A key Ukrainian city loses its water supply and gas for cooking and heating during Russian onslaught

Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say the key eastern Ukraine city of Pokrovsk is without a drinking water supply or natural gas for cooking and heating as the Russian army’s attritional slog across the Donetsk region lays waste to public infrastructure and forces civilians to flee their homes. The Donetsk regional governor said Thursday that a water filtration station in Pokrovsk was damaged in recent fighting and more than 300 hastily drilled water wells are the city’s last source of drinking water. The previous day, Russians destroyed a nearby natural gas distribution station. He says some 18,000 people remain in the city, including 522 children. He says more than 20,000 people have left in the past six weeks as Russian forces creep closer to residential areas.