Water shortages push Donetsk Oblast to brink of humanitarian disaster

Amid the scorching hot summer of 2025, Donetsk Oblast is 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 Russia started the war in 2014, and it suffered particularly badly after the full-scale invasion. Officials who had 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 has been the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal, a 133-km waterway linking the Siverskyi Donets and Kalmius rivers. It covers 94% of the oblast’s needs.

A network of reservoirs was also created for emergencies. Another important water artery was the South Donbas water pipeline, which carried water from the canal to the south of the region, including the city of Mariupol.

Quote: "Despite its critical importance to sustaining life in the region, the water infrastructure of Donbas has been regularly targeted during the fighting since 2014. The pumping and filtration stations that service the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal would come under fire from pro-Russian separatists."

More details: Up until 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. "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, The Insider said.

When Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, the canal’s infrastructure found itself in the middle of the combat zone.

Quote: "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 the pumps and filters.

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."

More details: 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. The reservoir had previously maintained the water level in the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal.

All this has led to the loss of freshwater reserves and destroyed the ecological balance of the region. The occupation authorities pinned their hopes on a pipeline from Russia’s Rostov Oblast,  which was built at the end of 2022. But this new channel failed to resolve the problem: its throughput capacity was low and it suffered constant disruptions.

Quote: "The water crisis started this summer, when the earlier problems of ruined infrastructure were compounded by extreme heat and drought. The surviving reservoirs in Donetsk Oblast, which had served as reserves, simply dried up."

The article concludes: "Donetsk still suffers from water shortages to the extent that the bleakest scenarios are being considered, such as the forced evacuation of the city’s ‘excess population’. The Russian aggression that began in Donbas in 2014 has triggered not only water scarcity, but also the ‘depopulation’ of the region that Putin claimed he was saving from ‘genocide’."

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 a key power station, the Zuivka thermal power plant.
• Reports also indicate that water shortages have worsened in the areas of Donetsk Oblast that have been 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, the water is turned on 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 every nine days for just two hours.
• The supply of water to four towns in the north of Donetsk Oblast was suspended due to repair works on the pipeline.

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