The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, has concluded that Russian authorities committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by attacking civilians and vital energy infrastructure. The findings appear in the panel’s latest report and were presented in the context of the UN General Assembly.

According to UN News, the investigators say attacks on power plants and energy networks have intensified “once again” across Ukraine, after a winter when temperatures fell to −21°C. The Commission stresses that homes left without heating, electricity or water left many people — especially older residents — in extreme conditions, including without medicine or a safe place during air-raid alerts.

The report draws on accounts from Dnipro, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr. A 53-year-old man described the cold as torture: the fear of falling asleep and not waking up. A 74-year-old woman from Kyiv said she was left cold and hungry, without medicine, unable to use stairs and too afraid to take lifts during bombardment.

The investigators say commanders ordering the strikes knew that the heating facilities they targeted were indispensable to civilians, particularly in winter. The Commission links the attacks to official Russian statements about continuing the campaign and concludes that they amount to war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects.

In the same report, the panel cites “compelling evidence” that Russian authorities recruited men trafficked from dozens of countries, through deception and coercion, into the armed forces. Many were sent to the front, killed, went missing or were captured as prisoners of war. The Commission calls for the discharge of people recruited in this way.

The Commission also examined Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia and in occupied areas, but says it could not investigate the impact inside the Russian Federation because authorities denied access and did not respond to requests. The conclusions are those of the independent inquiry; they are not the same as individual criminal convictions already handed down by a court.

Image: UN Headquarters / General Assembly (Wikimedia Commons).

Sources consulted: Ukraine: Investigators find Russia committed war crimes by targeting civilians - UN News; Russian authorities committed crimes against humanity through attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure - OHCHR.