UN Report Calls Russian Strikes on Power Grid a War Crime

Russia's winter pounding of Ukraine's power grid wasn't collateral damage, it was the point, a UN inquiry has determined. In a new report, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concludes that Moscow's large-scale, repeated attacks on energy facilities were designed to make civilian life unbearable and rise to the level of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Investigators say commanders knew the power plants they hit were essential for heat, light, and water, per the New York Times, as temperatures plunged below freezing.

The panel describes Ukrainians dying of cold at home and in hospitals, and others suffering frostbite, insomnia, and psychological strain. As the next winter nears, commission Chair Erik Mose said strikes are again ramping up. The report also details how people from 29 countries, largely poor and with no military background, were lured to Russia with job offers, stripped of passports, coerced into military contracts, and sent to the front.

The independent commission was authorized by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations shortly after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, per the AP. The report to the UN General Assembly's human rights committee on Monday was the commission's first on the impact of Russia's sweeping attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.