Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 5 – Because Moscow has failed for 25 years to do much to modernize the water supply networks of Russia, Ukrainian drone attacks on those networks can lead to a “cascading” disaster much as such attacks on oil and gas already have, according to Tatyana Rybakova of the NeMoskva portal.
It is a good question, she says, just how many parts of that system will have to be attacked to “start cascading decay.” And she asks further “does the Ukrainian military know this?” and does Moscow and its minions? But increasingly the Russian people can and do (nemoskva.net/2026/08/05/ne-pavodok-vinovat-pochemu-v-rossijskih-gorodah-propadayut-voda-i-svet/).
Communal services are breaking down in Russian cities not so much because of natural disasters like flooding, Rybakova continues, but because of the inaction of officials in Moscow and in the regions. Experts have been warning that the government needs to act, but despite that, it hasn’t taken the necessary steps.
Between 40 and 80 percent of the country’s water network has aged to the point that it is ready to collapse when any strain is put on it, either by floods or by drones, she says; but officials are happy to continue to blame flooding rather than address the root cause and thus are leaving Russia open to a new line of attack.
Two things make this situation especially explosive, Rybakova continues. On the one hand, officials have been only to willing to allow charges for water to rise without using the money collected as intended; and on the other, they have not developed a country-wide grid so that problems in one place could quickly be helped to overcome them by others.
Russians are increasingly angry about both, she suggests; and if Ukrainian drone attacks exacerbate the situation further, that could lead to an explosion, with Russians connecting the dots and placing the blame where it really belongs: on Putin for his failure to invest in water infrastructure as well as for his launching of the expanded war against Ukraine.