How Russia’s Offensive Damaged Critical Donbas Water Infrastructure

On May 5, 2022, the Russian nationalist news outlet Russkaya Vesna (‘Russian Spring’) published a brief article stating that the Russian air force had destroyed Ukrainian soldiers’ barracks near Bilohorivka, a town in the Luhansk Region. The article, citing a Russian military source, claimed that the Russian air force used unguided bombs to destroy the facility. The article was accompanied by a video showing the attack, which was also uploaded to the publication’s Telegram account.

The video was made up of drone footage taken from two different angles. One, taken from directly above, observed unidentified persons walking through the grounds of the facility. The other, geolocated as to areas which were behind the Russian lines at the time, observed explosions from bombs hitting the area. The stationary nature of the drone suggested that a quadcopter type drone was used in both videos, likely commercial.

But Russkaya Vesna neglected to mention one key fact —…