What did 7 January 2022 show in the region?

What was happening across Ukraine and its neighbourhood on 7 January 2022? The day's reports ranged from a security deployment in Central Asia to a violent street incident in Kyiv, and they are worth reading side by side.

Kazakhstan: Russian troops in control

The most consequential report concerned the 2022 Kazakh protests. The Russian Ministry of Defence said that Russian troops deployed to Kazakhstan had maintained control of Almaty International Airport and had secured critical government buildings in Nur-Sultan, including the Ak Orda Presidential Palace. The statement came from the Russian side, and it described a foreign military presence guarding key sites in Kazakhstan's cities.

Lithuania and Belarus: an emergency not extended

Two days earlier, on 5 January 2022, the Lithuanian government announced that it would not extend the state of emergency at its border with Belarus. The decision belonged to the wider border crisis between Belarus and the European Union, and to the strained relations between Minsk and Vilnius.

Kyiv and Khmelnytskyi: domestic news

In Ukraine, the news on 7 January 2022 was local. In Kyiv, on Peremohy Avenue, Andriy Kulykov, a journalist and co-founder of Hromadske Radio, was attacked. The incident was not linked to his professional work.

On 6 January 2022, in Khmelnytskyi, 16 children from the Vinnytsia region suffered chlorine inhalation poisoning at a water park. On 5 January 2022, Kateryna Lykhohliad received the Václav Havel journalism fellowship from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Reading the day

Taken together, the reports show a region where border and security questions were being handled at different speeds. Lithuania was scaling back emergency measures, while Russian forces were reported to be guarding sites in Kazakhstan. In Ukraine, the day's reports were about an assault on a prominent journalist, an accident involving children, and a journalism award.