Russian-backed head of Donetsk says Moscow must capture canal from Ukraine to solve water crisis

The head of the Russian-held Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said a water crisis that is forcing people to queue at supply trucks can only be fixed if Russia takes full control of the region, including a vital canal.

Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed as its own in 2022 as part of what it cast as a defensive “special military operation”, an assertion Kyiv and most Western countries reject as an illegal land grab.

Moscow controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and Russian forces are meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance as they push to take the rest of it.

Severe water shortages in the part it does control, which local residents said make carrying out simple daily tasks difficult, have become a headache for Moscow, which wants to show its presence is improving people's lives.

A group of residents sent an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin last month asking him to intervene in what they called “a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe”, and Ukrainian commentators have pointed to the problem to criticise Russian governance.

Speaking to Reuters in the city of Donetsk, where he said tap water was only available for several hours every three days, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of the region, described the shortages as “sensitive”.

Pushilin, who appeared on Russian state TV this month in a Kremlin meeting with Putin quizzing him about the shortages, said water tankers and repair crews from Moscow had been drafted and a water pipe built to bring in water from the River Don.

"But the situation is difficult as it has no quick solutions,” he said.

The only way to fix the issue would be for Russia to take control of the rest of Donetsk, including a Soviet-era canal crucial for water supplies, he suggested.

“The most and only important solution probably, and that's what the fighters are doing, is to liberate Sloviansk and nearby territories to be able to start restoring the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas Canal, which will fully supply the region with the necessary water,” said Pushilin.

Built in the 1950s, the 135km-long canal, which connects two rivers, starts about 19km northeast of Sloviansk, which is held by Ukrainian forces, and flows south, finishing around 18km northeast of Donetsk city in an area controlled by Russian forces.

Pushilin said the water problem had become particularly acute this summer, forcing the authorities to introduce stricter rationing due to what he said was abnormal weather.

“As a result our reserve reservoirs are almost empty,” he said.

Pushilin accused Ukraine of imposing “a water blockade”, but Ukrainian officials said parts of the canal have been damaged in the war and other parts are located in frontline areas.

In Donetsk, Reuters saw residents queuing at a water truck to fill 5l  plastic bottles and petrol canisters with water before carting them away in trolleys or in their car boots.

“I am 78,” said one pensioner who gave her name as Lyubov and was visibly upset.

“How am I supposed to come here, collect water and bring it back home? I need to go to the toilet and wash.”

Another woman, Irina, said no water had come through her taps at home for the past 12 days.

“Some people buy (bottled) water; some search for it in other places. Some people get water brought to them by people from a well and by car,” she said.

At a reservoir outside Donetsk seen by Reuters, shallow rivulets of water pooled in the centre while other parts of it had turned to cracked chunks of mud.

Reuters