Belgorod Faces Unprecedented Energy Crisis Amid Severe Winter and Ongoing Conflict

The Belgorod region in Russia was still facing significant challenges in restoring electricity, heating, and water supplies on Monday amid freezing temperatures, following a Ukrainian attack that resulted in the worst blackout since the full-scale conflict in Ukraine began nearly four years ago.

The power outages coincided with 1 million individuals in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, located about 250 kilometers away, experiencing similar widespread blackouts and heating failures due to Russian strikes.

Belgorod, which shares a border with northeastern Ukraine, has continually endured cross-border shelling and drone assaults since the war commenced. However, attacks on local energy infrastructures on Friday triggered the most extensive blackouts in the area to date, leaving over 500,000 residents without electricity and heating, according to local officials.

Approximately 200,000 people were deprived of water, and some districts also experienced disruptions to mobile communications.

By Monday, residents reported that utility services had not been completely restored in various parts of the region. “Everyone I know has been impacted by the outages affecting electricity, heating, and water,” one resident of Belgorod informed The Moscow Times. “There’s a palpable sense of panic. People are frightened because we’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

She mentioned that mobile internet access remained inconsistent in the city center, while certain neighborhoods continued to face water supply challenges.

The blackouts occurred during a period of frigid weather and heavy snowfall, with daytime temperatures around minus 11 degrees Celsius and nighttime lows reaching minus 18 degrees Celsius.

As authorities worked diligently to restore the necessary infrastructure, some residents took to social media to criticize regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov for failing to resolve the utility issues resulting from the bombardment.

“It has been four days since the shelling, and there’s still no water in our area…When will we finally have access to water?” local resident Natalia Simanova commented on VKontakte.

Irina Sokolova, another resident, voiced her frustrations on Gladkov’s VKontakte page concerning power outages disrupting heating systems in Shebekinsky, a district near the Ukrainian border that frequently faces shelling. “We’ve been without electricity since January 9. [The electricity provider] Rosseti is working on repairs—thank you for that—but we rely on electric boilers for heat. What should residents do if their heating systems freeze?” she asked.

Images and footage shared on social media on Friday displayed darkened apartment buildings and lengthy queues at gas stations. Regional Digital Development Minister Sergei Chetverikov stated that more than 60% of cellular base stations had gone offline during the blackout.

Gladkov admitted that the damage to the energy infrastructure was severe, describing the situation as “extremely challenging.” “No backup power system can fully compensate for the lost electricity supplies to industrial facilities and residential areas,” he stated on Saturday, adding that restoration efforts would be ongoing.

As of Monday, several shopping malls announced closures or adjusted operational hours, while over 60 industrial enterprises were instructed to limit electricity usage to eight hours a day, specifically between midnight and 8 a.m., as reported by regional news outlet Pepel.

Some residents also expressed their dissatisfaction with the government after the governor suggested that locals should purchase their own generators to produce electricity. “Many households could afford to buy them, but those who are hoping—excuse my words—that they will somehow escape this catastrophe are not purchasing generators,” Gladkov said regarding the current power outages.

His remarks angered Belgorod residents, who accused him of attempting to “shift responsibility” onto them rather than taking decisive action. «Your comments encouraging citizens to buy their own generators come off as very cynical. I personally don’t have that option,” Dina Sharapova commented on VK. “People did not find themselves in this crisis through any fault of their own, but due to enemy actions. Citizens should be able to count on state protection and assistance—are you suggesting that everything should be left to the individuals to manage on their own?”

Another resident, Anatoly Rogozyansky, remarked that “the entirety of the responsibility rests with the regional authorities.”

“The list of failures by the authorities could go on endlessly, yet you are trying to pass the blame onto the population,” he added. “From the inception of the conflict, we have observed your inadequate engagement with the communities—the ones who have been living alongside the front lines from day one,” Rogozyansky said.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a recent Russian strike left over 1 million residents in the Dnipropetrovsk region without water or heating as temperatures dropped below freezing. Another attack on the capital, Kyiv, on Friday resulted in at least four fatalities and left half of the city’s residential buildings without heat, while the Defense Ministry reported using its advanced Oreshnik missile near NATO borders in western Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of “attempting to weaponize cold weather as a means of terror.”

Back in Belgorod, residents expressed concerns over the possibility of renewed targeting of local energy facilities. “This is a deeply unsettling precedent for all city residents,” the Belgorod local remarked to The Moscow Times. “The mood in the region reflects the war’s exhaustion, which is felt more acutely by residents of Belgorod than by others in Russia,” she concluded.