Ukraine's war in the days before 12 December 2022

What did the war look like on 12 December 2022? It was a picture built from the days just before: shelling along the Donetsk front, strikes on power facilities in the south, and reports of abductions at Europe's largest nuclear plant.

Shelling in Donetsk Oblast

On 7 December 2022, Russian forces shelled Kurakhove in Donetsk Oblast, killing ten civilians and injuring five others. The next day, shelling along the front line in the Donetsk region killed one civilian and damaged buildings in Toretsk.

On 9 December 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of destroying the front-line city of Bakhmut after weeks of relentless shelling.

Zaporizhzhia and the power grid

Also on 9 December 2022, Ukraine's Energoatom said Russian soldiers had abducted two senior staff members from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. According to Energoatom, the two workers were beaten before being driven off in an unknown direction.

On 10 December 2022, Russian drone strikes on two power facilities left more than 1.5 million people without electricity in Odesa Oblast.

Dissent in Russia

Inside Russia, a Moscow court on 9 December 2022 sentenced the prominent opposition figure Ilya Yashin to eight and a half years in prison on charges related to his criticism of the war in Ukraine.

Taken together, these reports from 7 to 10 December 2022 show civilians killed by shelling in Donetsk Oblast, a front-line city under sustained bombardment, a nuclear plant where staff were reported seized, a large power outage in the Odesa region, and a criminal sentence for a Russian war critic.