Russia is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure – including vital energy systems – in Ukraine, an independent UN commission of inquiry said Monday.
Russian forces have targeted Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure since the early months of the war in 2022 and massively intensified their attacks at the start of winter last year, leaving millions of Ukrainians freezing in the darkness of their homes.
A new report released Monday by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and shared with CNN claims that these attacks “were carried out intentionally” and were consistent with Russia’s “state policy to deprive the civilian population of essential energy supplies and cause suffering.”
“Russian commanders who ordered these attacks knew that the heating facilities they targeted were essential to the civilian population, particularly in winter,” said the report submitted to the UN General Assembly.
CNN has contacted the Kremlin for comment.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the report “confirms what Ukrainians have been experiencing for years: Russia’s systematic attacks on civilian energy infrastructure constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
In an article on X, Sybiha said Russia “deliberately deprived millions of people of electricity, heat and water, turning cold and darkness into instruments of war.”
Large-scale Russian drone and missile attacks last winter reduced Ukraine’s thermal power generation capacities by 70% in the most affected areas, according to kyiv. The suffering was compounded by an unusually cold winter with temperatures dropping to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F) on several occasions.
The commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council just days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He has previously reported on other aspects of Russia’s war against Ukraine, including allegations of sexual and gender-based violence by Russian armed forces and widespread forced expulsions of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities.
In this latest report, the commission describes the dire consequences of prolonged exposure to cold on Ukrainian civilians, saying the country’s medical authorities have documented deaths caused by low temperatures in homes and even in hospitals.
“Hospital medical staff reported that during last winter they treated patients who developed cold-related injuries, including frostbite and varying degrees of hypothermia. The patients had developed these conditions at home, due to exposure to unheated premises and necessary hospitalization,” the report said.
The report cites a civilian living in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city, who describes the impact of Russian attacks on her. “The cold paralyzes you; there’s just no way to get warm and terrifying thoughts come to mind,” she said.
Blaming Putin and others
The UN commission’s report names several high-level Russian officials as those most responsible for what it describes as “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
It says Russian President Vladimir Putin has made several “statements regarding instructions to carry out attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.”
It also claims that evidence collected over the past several years shows that former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his successor Andrei Belousov, as well as Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, were responsible for planning and supervising the attacks.
The International Criminal Court has already issued arrest warrants for Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As colder weather begins to arrive in Ukraine, Russia has made clear that it intends to continue terrorizing its neighbor.
The report mentions a statement made by the Russian Defense Ministry in August, which announced attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and said: “In winter you will freeze.”
Ukraine is finding it increasingly difficult to defend itself against these large-scale attacks due to a critical shortage of air defense missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made repeated appeals to kyiv’s Western allies for more ammunition, specifically highlighting the coming winter as a major concern.
kyiv had targeted Russian oil and gas infrastructure, aiming to harm the Kremlin’s revenues from energy exports. However, these attacks were toned down after criticism from US President Donald Trump, who blamed Ukraine for rising gas prices.
“Human trafficking”
The report released Monday also investigated the methods used by Russia to recruit foreign nationals to serve in its armed forces, concluding that they constitute human rights violations and trafficking.
CNN has reported extensively on Russia’s use of deception, bribery and blackmail to entice foreigners to join its military. People from several countries in Africa, India and Latin America said they were promised jobs in Russia and found themselves on the front lines.
The commission said it found “irrefutable evidence” that Russian authorities, working with agents, “trafficked people from 29 countries, using deception or coercion, to recruit them into the Russian armed forces.”
The fact that Russia used the same tactics to recruit people from multiple countries “demonstrates a high degree of coordination between agents operating around the world and Russian authorities,” he added.
“Promised payments and bonuses were commonly embezzled by recruiting agents and military commanders, passports and phones were often confiscated, and contact between agents and families was severed once recruits were deployed to the front.
The report concludes that Russia violated the recruits’ basic human rights, including the rights to life, liberty, health and the right to be treated humanely.
The commission also investigated the recruitment of foreign nationals into the Ukrainian army and said that the testimonies collected showed that those who joined the Ukrainian armed forces “did so knowingly and voluntarily”, understood the contracts they signed and received salaries.
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