Residents of the village of Balki in the Vasilyevsky district of Zaporizhzhia Oblast recorded a video message with signs reading “Nothing and no one will be left here without water and electricity!!!” and “We have been without water and electricity for more than two months now.”
The video was recorded on Monday, August 3, the villagers told ASTRA. After that, law enforcement officers began showing up at the participants’ homes.
“The police are now visiting everyone who was in the video and demanding an explanation. Apparently, the video reached higher authorities,” one resident told ASTRA.
In addition, at least one participant in the video appeal was issued an administrative report for participating in an unauthorized rally.
“People went out to reach out to higher authorities because the local authorities are not responding. And now the police and the administration are coming to these people and threatening them. What are we supposed to do, how are we supposed to live?” “There are a lot of pensioners, disabled people, and small children here,” another resident complained in a conversation with ASTRA.
Apparently, so far only law enforcement agencies have responded to the video appeal. “So far, the result is zero — it’s the same as it was,” a villager told ASTRA.
People have been without water and electricity in the Balki since May 21. They have to buy water at their own expense and live with generators. The authorities haven’t organized any water delivery. At the same time, there is no water not only in the Balki — practically the entire Kamiansko‑Dnirovskyi district, including the villages of Novodneprovka, Blagoveshchenka, Podovoe, Novovodyanoe, Ivanovka, Gurtovoe, Tsvetkov, Dneprovka and Vodyanoe, is left without electricity.
On August 6, Balitsky, appointed by the Russian authorities as the head of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, stated that the issue of restoring the power supply networks is “under special control.” According to him, a key power facility has been damaged. He also wrote that he had instructed the “heads” of the municipal entities to “step up” the work on delivering water.
