Russia is relentlessly striking Bortnychi Aeration Station in Kyiv: why this poses a major threat

The Russians are relentlessly striking the only aeration station that treats wastewater from Kyiv and surrounding towns using ballistic missiles in an apparent attempt to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe.

Source: Viktor Taran, co-founder and head of the Eidos Centre for Political Studies and Analysis

Quote: "The Russians have once again struck the Bortnychi Aeration Station with ballistic missiles. This is yet another strike over the past year, demonstrating a systematic campaign against a single target. The Bortnychi Aeration Station is the only wastewater treatment facility serving Kyiv and the surrounding cities, towns and settlements in the oblast."

Details: The facility has a design capacity of approximately 1.8 million cubic metres per day, and its actual workload ranges from 600,000 to 900,000 cubic metres per day. There is no backup system.

Taran notes that the station would be difficult to destroy physically, but its power supply, switchgear, pumping stations and control systems are vulnerable. Those are the areas that have been hit the most over the past year.

Quote: "The station is not a reservoir; it is a continuous technological process that depends on pumping and aeration. If deprived of power for a few days, the biological treatment process simply dies together with the activated sludge, and after that, recovery takes weeks even if the facilities themselves are undamaged."

Details: Untreated wastewater could enter the Dnipro River, which provides drinking water for Cherkasy, Kremenchuk, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and other cities.

"In other words, a strike on Bortnychi is formally a strike on Kyiv, but in reality it is a strike on the water supply of half the country downstream," Taran explained.

He says there is a risk of hepatitis A, dysentery and other intestinal infections spreading, and warns that "this scenario could turn a utility failure into a humanitarian catastrophe across Ukraine".

Taran also says a direct hit on this site would have consequences that nobody can really calculate at present. It would be impossible to replace the station quickly, as infrastructure of this kind takes decades to design and build.

Quote: "After targeting the energy sector, gas production facilities and water utilities, the Russians have moved on to destroying the next level of basic services. They are not seeking any military impact – they want to drive people out of the city and create a humanitarian crisis deep in the rear.

We need physical protection for the switchgear and pumping units, autonomous power generation with a proper fuel reserve, and decentralised repair reserves for equipment."

Details: No country in the world is capable of shielding every critical facility from ballistic missiles, so the only option is to strike the launch sites, production facilities and logistics that support these missiles inside Russia.

"The station is indeed difficult to disable on the first or second attempt. Even on the third or fifth. But this can't go on indefinitely. And building our defence on the hope that the next strike will miss again is the worst possible plan," Taran concluded.

Background:

• A Russian attack on infrastructure near the Dnister Hydroelectric Power Plant in Chernivtsi Oblast caused industrial oil to leak into the Dnister River and pollution to spread downstream into Moldova.
• It was previously reported that the Russians have deliberately attacked 11 hydroelectric power plants and 45 of Ukraine's largest combined heat and power plants.

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