They are happy about blackouts in Kyiv, while they don’t have heating themselves. Donetsk journal

Winter is coming and the night temperature is approaching zero degrees Celsius, however, most of the Donetsk houses are still left without central heating. Radiators started to warm up in some apartments, but after a couple of days, it turned out that the pipes were full of holes and the water was leaking into the ground or basements. The traditional emergency area search via digging began, but even after two weeks of repairs, almost no houses were re-connected to the central heating system.

In order to share the burden of responsibility for the failure of the heating season, the housing and communal services sector "officials" began to accuse the "republic’s" population of carelessness and recklessness, since people allegedly drained water from the heating system. But it is difficult to deceive the people in this matter, which is evidenced by eloquent correspondence of the houses’ residents with the "authorities" on the entrance doors.

The "head" of the "republic", who, after the "incorporation" of the "DNR" into the russian federation, suddenly became the "interim" one, tries to show how worried he is for the fate of the freezing Donetsk residents. Inspired by the example of Ukrainian President Zelensky, he began to post his daily video messages to citizens on social networks, apparently hoping that it would warm them up.

Starting from late October, the main focus of these videos has been on central heating. More precisely, on its absence. Pushilin calls for patience and reminds that Donetsk has been experiencing difficulties with water supply since spring. Therefore, the issue with heating will be resolved only after the elimination of this problem. And for now, they "are doing everything in their power". But, as experience shows, these "authorities" are only capable of telling tales and fantasies, with which they tirelessly "inspire" the people of Donetsk.

Back in early September, Pushilin proudly announced the start of water conduit construction for Donetsk. All regional media hastily reported the grand scale of the project launch and that lots of important guests arrived at the event. They did not forget to brag about the fact that this conduit is being built from modern russian-made plastic pipes, which can serve for 500 years.

By the way, this is the second conduit. The first one, it seems, was launched on July 15. It is about 2 kilometers long and it supplies about 15 thousand cubic meters of water per day from the Vilkhivske reservoir.

It was assumed that with its launch, the Donetsk residents will feel an improvement in the situation with running water supply. However, the people not only did not feel any improvement, but quite the contrary. They were switched to a longer water supply schedule - once every three days, when back in June, water was supplied once every two days and every other day in some areas.

In the meantime, the "head" of the "republic", proudly told reporters: "The Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to arrange a water blockade, which, in terms of its impact on the civilian population, would have much more serious consequences than in Crimea. The new water conduit built with the help of Russia is one of the elements of countering "water terrorism".

"Chairman of the government" Vitaliy Khotsenko, who, together with Pushilin, launched the first water conduit, noted that this landmark event happened thanks to the joint work of a military construction company, which includes russian specialists, employees of the "DNR Ministry of Emergency Situations" and Zhdanivska coal mine. For greater importance, Khotsenko told reporters that in order to speed up the construction, they even had to change the laws and orders of the "authorities" of the "DNR".

The new conduit, as we were told, has a different purpose. It should provide the heat supply system of the "republic". "We have almost completed the design and estimate documentation for the construction of a new water conduit from the Vuhlehirsk reservoir. This will allow us to reach a new level of water supply. This is far from the previous supply mode, but this will allow us to supply the central heating system", - Pushilin said in the interview. But people, who did not feel any improvement after the commissioning of the first conduit, critically perceived the construction of the second one.

Doubts of the Donetsk residents regarding the new water conduit effectiveness were confirmed quite soon. They really have not managed to build it by the beginning of the heating season. But the "authorities" came up with another tale about drilling wells near boiler houses after they saw that the problem could not be solved by transporting water with special cars.

Although at first, they had high hopes for them. Pushilin repeatedly reported how many cars with water arrived from different regions of russia. He noted that the issue of starting heating season in apartment buildings is very complicated, but also that "the biggest resource" has already been directed to its solution.

"If earlier, 2,5 thousand cubic meters of water were supplied to the DNR boiler houses daily, nowadays they get up to 6 thousand cubic meters of water. Despite the difficulties, the situation is under control", - Pushilin said in his yet another video message. However, the Donetsk residents didn't feel any warmer after hearing these figures.

I think only few people were surprised to learn that the idea of drilling wells has also failed miserably. There are 333 boiler houses in Donetsk. Judging by the reports of the housing sector "officials", only 7 wells have been drilled and 5 more are being drilled as of now.

All because the storytellers of the "republic" did not take into account one important detail when drawing up their fantasy project. It turned out that in the Donbas, where there is a large number of underground mine workings, mass well drilling can lead to a technological disaster. That is, to the destruction of the multi-storey buildings’ foundations due to flooding. Considering this fact, it is obvious that not every boiler house can rely on a newly drilled well.

But it is not customary to think first and act afterwards in the "republic". The main thing here is to talk about the next breakthrough, show the appearance of vigorous activity and lull the citizens with their fantasies. And it doesn't matter that during the period of the existence of the fairy tale "republic", people have already understood that the "authorities" only pull the wool over their eyes year by year.

However, unfortunately, there are still enough of those who believe all the lies.

It is still not clear what will the situation with the central heating be. The perspective is not bright at all. Sooner than later, the temperature will drop below zero degrees Celsius, and if the system is defrosted, the pipes will burst, and Donetsk may become a second Alchevsk. And then neither drilling of wells, nor new conduits, or cars with russian water, will help to restore the heating system in the winter. I wonder what kind of fairy tale the main storyteller of the "republic" and his team will come up with in this case? Therefore, we are stocking up on patience, warm clothes and wait.

Liusia Molchanova, Donetsk, for OstroV