On the temporarily occupied territories in southern Ukraine, monitoring data indicates that problems with providing residents basic utility services are worsening. As reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing a Telegram post by Petr Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, power and water supply disruptions in Berdiansk and Mariupol have ceased to be episodic and are now creating sustained sanitary and social risks for the population.
Communal collapse and sanitary risks in Berdiansk
In Berdiansk, according to the same data, frequent power outages and water supply disruptions have prompted official warnings about the risk of acute intestinal infections spreading. The local Rospotrebnadzor office reportedly urged residents to observe preventive measures. The combination of unstable power supply and water problems effectively places the city in a zone of elevated sanitary risk, where even basic hygiene conditions become inaccessible to part of the population.
Communications and access to healthcare in Mariupol
In Mariupol, unstable power supply reportedly continues to directly affect the operation of communications. Healthcare facilities note that residents cannot always reach medical institutions by phone, which is why patients are advised to visit registration desks in person. For people with chronic diseases and elderly residents, this significantly complicates access to medical care and increases the burden on in-person appointments.
The shadow market for drinking water and price controls
Problems with stable water supply in Mariupol, as noted, have led to the formation of a separate market for drinking water. The occupation administration, according to the source, is monitoring prices: bottled water in 5–6 liter containers costs between 80 and 260 rubles, while bulk water is sold for up to 4 rubles per liter. The constant monitoring of drinking water prices, in the assessment of the monitoring authors, indicates that systemic problems with supplying city residents water from centralized networks persist.
The education system as a tool of propaganda
In parallel with the utility problems, as the authors of the publication remind, Russia is intensifying the use of the education system on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to spread its own propaganda: schools are introducing mandatory subjects whose content is aimed at imposing a distorted version of historical events. Thus, the infrastructure crisis is combined with deliberate ideological pressure on the local population, including children and adolescents.
It is worth separately noting the limits of verification: the figures and assessments provided are based on Petr Andriushchenko's Telegram post, relayed by RBC-Ukraine, and independent on-the-ground verification under occupation conditions is significantly hampered. Nevertheless, the combination of indicators — sanitary warnings, communications failures, the formation of a drinking water market, and price controls — points to a sustained, rather than one-off, nature of the communal crisis in both cities.
