The War Against Ukraine Is Speeding Up the Utility Collapse in russia

russia is experiencing a large-scale utility collapse caused by years of infrastructure decline and reorientation of state funds toward the war against Ukraine. Worn-out heating networks, lack of planned modernization, and chronical underfunding have led to the situation where accidents that used to be fixed within hours, now last for weeks, leaving people without heating in severe frosts.

One of many examples is the village of atamanovka in the transbaikal territory, where about 5,000 people, including hundreds of children, have been without heating for over a week. The first breaks in the heating mains occurred on December 30, but accidents continue one after another, the temperature in apartments has dropped to almost zero while the outdoor temperature is - 25°C, and people are forced to live in winter clothes. Schools and kindergartens are closed, while the warming centers from local authorities have turned out to be cold and virtually unusable.

Officials traditionally limit themselves to promises and showy meetings, but the problem is much deeper: the rf’s utility system has not been modernized for decades. rosstat has already acknowledged that a third of heating networks are in critical condition. At this, in different regions of the country – from siberia to the central regions – a series of mass accidents on heating mains were recorded at the beginning of the year, leaving entire districts without heating.

An additional blow to the industry was the sharp reduction in funding for housing and communal services. The kremlin has halved the budget for communal infrastructure within a few years. While trillions of rubles are being spent on the war, the money that remains for heating networks is enough to patch holes, rather than fully replace worn-out systems.