A United Nations panel has concluded that Russia's systematic strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure were intended to deprive civilians of essential supplies and cause them suffering, finding that the attacks amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report, from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, was published on Monday and submitted to the UN General Assembly.
What the commission found
The commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 and chaired by Erik Møse, investigated the impact of large-scale attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure and their cumulative effect since 2022, with a focus on the severe winter of 2025-2026. It interviewed 255 people across nine Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kherson and Odesa.
The report found that repeated waves of attacks, involving hundreds of drones and missiles at a time, damaged power plants, heating facilities, substations and gas infrastructure, and that repairs grew increasingly difficult. During the winter of 2025-2026, when temperatures fell to minus 21 degrees Celsius, millions of people faced lengthy outages of heating, electricity, water and gas. The commission said commanders ordering the strikes knew the heating facilities they targeted were indispensable to the civilian population, and that the strikes intensified as temperatures dropped.
On that basis, the commission concluded that Russia committed the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, and crimes against humanity in the form of other inhumane acts. It also reported evidence that Russian authorities worked with recruitment agents in multiple countries to enlist men from 29 nations through deception or coercion, after promising them civilian jobs.
Russia's response
Russia has consistently maintained that its forces strike only military or military-related targets, or targets used in the interest of Ukraine's armed forces. The commission noted that Russia said it had targeted energy infrastructure serving a military or dual use. Russia's UN mission said on Monday that Russia does not recognize the commission's mandate and claimed its findings were based on “falsified data.” The commission said Russian authorities have not responded to its requests for comment on its reports.
Ukraine's reaction, and what comes next
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the report “confirms what Ukrainians have experienced for years,” adding that Russia had “deliberately deprived millions of people of electricity, heating and water, turning cold and darkness into instruments of war.” Kyiv hopes the findings will form the basis for holding Russia's military and political leadership to account, Ukraine's UN ambassador said.
Commission chair Erik Møse warned that as the cold season approaches, “the attacks have intensified once again, raising serious concerns about the threats to civilians' lives and health.” With winter approaching and strikes continuing, the report's central warning is that the suffering it documents from last winter could be repeated, on a larger scale, in the months ahead.
Watch: Russian strikes devastate Ukraine's power grid as winter approaches
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Hitman (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Al Jazeera, CNN, ThePrint