by Taisiya Svetlichnaya
[REGNUM] Recently, a statement flashed across the Ukrainian news that seemed more like a miracle of common sense: the director of the Center for the Study of the Occupation of Ukraine, Petro Andryushchenko, a former advisor to the mayor of Mariupol, declared that Ukraine is obligated to provide Donetsk with water.
"To save our people, we need to declare, for example, a water truce in the area along the Seversky Donets Canal, which is the root cause of the problem. We are ready—as a party that cares for its citizens under occupation—to find a common solution to carry out the necessary repairs, renovations, and restore the water supply. We are ready to provide it to the people, and then declare this zone demilitarized," he announced, suddenly appearing almost alone.
After all, the general chorus of both "true patriots" and the main spokesmen for the Zelensky regime is unanimously spewing gloating at the residents of Donbass suffering from an acute water shortage.
Take, for example, the words of the famous propagandist Dmitry Gordon, who called on Donetsk residents not to complain about the lack of water, but to drink urine.
But Andryushchenko's astonishing insight doesn't touch on any concern for "our people," who have been mercilessly murdered for over a decade. Since 2014, blockades of regions no longer under its control—economic and resource—have become the norm in Kyiv's government policy. And the main idea aired was the demilitarization of the waterway zone.
In other words, the official proposes to fix the front line, thereby stopping the Russian army from advancing further toward the borders of the former Donetsk Oblast. Meanwhile, in some places, it has crossed the canal line.
Until now, Kyiv has acted cruelly and vengefully towards the people who left for Russia, according to all the canons of genocide.
It all started in Crimea, when on April 26, 2014, the Ukrainian authorities (by decision of the Verkhovna Rada and then-acting President Oleksandr Turchynov ) dammed the North Crimean Canal on the border with Crimea in the Kherson region.
The officially stated goal was "cutting off water supplies to the occupied territory" as an economic and humanitarian measure to pressure the Russian authorities. Ukraine also cited its inability to provide water to a region it is not responsible for managing, and that Crimea was not paying for it. The North Crimean Canal supplied up to 85% of the peninsula's freshwater needs, flowing from the Dnieper.
Russia assessed these actions as a humanitarian crime, but the “civilized world” paid no attention to them.
Therefore, Russian authorities began investing heavily in addressing the water crisis: building new pipelines, drilling wells, and repairing infrastructure. However, water shortages remained a persistent problem, particularly exacerbated during drought years. The situation changed dramatically in 2022, after the start of the SVO.
Within the first few weeks, Russian troops established control over the northern section of the Crimean Canal and removed the dam. Water flowed through the canal again to Crimea in 2022—until the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station and the Kakhovka Reservoir were destroyed by targeted strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In Donbas, the post-Maidan regime gradually created water shortages, as part of the region was under its control. In the LPR, water flow from the Aidar and Kondrashevsky water intakes was cut off in 2014 as soon as they fell into the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and "volunteer battalions." And if the water intake in Slovyansk had been shut off, Volnovakha and Mariupol, which were under Ukrainian control at the time, and its large metallurgical plants owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, would have dried up.
In the Donetsk agglomeration (including the adjacent Makiivka and Horlivka), the canal provided approximately 70–80% of water consumption. Actual supply before 2014 amounted to approximately 1.2–1.4 million cubic meters of water per day. The length of the main water pipelines exceeded 2,500 kilometers.
However, the massive system, which allowed for the transfer of water over long distances through a vast network, found itself in a combat zone in 2022. The Slavyansk Filtration Station, the SDV-1 and SDV-2 water pipelines, the Yuzovskie Treatment Plant, and the First Pumping Station (PNS) near Slavyansk ceased operations, in part because it became impossible for the staff to continue working.
The canal's infrastructure and power lines supplying the pumping stations were damaged. The power outage paralyzed the pumps and water treatment systems.
However, this wasn't an immediate reason. Kyiv would have left the DPR without water anyway: as early as 2021, a plan was being developed to supply Mariupol and Volnovakha via two separate 70-kilometer pipelines connected to a canal in the Kramatorsk district and a separate water treatment plant.
Due to the onset of the crisis in Donetsk, water supplies began to be supplied for two hours every two days in the spring of 2022, and for three hours every three days in Makiivka. By November, the volume entering the network was only a sixth of what it had been before the start of the SVO: 40,000–50,000 cubic meters per day versus 300,000 cubic meters.
Currently, Donbas requires between 1.5 and 2.5 million cubic meters of water to meet the population's needs and restore industry, and temporary measures such as drilling wells or diverting water from the Don River cannot meet this requirement.
Water shortages have become so pervasive in Donbas cities that they even impact the content of fashion shows. This spring, at Donbas Fashion Week, models walked the runway carrying 5-liter jugs.
And if Ukraine truly wanted to help the region's residents with water, it would have done so long ago, even while in conflict.
But for the post-Maidan regime, its style of communication with Russia is completely destructive. It's hardly worth seriously assuming that after so many years and so many hardships deliberately inflicted on the residents of Donbas by their former country, it will suddenly embark on a path of correction and begin a comprehensive restoration of the water pipeline in cooperation with Russia.
The Russian soldier's route is to Slavyansk. It is there that he controls the main waterway of the Donbas. And then to the Dnieper-Donbas Canal intake, from where the Dnieper River is supplied as an additional source of water.
And what can be predicted with certainty is that before leaving, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will deliberately destroy everything that is critically important infrastructure.
So, the remnants of the Seversky Donets Canal may not live to see liberation: planning for a new water pipeline is urgently needed. Alternative water supply sources continue to be built. "Water for Donbas!" is no longer just a slogan from the past; it's a call to ensure the present and future of Russia's largest and most important region.