Ukraine’s Donetsk Faces Water Crisis Under Russian Occupation

The teenage girl addressed her appeal directly to the Russian leader.

“Uncle Vova, can you please bring a simple miracle into our lives and deliver water to our homes?” the girl pleaded in a video, using a nickname for President Vladimir V. Putin.

For more than a month, Donetsk, a regional capital of Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, and its suburbs have been gripped by a severe water crisis, receiving running water just a couple of hours every three days.

The shortages demonstrate what Ukrainians have called Russia’s neglect of populations in territories it has seized. The Kremlin has focused on taking more land and using it as staging grounds for new attacks, while largely deferring reconstruction in areas devastated by fighting.

Those living in apartment blocks in Donetsk are chipping in to dig wells outside their buildings. Many others wait in long lines for municipal water tanks to arrive. Residents have been posting videos showing intricate arrangements for collecting rainwater or for using the toilet without running water.

“Neither me nor my neighbors or parents have seen water from the tap for a month now,” said Yaroslav, a 22-year-old man from a Donetsk suburb who like other residents interviewed asked that his last name be withheld to avoid repercussions from the Russian occupation authorities.

The problems began shortly after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and they have become acute in recent weeks. A crucial canal was destroyed in Russia’s offensive three years ago, and a spider’s web of pipes and dams now lies in ruins.