Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid likely violate international humanitarian law, UN says

Russia’s airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy grid likely violate international humanitarian law, a UN monitoring body said on Thursday, as Ukrainians prepare for the harshest winter since the Russian invasion.

During its invasion, Russia has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Ukrainian power generation, transmission and distribution facilities.

The first major wave of attacks came in the fall and winter of 2022, a few months after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The attacks continued throughout the war, although Moscow has significantly stepped up its campaign since March.

During each wave of strikes, the electricity supply to Ukrainian cities was interrupted for hours at a time for weeks.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) focused its report on nine waves of strikes between March and August 2024.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian electricity and heat generation and transmission infrastructure violated fundamental principles of international humanitarian law in several respects,” the report said.

HRMMU said it visited seven power plants damaged or destroyed by attacks and 28 communities affected by the strikes.

Kiev has described the attack on its energy system as a war crime and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for four Russian government officials and military officers for bombing civilian energy infrastructure.

Moscow claims that the energy infrastructure is a legitimate military target and dismisses the allegations against its officials as irrelevant.

RISKS

According to HRMMU, the attacks pose risks to Ukraine’s water supply, sewage and sanitation, heating and hot water supplies, public health, the education system and the economy as a whole.

Particular attention was drawn to a problem in urban areas, where most households are connected to central heating and hot water systems.

According to the report, nearly 95 percent of Kyiv residents rely on central basement heating systems, the power of which requires electric pumps to reach the upper floors of buildings.

“Without an emergency power supply, millions of city dwellers could be left without heating,” it said.

HRMMU quoted experts as saying that Ukrainians should expect power outages lasting between four and 18 hours a day this winter.

According to the report, energy problems were the second most common reason Ukrainians cited for fleeing the country in the summer of 2024.