Ukrainians could face months without water: Expert warns of new threat from Russian strikes

Ukrainian cities may experience long-term water outages in the event of further Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. Restoring damaged systems could take anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

This warning was issued on Ranok.LIVE by Oleh Popenko, Chairman of the Union of Public Utility Consumers.

He says similar scenarios have already occurred. Following strikes on energy facilities in Kyiv, parts of the city were temporarily left without water. The cause was not only the lack of electricity but also an insufficient number of backup systems for sewage pumping stations.

Popenko warned that in the event of severe damage to water infrastructure, restoration could take between one to two weeks or even several months. The duration will depend on the scale of the destruction and the ability to replace equipment quickly.

The expert identified frontline regions as the most vulnerable, specifically the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.

At the same time, Popenko stresses that the problem is not limited to Russian strikes. A significant portion of Ukrainian water utilities require major overhauls, leaving the water supply system fragile even without direct attacks.