Russian authorities committed war crimes and crimes against humanity through their continuous attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure — attacks carried out with intent, under a state policy to deprive civilians of electricity and essential services and cause suffering — the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in a new report submitted to the UN General Assembly on Monday. The commission also concluded that Russian authorities recruited men trafficked from 29 countries into the Russian armed forces, in violation of international human rights law.
What did the commission find about the energy attacks?
That they were deliberate, systematic and aimed at civilian life in winter. The commission investigated the impact on civilians of large-scale attacks by Russian armed forces on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, particularly during the severe winter of 2025-2026, as well as their cumulative effect since autumn 2022, it said in its statement on Monday. The frequency, intensity and geographic range of systematic waves of attacks — hundreds of drones and missiles at a time — have increased over the years and inflicted significant damage to Ukraine's energy sector. Last winter, when temperatures dropped to minus 21 degrees Celsius, millions of people in Ukraine faced lengthy outages of heating, electricity, water and gas and had to cope with intolerable living conditions, the commission said. "As the cold season approaches, the attacks have intensified once again, raising serious concerns about the threats to civilians' lives and health," said Erik Møse, the commission's chair. A 53-year-old man in Kyiv told the commission he tried to stay awake through the night out of fear of dying from the cold: "the scariest thing was to fall asleep and not to wake up; it was like torture to be scared of dying from cold." Medical authorities documented deaths caused by low temperatures in homes, and even in hospitals, CNN reported, and large-scale attacks last winter reduced Ukraine's thermal power generation capacity by 70 per cent in the most affected areas, according to Kyiv.
Why does the commission call it a state policy?
Because of what the commanders knew, and what officials said. According to the commission's assessment, the Russian commanders ordering the attacks knew that the heating facilities they targeted in large civilian agglomerations were indispensable to the civilian population, particularly during the winter, and Russian authorities made official declarations concerning further attacks and referred to a plan to carry them out. On that basis it concluded that Russian authorities committed war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, and that the attacks — carried out with intent and pursuant to a state policy to deprive the civilian population of electricity and other essential energy-dependent services and cause suffering — amount to the crimes against humanity of other inhumane acts. The report names President Vladimir Putin, former defence minister Sergei Shoigu, his successor Andrey Belousov and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov as the officials most responsible, CNN reported, noting that the International Criminal Court has previously issued arrest warrants against Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the report "confirms what Ukrainians have experienced for years: Russia's systematic attacks on civilian energy infrastructure constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity," CNN reported. CNN said it has approached the Kremlin for comment; no Russian response appeared in the reporting opened for this article. The commission also examined attacks by Ukrainian armed forces on energy infrastructure in Russia and in the occupied areas of Ukraine, but said it was unable to investigate their impact further because Russia did not allow access or respond to its requests for information.
What did it find about foreign nationals in Russia's army?
A trafficking pipeline spanning 29 countries. The commission found compelling evidence that Russian authorities trafficked persons from 29 countries, through deception and coercion, in coordination with agents or agencies operating in different countries that presented themselves as legitimate and government-endorsed businesses, processed visas and travel documents for groups of recruits and in some cases travelled with them. Soon after arrival, the men were forced to sign contracts in Russian with Russia's defence ministry, and were deployed on frontlines in Ukraine and assigned dangerous tasks; many have been killed or have gone missing, while others surrendered or were captured and became prisoners of war, the commission said. The wife of a man recruited from the Caribbean told the commission: "They took his passport and just told him to sign here, here and here on the contract. It was only in Russian. He was totally pressured and had no choice." The commission called for all the trafficked persons to be discharged from the Russian armed forces. By contrast, it found that foreign nationals who joined Ukraine's armed forces did so knowingly and voluntarily, CNN reported.
This report is drawn from the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine's October 26, 2026 press release, opened and read in full on ohchr.org, and CNN's October 26, 2026 report, opened and read in full on cnn.com. The findings are the commission's, based on the 255 witness accounts and other evidence it describes; the 70 per cent thermal-generation figure is Kyiv's, as reported by CNN, and is attributed as such. The commission reiterated that international law prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian objects and called for such attacks to stop.
