Authors

Sophie Lambroschini¹;  ¹ Centre Marc Bloch, Germany

Discussion

This paper investigates how in Ukraine the geographical and technopolitical implications of instable, insecure, and fluid boundaries shaped by the vagaries of battle affect critical infrastructure across front lines (2014-22). The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located on Russian-occupied territory is manned by Ukrainian staff and connected to the Ukrainian grid. A water supply network in Donbas operated across the front line in 2014-22. Provision of water or electricity can depend on circumventing front lines: in Mykolaiv water supply was rerouted from the Dnipro river to the Black Sea.  In Mariupol cross-frontline supply failed forcing residents to drink water from melted snow. Operating large-scale urban utilities networks requires cooperation between different actors and different levels of intervention: consumers, utilities’ workers, political and military authorities and international assistance organizations and governments. Using the framework of sociology of infrastructure, the paper analyzes the materiality of systems as embedded in human relationships. A micro-level perspective reveals how new forms of solidarity, cooperation and hostility emerge out of the entanglements between materiality, borders and insecurity in face of existential threat. The research is based on ethnographic field research in Donbas (2014-22) and Odesa oblast (2022) in addition to in-depth collection of online data on utilities companies throughout Ukraine.