, two foreign aid workers were killed and two others injured by Russian shelling near Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast. The casualties were people engaged in assistance work, which shows that the danger from shelling extended to those supporting civilians as well as to combatants.

The same day, Russia said its air defence had shot down three Ukrainian drones over Crimea: one in the northwest of the peninsula and two in the west. The report, which came from the Russian side, indicated that the peninsula remained a target of Ukrainian drone attacks.

The gravest warning had come a day earlier. On 9 September 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of a nuclear threat at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after explosions were heard near the site. The explosions came amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

What the reports add up to

Taken together, the three reports describe a conflict in which shelling, drone warfare and the safety of nuclear infrastructure were all live concerns at once. The agency's warning stood out because it concerned a threat extending beyond the immediate battlefield. The deaths near Chasiv Yar, meanwhile, were a reminder of the human cost borne by those working in the combat zone.