Gas cuts and border shelling: 2 August 2022

What was happening on Europe's fringes as 2 August 2022 began? Two separate stories, one about energy and one about a contested border, framed the days leading up to that date.

Gas supplies squeezed

On 27 July 2022, the Russian energy company Gazprom reduced the amount of natural gas flowing through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Europe to 20% of the pipeline's capacity.

The effects were visible within days. On 28 July 2022, authorities in Hanover, Germany, turned off heating and switched to cold showers in all public buildings. They also shut off public water fountains. The measures were taken amid an energy crisis after Gazprom reduced gas supplies to Germany through Nord Stream.

Shelling reported in Nagorno-Karabakh

On 1 August 2022, the authorities of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh reported shelling and heavy gunfire near two villages. Azerbaijan denied the reports, as did Russian forces in the region. The episode belonged to the 2021–2022 Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis.

Two pressure points

The two developments were unconnected in their details, but both unfolded on the edge of the war in Ukraine, in the wider region the Ledger covers. In Germany, reduced Russian gas flows pushed a city to curb heating, hot water and fountains in public buildings. In the South Caucasus, rival accounts of whether fighting had occurred underlined how contested the situation along the Armenia–Azerbaijan frontier remained on 2 August 2022.