UK tells OSCE that Russia carried out 86 attacks on Ukraine’s energy system since the US ceasefire call, with more than 550,000 left without power

The United Kingdom told the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on Thursday 22 October that Russia has carried out 86 attacks on Ukraine’s energy system since the US President called for a ceasefire on strikes against energy infrastructure. The figures are the UK’s own, given in a statement by Chargé d’Affaires James Ford, the deputy ambassador, and published by the UK government.

The UK’s figures

According to the statement, one of the recent attacks was a major assault that struck ten energy facilities and left more than 550,000 people without power. The UK said Russia carried out further attacks overnight into Thursday, and that Russian attacks killed at least 98 civilians over the same period. It described these as “not the actions of a state committed to restraint or to serious diplomacy”. The statement does not name the sources of the figures, and no Russian reply is included in the published text.

Sovereign equality at the OSCE

The larger part of the statement concerns the principle of sovereign equality in the Helsinki Final Act, which the UK said stands alongside territorial integrity, the inviolability of frontiers, non-intervention and the peaceful settlement of disputes. London said genuine dialogue in the OSCE depends on every state recognising the agency of others, and that it cannot work when one state claims the right to decide another’s government, borders, alliances or future.

The UK recalled that Russia pressed Ukraine in 2013 against closer European integration, seized Crimea in 2014 and attempted its annexation, and launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. It accused Russia of denying Ukraine’s agency inside the OSCE Council, citing claims about Boris Johnson and the 2022 Istanbul talks and the description of Ukraine as controlled by “puppet masters”. It also said Russia’s recent Duma elections fell short of OSCE commitments, including a failure to invite independent observation by the OSCE’s ODIHR, and that Russia staged sham elections in occupied Ukrainian territory.

The statement ends with three positions: that Russia will have to accept and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty for dialogue to produce a lasting settlement, that Ukraine’s government and partnerships are for Ukrainians to decide, and that Ukraine must be central to any negotiation about its future.

Earlier coverage

This is the second UK statement at the OSCE this week. The previous one, on recruitment of foreign fighters, is covered in UK tells OSCE that Russia’s recruitment of foreign fighters is coercive and asks how many serve. Ukraine’s own tally of attacks on its energy sector is in Ukraine’s prime minister claims 2,147 Russian attacks on the energy sector since 16 July, with no day without strikes.