Kim about possible Russian attacks on water supply facilities in the Mykolaiv region

Vitalii Kim, Head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration. Archive photo: NikVesti

Several contingency plans have been drawn up in the Mykolaiv region in the event of possible Russian attacks on water supply facilities.

This was stated by Vitalii Kim, Head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, when answering a question about the region’s readiness for possible strikes on water supply systems.

As is known, following massive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Russia is preparing a new major strike. This time, water supply systems may be at risk, according to an article in the publication «RBC-Ukraine».

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Areas of particular risk include water intake facilities, on which entire cities depend. If these are damaged, local water crises and restrictions on water supply are possible.

According to Vitalii Kim, the Mykolaiv region began preparing defences for water supply facilities several months ago following relevant instructions from the president and intelligence reports.

«We have a Plan B. We even have Plans B and C, but I would prefer not to discuss their current status in general terms. I will say that six months ago, perhaps five months ago, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy set the task clearly; in other words, the intelligence services were already tasked with this back then.

And we are carrying it out, or have carried it out, regarding the protection of water supply facilities. This is a matter for the whole country. It has been taken on board and we have taken it into account. I cannot tell you the status, so that the enemy does not find out,» said Vitalii Kim.

Read also the article by NikVesti «The state is building new treatment plants, but Mykolaiv insists on modernising them with an EIB loan: what the city stands to gain from this».

When will the new water treatment plants start operating?

The launch of the new water treatment facilities to provide centralised water supply in Mykolaiv was promised as early as January 2026, but they were planned to be fully operational later. They were built using funds saved during the construction of the new water pipeline.

Initially, the plan was to take out an EIB loan to build the new water treatment facilities for Mykolaiv, with Denmark providing the remainder as a grant. The project was expected to take several years to complete and was intended to help supply the city with water meeting European standards.

However, Serhii Sukhomlyn, head of the State Agency for Reconstruction, later stated that this idea had been abandoned. It was decided to build the new water treatment facilities using state funds – those saved during the construction of the city’s new water pipeline.

However, Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, supports the modernisation of the new water treatment facilities using a loan from the European Investment Bank, but believes that the state should pay for it.

Read also the article by NikVesti «When will Mykolaiv get drinking water from the taps and how much will it cost?».

The water pipeline for Mykolaiv. A brief history

It has been more than three years since Russian troops damaged the water pipeline that supplied Mykolaiv with water. Since then, the city of nearly half a million people has been left without a centralised supply of high-quality water.

All this time, the people of Mykolaiv have been receiving water from a backup source, which raises many questions about the quality of such water and the salt content in it. The salt water has damaged 1,200 kilometres of the city’s water supply network. Borys Dudenko, Director of Mykolaivvodokanal, stated that it is impossible to replace the entire length of the network damaged by the influx of salt water.

For a long time, representatives of central and local authorities sought ways to restore the drinking water supply in Mykolaiv. A final decision was reached in 2024: a new water pipeline will be laid from Nova Odesa, with funding allocated from the state budget.

The regional reconstruction service even selected contractors to work on a ‘design-build’ basis. These were three companies, each responsible for one of the three sections of the work: «Ukrtransmist», «Rostdorstroi» and «Autostrada». However, both the client and the construction contractor were subsequently changed. The client for the construction of the new water pipeline became the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and the contractor was the «Autostrada» group of companies.

The new water pipeline for Mykolaiv was commissioned on 7 October 2025 — it was connected to the water supply network.

As early as November, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Vitalii Kim, stated that drinking water could appear in Mykolaiv residents’ taps within six weeks to a month. That is exactly how long it will take to complete all work on the treatment facilities and receive the official laboratory reports.