UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Tuesday condemned the Russian Federation’s latest large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which have caused mass power and heating outages in many major cities, including Kyiv and Odesa.
Türk described the attacks as “cruel” and warned that “they must stop.” He added: “Civilians are bearing the brunt of these attacks … Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a clear breach of the rules of warfare … Continued strikes on essential civilian infrastructure risk compounding human suffering.”
Türk emphasized the humanitarian consequences of these Russian strikes, as “hundreds of thousands of families are now without heating, and several areas, including a significant part of Kyiv, are also without water.” He added, “This affects in particular the most vulnerable, including children, older people, and those with disabilities.”
Matthias Schmale, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, also said, “Parents cannot prepare hot meals for their children, and many older people have been left isolated in cold homes yet again.” Schmale added, “The hideous strikes on energy that have such a huge negative impact on the lives of the civilian population violate international humanitarian law and should end immediately.”
According to Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, at least 5,635 multi-story residential buildings were left without heating following the latest strikes, which are not an isolated attack. Since October 2022, Russian armed forces have launched calculated and systematic attacks on Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure in 20 unique regions of the country.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine released a report in September 2024, highlighting that “Between March 22 and August 21, 2024, the Russian Federation armed forces launched nine waves of large-scale coordinated attacks on Ukraine’s electric power system.” The report emphasized that the large-scale 2024 attacks, which targeted “generation, transmission, and distribution facilities across the country,” had substantially reduced Ukraine’s power generation capacity.
By June 2024, 73 percent of Ukraine’s thermal power plants and 20 hydroelectric generation units were inoperative due to severe damage. The report further highlighted that the reduced power generation capacity caused a shockwave of consequences, including “water distribution, sewage and sanitation systems, heating and hot water, public health, education, and the overall economy.”
The latest Russian strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure intensifies these consequences, as the need for electricity and heat is particularly exacerbated during colder winter months.
The attacks may constitute violations of International Humanitarian Law and war crimes under the Geneva Conventions, to which both Russia and Ukraine are parties. Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”
Experts, however, argue that “the destruction of power infrastructure is not unequivocally prohibited under [Article 147].” The International Committee of the Red Cross has also noted that power plants primarily used for military consumption are a legitimate military target. The Russian ambassador has previously used this argument to justify their strikes as necessary “[t]o weaken and destroy the military potential of our opponents.”
