Russia committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine by intentionally attacking energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures, a UN-backed inquiry reported.
The inquiry also found evidence that Russia recruited men from 29 countries into its armed forces “through deception or coercion” to fight in Ukraine in violation of international law. The men, age 18 to 60, “came mostly from vulnerable and marginalized communities, with a poor economic background and a low education level,” it said.
The independent commission of inquiry was authorized by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Its report to the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee was its first focusing on the impact of Russia’s wide-ranging attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The electricity cuts have left millions of civilians suffering in frigid winter darkness, the elderly without elevators to get to shelters during missile and drone attacks, and hospital patients without critical devices to keep them alive, the report said.
The commission concluded that the attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure constituted war crimes because they were intentionally directed against civilian objects, as well as crimes against humanity for “inflicting great suffering to civilians,” commission chair Erik Mose said at a UN news conference, speaking by video.
Mose, a former Norwegian judge, said the intensifying attacks as this winter approaches raise serious concerns about the threats posed to civilians.
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