Broken promises: Putin's annexed regions endure water crisis

Since 2014, Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure. These actions, which intensified following the onset of the full-scale war, aimed to weaken Ukraine’s ability to produce and distribute electricity and heat.

In eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin largely achieved its objective. Yet, this has shown that while destruction comes relatively easily, rebuilding is a struggle. This is evident in the occupied territories that were supposed to become a land flowing with milk and honey under Putin’s rule.

Except for Crimea, the Russians are not investing in the lands occupied in the last decade. Crimea was fortunate because it became a tool of Kremlin propaganda, so money flowed into the peninsula generously, mainly for tourism. Meanwhile, the destruction caused during the invasion by “little green men” was not significant.

In contrast, fierce battles took place over Donetsk, Luhansk, and the 40,000 residents of Sokalhirsk, during which water supply installations and energy relay stations were destroyed. To this day, in those cities, people have to buy drinking water in stores or wait for irregular deliveries by water trucks.

Water is also delivered by trucks in Lysychansk, where the Russians have not managed to repair the water supply system for two years. In Donetsk, the filtration station has not been rebuilt for 10 years. The situation worsened significantly due to fighting near the 83-mile Donetsk-Donbas canal, which supplied water to almost the entire Donbas. Along the canal, five backup reservoirs were created to ensure its uninterrupted operation in case of failure. Now they have become the only source of water in the occupied territory after the canal was destroyed.

Ironically, today only the pumping stations and water pipelines leading to Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Druzhkivka—which are under Ukrainian control—are operational. These facilities could potentially supply water to occupied territories, but they cannot, as the installations on the Russian side are not functioning.

Residents of occupied areas laugh through their tears, saying that the Russians have decided to adjust their standard of living to that of Russia. And that standard is not very high.

The Kremlin officially reported that out of 53 million households in Russia, nearly 13 million don’t have hot water. This affects about 47 million Russians. Furthermore, 20 million Russians have no access to running water at all; two-thirds have no sewage system, and about 12 million families have outdoor toilets. In contrast, 200,000 families do not have them at all.

Even in the largest cities, only 72% of residents have access to hot water, and over 5 million households do not have a bathtub or shower.

While ownership of bathtubs, showers, and washing machines has improved in the last three years, access to basic amenities has remained at a similar level for decades. Urban areas show some improvement, but access is declining in rural areas due to the growing degradation of municipal installations in small towns and villages.

The worst conditions are in the Caucasian, Central Asian, and Far Eastern regions, which are the poorest and most neglected by the central government.

Corruption is rampant in the occupied territories. A good example of this is Mariupol. The quality of newly constructed apartment blocks is terrible; they began cracking just a year after being built. It seems that funds meant for solid construction have disappeared somewhere between Moscow and Donbas.

Corruption is a known issue in nearly all former Soviet republics. While the Baltic states have managed to address it effectively, and Ukrainians fight it like Don Quixote against windmills, for Russians, “bribery” is an indispensable part of lifestyle—like tea with preserves. This is why the construction of the giant water supply system from the mouth of the Don River to the puppet Donetsk People’s Republic drags on endlessly.

The cost of the project and the specifics of the water supply route remain a mystery. Residents, local occupation authorities, and the authorities of the Rostov region know nothing about it. Governor Vasily Golubev promised in 2021 that access to water would come “sometime in 2023.” Yet, water has not appeared in the taps in 2023, nor a year later. And it is still not there.

Golubev himself is no longer in power. On November 4, 2024, he announced his resignation, and the next day the Federal Security Service knocked on his door. His deputies were also arrested, charged with “embezzlement of large sums of money and fraud.”

This is among the most notorious cases in recent months, but not the only one, as both “big fish” like Golubev and smaller ones take bribes. In December, in the Belaya Kalitva district in the Rostov region, a road police inspector was arrested for turning a blind eye to illegal transports heading to Donbas, handling transactions in dollars. He was caught when he demanded $5,000 from plainclothes officers. In May of the previous year, the mayor of Yenakiyeve, occupied since 2014, was arrested for accepting the equivalent of 120,000 dollars for leasing industrial buildings.

Residents of Donbas express on social media that even when bribe-takers are caught, they still lack water, and power outages are longer and more severe than in regularly shelled Kyiv. The congratulations that investigators received—for “ensuring the security of Donbass and Novorossiya”—from Vladimir Putin on January 14 probably did not uplift their spirits.

“I am convinced that you will continue to cultivate and develop the best traditions of investigator veterans and honorably perform your official duties,” added the dictator, wishing the employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation more success.

The issue is that those most often arrested are people who have fallen out of favor with the authorities. Investigators frequently turn a blind eye to the fraud of individuals closely associated with the Kremlin’s United Russia, who largely run things in Donbas.