I’m sorry to say that any such problems concerning housing and communal services aren’t fatal or even critical for Russian authorities. ;-)
Such calamities happen all around the Nor’easter Eurasia inside the USSR old borders from time to time, usually in places where life-supporting housing infrastructure permanently suffers from insufficient funding. Note how European January zero deg C isotherm runs approximately alongside the former borders of Warsaw Pact.
One random earlier example of housing BSOD from Russia: https://76.ru/text/winter/2020/12/28/69666891/ December 2020
And from Uzbekistan https://podrobno.uz/cat/obchestvo/resursy-na-iskhode-v-khokimiyate-obyasnili-pochemu-v-tashkente-voznikli-problemy-s-gazom-/ December 2022
And from Ukraine (sensu stricto Donbass, that belongs now mainly to Russia, but it happened long before its annexation into Russia proper)
Not for nothing the northernmost big cities on Earth are situated in Russia: it’s useless to ask whether Russia belongs to East or West properly, for the correct answer is third option, North.
