From: Transform Ukraine By Douglas Landro / July 25, 2025
As Russia’s occupied territories face humanitarian collapse and Ukraine grapples with internal political turmoil, the war’s multiple fronts reveal a nation fighting battles on every conceivable front
Summary of the Day – July 24, 2025
The fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion unveiled stark contradictions that define Ukraine’s existential struggle. While Russian forces advanced methodically across eastern battlefields and Moscow expanded its military conscription capabilities for prolonged warfare, Ukraine confronted an unexpected internal crisis as thousands took to the streets in wartime’s first major protests against anti-corruption rollbacks. Meanwhile, the humanitarian catastrophe in Russian-occupied territories reached new depths as water systems collapsed entirely, forcing civilians into degrading survival conditions. Against this backdrop, international support materialized through new U.S. arms packages worth $652 million, even as diplomatic efforts in Istanbul yielded only Russia’s familiar pattern of obstruction and delay.
Dying of Thirst: Russia’s Engineered Humanitarian Catastrophe
The most vivid testimony to Russian occupation’s brutality emerged not from battlefield reports, but from toilets in Donetsk. Ukrainian sources documented residents placing plastic bags in toilets and discarding them after use because water shortages have made flushing impossible—a degrading reality that former Ukrainian politician Oleg Tsyarov confirmed in occupied Crimea.
The Khanzhenkivske Reservoir on the Krynka River, the primary water source for occupied Donetsk Oblast, sits completely empty and dry. The Don-Donbas Canal aqueduct, supplying a third of the region’s water, has reached critically low levels. Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that occupied Donetsk Oblast receives only 30 percent of its required water supply and teeters on the brink of total water system collapse.
Russian occupation officials, led by Donetsk People’s Republic Head Denis Pushilin, postured as crisis managers while systematically blaming Ukraine for the disaster. Pushilin claimed his administration would empty the Krynka River to fill reservoirs and install 166 additional water barrels in Donetsk City. Zaporizhia Oblast occupation head Yevgeny Balitsky promised pipeline repairs and increased water delivery volumes.
Voice of Ukraine 