Total infrastructure collapse in occupied Hola Prystan leaves residents without basic services

This was reported to an Ukrinform correspondent by Svitlana Linnyk, Head of the Hola Prystan Military Administration.

“The Hola Prystan community is blocked; there is no communication. In the town and the Kardashynka villages there has been no electricity at all for 35 days; there has been no gas since July 2025. There is nothing to heat premises with, and it is impossible to purchase fuel materials for heating homes. It is impossible to receive basic medical services; you cannot call an ambulance because it does not come anyway. Grocery stores are already being emptied – people are panicking. Bakeries have been closed for more than a month. If bread is delivered, it comes from nearby communities or from Skadovsk, and even then, in limited quantities – people are sold only one or two loaves per person. The price of one loaf ranges from 80 to 100 rubles. Sometimes there is no bread delivery at all. One pharmacy outlet had been operating, but now it lacks medicines needed for chronic patients; they are not being supplied. Sometimes medications are brought in and sold from vehicles. As for Russian mobile communication, it still existed in remote villages of the community, but it has long been absent in Hola Prystan and the Velyka Kardashynka starosta district,” Linnyk said.

According to the head of the Military Administration, the situation is extremely critical: people are dying, and their bodies remain at home for days or even weeks because there is no one to bury them. To arrange a burial, a death certificate is required, which can take weeks to obtain because the occupation police do not hurry to come, nor do medics. There are cases where relatives, if any, wrap the bodies in carpets and transport them to the cemetery on carts.

Due to constant shelling, people are afraid to leave their homes. The occupiers hunt civilian vehicles belonging to local residents with drones.

People who tried to reach stores in other communities using forest roads are no longer being allowed through by the Russians.

Residents have no opportunity to refill gas cylinders – fuel stations in the community are not operating. Obtaining fuel and lubricants to run generators is possible only by risking one’s life.

“You have to travel to Novomykolaivka in the Skadovsk district or to remote settlements in other communities to refill a propane-butane cylinder or buy a canister of gasoline. This is risky and also requires money. The cost of one canister is over 3,000 rubles, and a filled gas cylinder costs over 4,000 rubles, which is also hard to obtain,” the head of the Military Administration said.

She noted that basic utility services are not being provided. No one repairs the power grids, and the occupation authorities have shut down the local energy supply enterprise. Garbage is not being collected, leading to the formation of spontaneous dumps. The occupation authorities explain this by saying the area is dangerous. The gas service ceased its presence and operations in the town last year after a high-pressure gas pipeline was damaged and gas supply stopped.

As for evacuation, the Russians are offering people relocation to Zaliznyi Port, to buildings that are not heated and where there are also problems with electricity supply.

According to the head of the Military Administration, overall voltage that occasionally appeared in villages of the community on the left bank was very low, making it impossible to use household appliances.

“Today, the occupiers are incapable of maintaining control over the left bank, incapable of providing the population with essential services – incapable in general,” Linnyk emphasized.

She added that the occupation authorities are unable to cope with anything; overall, the situation in the occupied left-bank part of the region is critical and is worsening daily, even in settlements far from the front line. The local population, including in the occupied Hola Prystan community, lives in hope and continues to wait for the Armed Forces of Ukraine despite all the hardships.

As reported by Ukrinform, the Hola Prystan area has been occupied since the first days of the full-scale invasion. The municipal community includes 14 settlements. After the Russian occupation, the area has seen terror, abductions, and torture. Adding to these hardships was the tragedy of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant: seven settlements in the community were flooded or partially flooded. Some villages located near water are now on the line of active hostilities.

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