In the midst of the extremely hot summer of 2025, Donetsk Oblast has found itself on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe due to disruptions to the water supply.
Source: The Insider
Quote: “The water supply system in the region had been gradually deteriorating since the war launched by Russia in 2014 and suffered particularly badly after the full-scale invasion. Officials who ignored the problem for years found themselves utterly powerless in the face of drought.”
Details: The Insider noted that since 1958, the main source of water for Donetsk Oblast, covering 94% of its needs, has been the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal, a 133-kilometre waterway linking the Siverskyi Donets and Kalmius rivers.
A network of reservoirs was also created for emergencies. Another important water artery of the region was the South Donbas water pipeline, which carried water from the canal to the south of the region, including the city of Mariupol.
“Since 2014, the water infrastructure of Donbas, despite its critical importance to sustaining life in the region, has been regularly targeted during fighting. Pumping and filtration stations servicing the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal came under fire from pro-Russian separatists,” the article said.
By February 2022, the canal was still supplying water to the part of Donetsk Oblast held by the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic [a self-proclaimed Russia-backed quasi-state formation in Donetsk Oblast – ed.]. The Insider wrote that “preferential” tariffs were set at half the Ukrainian rate, with payments made through barter — in the form of energy and chlorine from captured Ukrainian power plants and chemical factories.
With the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the canal’s infrastructure ended up in the middle of a combat action zone.
“The water system, which supplied drinking water to 4 million people and supported industry, ceased to function. The system of canals and pipelines was damaged by months of shelling. Moreover, water cannot flow without electricity to power pumps and filters,” the article said.
“In 2023, during the battles for Avdiivka, the dam of the Karlivka Reservoir was destroyed, threatening nearby areas with flooding. In 2024, Russian forces blew up the Kurakhove Reservoir dam, which had been used to cool the local power station,” the outlet noted.
The Insider also recalled the destruction of the Oskil Reservoir dam in Kharkiv Oblast, which Russian forces blew up during their retreat in September 2022. That reservoir had previously maintained the water level in the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal.
All this led to the loss of freshwater reserves and the destruction of the region’s ecological balance. The occupation authorities pinned their hopes on a pipeline built at the end of 2022 from Russia’s Rostov Oblast. However, the new canal failed to resolve the problem: its throughput capacity was low and it suffered constant breakdowns.
“The water crisis began this summer, when the earlier problems of ruined infrastructure were compounded by extreme heat and drought. The surviving reservoirs in Donetsk Oblast, which served as reserves, simply dried up,” the article said.
“Donetsk still suffers from water shortages, against which the bleakest scenarios are being considered – such as the forced evacuation of the city’s ‘excess population’. Russian aggression, which began in Donbas in 2014, has triggered not only the dehydration but also the ‘depopulation’ of the region that Putin claimed he was saving from ‘genocide’,” the article concluded.
Background:
It was earlier reported that water levels in the Zuivka and Vilkhova reservoirs in occupied Donetsk Oblast had dropped to a critical low, threatening the operation of one of the key thermal power stations — the Zuivka thermal power plant.Reports also indicated that the shortage of water has worsened in the areas of Donetsk Oblast seized by the Russians.In Chystiakove, Horlivka district, water is supplied to the city centre once every three days for eight hours.The situation is even worse in the villages. For example, in Pelaheivka, Budupravlinnia, Chervona Zirka and Zelenyi Hai, water is turned on once every six days for between one and a half and three hours. In the mining settlements of 7-BIS and Obiednana, it is switched on once every nine days for just two hours.In the north of Donetsk Oblast, water supplies to four towns were suspended due to repair works on the pipeline.
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