The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) reported on Thursday that Russian armed forces’ attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine had catastrophic effects on the country’s infrastructure and may have breached international humanitarian law principles. This UN-mandated mission concentrated on nine waves of attacks on Ukraine’s electric power system between March 22 and August 21, 2024. The attacks targeted power generation plants, substations, and electricity transmission systems, causing significant damage to facilities in 20 Ukrainian regions (UN News).
The HRMMU report stated that these operations compromised essential services like electricity, water distribution, sewage, sanitation, heating, and hot water supply, severely affecting daily life. Given the scale and the precision of the weapons used, the UN posited that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that several aspects of the military campaign to incapacitate Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure violated key principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction, proportionality, and precaution.
The report also highlighted the humanitarian degradation resulting from these strikes, with widespread forced displacement and school closures due to power outages. The National Bank of Ukraine estimated that an additional 500,000 nationals might leave Ukraine by 2025, with the energy crisis being a central cause. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also noted that Ukrainian children lost millions of hours of educational time. Economically, inflation and electricity costs surged, while a decline in GDP and business revenues compounded the crisis (JURIST).
The International Criminal Court had earlier issued arrest warrants for top Russian defense officials over alleged attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. Russian authorities decried the charges as Western propaganda, and in a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry argued that Ukrainian forces initiated the infrastructure attacks by striking civilian infrastructure in Russian territory first (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation).