In A War Of Taps, The Attacked Is Asked To Show Restraint, And The Aggressor Gets Funded
By: Giorgio Provinciali
Live from Ukraine ??
Mykolaiv Although its still snowing in many Ukrainian cities, in anticipation of rising temperatures,Russian terror is already shifting its targets, always aiming to inflict minimal physical damage while maximizing civilian, logistical, and psychological impact. Thus,Moscow intends to transform the Ukrainian summer into an extension of the winter energy war, shifting the center of gravity from electricity to water.
In recent hours, several Russian drones have targeted the citys water infrastructure from which I am writing. Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire shot them down, but an apartment building, a two-story house, and a car were still damaged.
Similarly, Russian air forces have been targeting water supply systems in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv oblasts for days.The Russians are targeting water catchment plants, the points from which entire Ukrainian cities draw water.
In many situations, alternatives are unavailable, and in some cases, even the backup system is located near the main plant. Therefore, it can be damaged during the same or subsequent attacks. The problem, however, is not only the immediate damage but also the time required: building a new fixed plant takes approximately 912 months; therefore, it cannot be completed by the summer. Mobile pumps can mitigate the crisis, but cannot fully replace the structural redundancy of an urban water network.
The decisionannouncedbythe Ukrainian General Staff to build a continuous defensive line from the Kyiv Reservoir to Sumymust therefore be read in this context, as well as in that of preventing the creation of a buffer zone and the withdrawal of its armed forces from the state border. In a modern warfare that, as Alla Perdei and I have alreadyexplained, must no longer be limited to conquest but to control and permanent pressure,water infrastructure and logistical corridors form a single architecture of vulnerability.
So too do gas pipelines, dams, reservoirs, and railway lines: they are all part of the same battlefield. So much so that new Russian attempts to infiltrate gas pipelines in Kupiansk have already been reported. As Ireportedon these pages on April 15, in that same region, Moscows air force has already dropped several glide bombs against the Pecheney reservoir.
The logic is crystal clear: if the Russians continue to use devastated, flooded, and guarded pipelines, it means the open field is even worse.
Drones, sensors, artillery, thermal imaging cameras, and other ISR tools have made the surface so lethal that even a half-destroyed pipeline appears, from their perspective, a less suicidal route than an open advance. This confirms the reading of war as a space of gradients that Alla Perdei and I have long offered from the field. Infiltration does not occur beyond what, until recently, we would have called the front, but within the infrastructure that runs through it. Underground, canals, pipelines, water networks, anti-drone corridors, urban, plant, and electronic coverage.
Its a brutal yet coherent logic: if Moscow can no longer achieve rapid breakthroughs, it will attempt to disperse its pressure geographically to weaken Ukraines ability to withstand simultaneous attacks on the most vulnerable areas, cities, and diplomatic efforts.
The goal is not to conquer large cities: the Russian regime lacks the strength to do so. For over five months, it has been depleting its manpower faster than it can recruit and has lost the strategic initiative by failing to keep pace with Kyivs technological advances in drone warfare.
The goal is to create conditions for an attempted assault on that Donbas fortress belt, which it has never overcome in 12 years, by engaging Ukrainian forces on multiple flanks and forcing Kyiv to reduce attacks on the Russian oil sector.
Within this framework,the signals coming from the West are disconcerting: President Zelensky explicitlystatedthatunnamed partners(read: Europeans, ed.)have asked Ukraine not to strike Russian terminals and refineries, while the US Vice Presidentcalledthe end of American aid to Ukraineone of the things the US administration is most proud of.
A morally untenable aberration: while Russia threatens Ukrainian water, Kyiv is being asked not to strike Russian oil.
Those demanding restraint against the aggressors economic sources are those who fuel them with record purchases of gas and LNG, and those who triggered the global energy emergency by unleashing the Third Gulf War.
The false symmetry is plain to see:a water collection plant serves civilian survival; a refinery, an oil terminal, or a pumping station also serves the aggressor states ability to finance, fuel, and sustain its unjustified war.
Ukraine responded with its drones, striking another key hub in the Russian oil supply chain in the Perm region: first, a Transneft pumping station over 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, then the AVT-4 unit of the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez refinery. Debunking the hypocrisy of Western de-risking, and reminding us that, in this war of the taps, it still holds the upper hand in controlling the flows that matter.
In 1.527 days of war,we recorded over 250 videos from ground zero and wrote more than 1,500 articles.
We are doing our best to provide genuine, first-hand reports from zones where almost no press dares to go. This means living in a kill zone constantly. We take the risk, but without your invaluable support, our voices would remain unheard and silent. Without brave people sharing our articles from afar, they would remain unread. Our reports would go unseen, and our efforts would be lost. Theres still a lot of work to do here, as the people around us are also in no better situation.
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Thank you all, dear friends ??
在水龙头之战中，被攻击者被要求克制，而侵略者却获得资助
作者：Giorgio Provinciali
翻译：旺财球球
乌克兰前线报道??
尼古拉耶夫虽然许多乌克兰城市仍在下雪，但随着气温即将回升，俄罗斯的恐怖行动已经开始转移目标，其策略始终是尽量减少物理破坏、同时最大化对平民、后勤和心理层面的打击。因此，莫斯科意在将乌克兰的夏季转变为冬季能源战的延续，把重心从电力转向供水。
就在过去的几个小时内，数架俄罗斯无人机袭击了我目前坐在城市的市政供水基础设施。乌克兰防空火力将其击落，但仍有一栋公寓楼、一座两层住宅和一辆汽车受损。
同样地，俄空军数日来一直针对赫尔松、扎波罗热、切尔尼戈夫、苏梅和哈尔科夫州的供水系统发动攻击。俄罗斯人对集水厂下手，那是整座城市供水系统的核心节点。
（视频：Alla与我在乌克兰赫尔松拍摄的影像版权所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
在许多情况下，（城市供水）并无备用系统；有时备用系统与主设施毗邻，因此可能在同一次或随后的袭击中受损。然而，问题不仅在于即时损毁，更在于重建所需时间：建造一座新的固定水厂大约需要912个月，因此在夏季前无法完成。移动泵虽能缓解危机，但无法完全替代城市供水网络的结构冗余。
（图：第聂伯在一次俄罗斯袭击针对平民目标的袭击后版权所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
因此，乌克兰总参谋部宣布在基辅水库至苏梅之间构建一条连续防线的决定，必须在这一背景下解读，同时也要考虑防止形成缓冲区并防止其武装部队从国家边界撤出。在现代战争中，正如我与Alla Perdei此前多次阐述的，战争不应再仅限于占领，而应包括控制与持续施压，因此，供水基础设施与后勤走廊构成了一体化的脆弱架构。
天然气管道、水坝、水库与铁路线路亦然：它们都是同一战场的一部分。以至于已有报道称俄罗斯在库皮扬斯克企图破坏天然气管线。正如我在4月15日曾报道的，在同一地区，莫斯科空军已向佩琴尼水库投下数枚滑翔炸弹。
（图：我与Alla在乌克兰尼古拉耶夫与赫尔松之间遭俄军击中乌克兰民用基础设施现场报道版权所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
逻辑十分清晰：如果俄罗斯继续利用已损毁、被淹没且有人把守的管线，那意味着空旷地带更为危险。
无人机、传感器、火炮、热像仪及其他情报监视侦察工具已将地表变得极其致命，即便半毁的管线在其视角下，也好过在赤裸裸无遮掩下推进。这印证了我与Alla长期以来在前线提出的梯度战场空间的观点。渗透并非发生在传统意义上的前线之外，而是在贯穿前线的基础设施内部：地下、运河、管线、供水网络、反无人机走廊、城市、工厂与电子覆盖区。
（图：截至2026年5月1日，许多乌克兰城市仍在下雪版权所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
这是残酷却一致的逻辑：如果莫斯科不能再实现快速突破，它便会尝试在地理上分散压力，以削弱乌克兰同步抵御多个最薄弱地区、城市和外交战线的能力。
目标并非征服大城市：俄罗斯政权已无力为此而战。五个多月来，其人力消耗速度超过补充速度，并因未能跟上基辅在无人机战领域的技术进步而丧失战略主动权。
目标是通过在多个侧翼牵制乌克兰部队，为对顿巴斯那道其12年未能攻破的堡垒地带的企图性冲击创造条件，并迫使基辅减少对俄罗斯石油领域攻击。
（视频：Alla与我在第聂伯拍摄的影像版权所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
在此框架下，来自西方的信号令人不安：泽连斯基总统明确表示，未具名的伙伴（即欧洲人，编者注）已要求乌克兰不要打击俄罗斯的终端和炼油厂，而美国副总统称终止对乌援助是美国政府最自豪的事情之一。
这是道德上站不住脚的悖论：当俄罗斯威胁到乌克兰的供水时，却有人要求基辅不要打击俄罗斯的石油设施。
那些要求对侵略者的经济来源保持克制的人，恰恰是通过创纪录的天然气和液化天然气采购为其提供战争资金的人，以及通过挑起第三次海湾战争引发全球能源危机的人。
这种虚假的对等显而易见：集水厂关系到平民生存；而炼油厂、石油终端或泵站则关系到侵略国为其无理战争提供资金、燃料供应和维持作战能力。
乌克兰以无人机作出回应，打击了俄罗斯彼尔姆地区石油供应链中的另一个关键枢纽：首先是距乌边境一千五百多公里的跨油运输泵站，然后是卢克石油佩尔姆炼油厂的AVT-4装置。此举揭穿了西方所谓去风险化的伪善，并提醒我们，乌克兰在这场阀门之战中，仍在对关键流动控制权方面占据上风。
（图：我在乌克兰哈尔科夫一处遭俄罗斯袭击的民用设施处报道版权所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
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