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Security pressures spreading beyond Ukraine's front lines
Summary
Reports around 2 November 2022 pointed to strains on Ukraine's neighbours and to questions about who was supplying Russia's war effort.
What did the war look like on 2 November 2022, beyond the battlefield itself? Reports from that day and the preceding days suggested a conflict whose security effects were reaching well past Ukraine's borders.
Supply lines and new suppliers
On 2 November 2022, the United States said that North Korea was secretly supplying artillery shells to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine. The claim added a further country to the picture of external support for Russia's war effort.
Neighbours on alert
The spillover was visible elsewhere. On 31 October 2022, Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, announced that the country's military alert level would be raised the following day. He cited sightings of military drones near offshore oil rigs over the previous few weeks.
The same day, a Russian cruise missile that was reportedly shot down by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft system crashed on the outskirts of Naslavcea, Moldova. The Moldovan government reported no casualties, though the blast damaged some houses.
Pressure on civilian infrastructure
Inside Ukraine, the pattern of strikes on energy and water systems continued. On 31 October 2022, Russian forces again damaged critical infrastructure in Kyiv, leaving parts of the capital without energy and water. Energy facilities in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Cherkasy were also damaged.
What the reports add up to
Taken together, the reports from these days describe three strands: continuing attacks on civilian infrastructure, debris and drones testing the security of neighbouring states, and a US accusation about arms reaching Russia from abroad. Norway's higher alert level and the damage in Moldova showed that governments outside Ukraine were responding to events linked to the war.
