“The lights went out, the internet vanished, and the water was soon gone too”: Residents of Russia’s Belgorod are feeling the effects of war
While Kremlin propagandists celebrate the extensive damage Russia’s military has inflicted on the Ukrainian energy grid, Russian border regions hit by retaliatory shelling are experiencing outages of their own. Since late 2025, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been carrying out missile strikes on energy facilities both in the city of Belgorod and in the surrounding region. In the depths of winter, residents were left without electricity, heating, or water, and on Feb. 8, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov even announced a “partial” evacuation of residents from the region. To prevent accidents caused by the frost, utility services began draining water from heating systems. This measure affected 455 apartment buildings, and in dozens of blocks pipes had already been damaged or burst. By mid-February, a significant share of homes had been reconnected to utility networks, but residents understand that this solution is temporary. Many continue to leave the city.
