As Russian state media celebrates the humanitarian crisis caused by blackouts in Kyiv, prominent Russian military bloggers are drawing attention to a heating crisis in Alchevsk, a town in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region.
Independent Russian media outlet Astra compiled some of their comments in a Telegram post on Thursday.
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“Alchevsk isn’t mentioned at all in the [Russian] federal media. It hasn’t even been mentioned since October 2025 (the start of the heating season.) And it’s not just some village that’s freezing, but a city with a population of over 100,000,” wrote Sergey Kolyasnikov, as per Astra.
Also going by the name “Zergulio,” Kolyasnikov has over half a million subscribers on Telegram.
“All our patriotic blogs are writing that Kyiv is freezing right now. And yes, there are problems there, and they are the result of our attacks,” Yuriy Podolyaka, another prominent pro-Russian military blogger (with over three million subscribers) said.
“But for some reason, it seems to me that if these bloggers are truly patriots of RUSSIA (as they usually position themselves), then they should be more concerned with the problems of Alchevsk,” Podolyaka added.
“Everyone’s savoring Kyiv’s problems. And if the media isn’t reporting on them, then nothing needs to be done. Judging by what Alchevsk residents are writing to me, this is probably the local government’s logic,” he said.
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The mass blackouts plaguing civilian populations across Ukraine are primarily caused by Russian drone and missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure. According to Astra, the situation in Alchevsk appears to be down to industrial,hard water being pumped into the heating system without treatment.
“According to locals, as a result, pipes and boilers are clogged with deposits and aren’t working, while heating bills are being issued regularly,” Astra reported on Telegram.
“If what they’re writing is true, then the local authorities have committed a criminal offense – they’ve frozen the entire city,” Astra quotes pro-Russian propagandist Oleg Tsarypv as saying.
Russian occupation authorities in eastern Ukraine have a track record of failing to meet residents’ basic needs. In the summer of 2025, water shortages in Russian-occupied Donetsk created a humanitarian and environmental crisis.
Then, as now, Russian military bloggers accused occupational authorities – and, by extension, the Kremlin – of failing to respond.
Even in Alchevsk, this situation is not completely unfamiliar. In 2006, a technical issue with the heating system left the Alchevsk’s 100,000 inhabitants without heating in -20°C (-4°F) weather, as per BBC.
The difference between then and now is that the Ukrainian government declared a state of emergency, evacuated the city’s children, and allocated tens of millions of hryvnias from the national budget to repair the fault.
Two decades later, residents of the eastern Ukrainian city have once again been plunged into cold and darkness. This time, nobody seems to be coming.
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