(DONETSK) – The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has recently described the Donbas region as an area undergoing rapid reconstruction. He claimed that new infrastructure is being built, the regional economy is recovering and daily life is returning to normal.
However, for the civilians residing in occupied Donetsk, daily survival presents a stark contrast to these optimistic official reports. Despite the grand promises of urban restoration and economic development broadcast on Russian state television, access to basic necessities remains a severe challenge. Clean water, an essential resource without which basic human health and local economies cannot sustain themselves, has become exceedingly scarce under the current Russian administration.
According to Benjamin Lee, the host of the television programme Break the Fake, life in occupied Donetsk increasingly resembles a daily survival test. Promised water deliveries frequently fail to arrive, leaving community collection barrels either completely empty or entirely frozen.
Local residents ironically remark that the only consistent aspect of their city water supply system is its total absence. The dire situation has given rise to a concept locally described as Donetsk style evolution. Survival now dictates that residents must have corrupt connections to local administrative departments, a mechanical water pump, or an electricity generator. Those without such resources or connections are left to struggle and gain miserable life experience independently.
The local administrative incompetence means no systematic approach is being taken to solve the ongoing water crisis. Consequently, many households have been without running water since the first of January. While official Kremlin reports boast about rapid infrastructure restoration, civilians are forced to adopt survival skills from the nineteenth century, such as stockpiling rainwater and carefully planning when to boil it for safe consumption.
The gap between the official Russian imperialist narrative and the daily reality of the citizens is vast, with the two worlds existing in parallel and rarely intersecting. The true evolution of the Donbas today is not the development of grand infrastructure but the extreme survival skills of its desperate people.
Meanwhile, Russian state media continues to broadcast unverified propaganda videos designed to instil fear and justify the ongoing war. A recent broadcast featured a resident of the Belgorod region claiming that Ukrainian drones were terrorising the peaceful civilian population. The report alleged that a drone swooped down to attack an elderly woman and her goat.
However, there is zero verified evidence, photographs, or video footage to substantiate this claim of Ukrainian drone aggression against civilians. The woman featured in the broadcast did not witness the alleged event herself but was instead simply repeating rumours passed down through neighbours and friends.
Such unverified dramatic stories, delivered in an alarmed tone of voice, are regularly circulated by Russian media to manufacture panic, discredit the Ukrainian armed forces, and distract the public from documented war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. When actual evidence is entirely missing, the propaganda machine relies on so called eyewitnesses whose claims remain unchecked by any independent sources.
Furthermore, the chief Kremlin propagandist has escalated the rhetoric by claiming that recent United States military strikes on Iran serve as a preparatory stage for a major war against Russia and China. This reflects a recurring theme on Kremlin talk shows, where any global event, ranging from an economic crisis to severe weather patterns, is ultimately framed as a plot directed against Moscow. In this conspiratorial worldview, the United States wakes up in the morning and acts exclusively to harm Russia rather than pursuing its own foreign policy interests or supporting its allies.
This continuous stream of propaganda operates much like a never ending soap opera, introducing a new global conspiracy every single week to explain away the severe internal economic difficulties and international isolation facing the Russian state. Economic struggles are blamed on external enemies, while international isolation is framed as a global fear of a strong Russia. The Kremlin offers its audience a simplified psychological model that portrays the entire world as highly dangerous and filled with enemies, thereby attempting to justify further military mobilisation, public fear, and televised shouting.
