Europe
UN Commission of Inquiry: Russia committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in strikes on Ukraine’s energy system
A new report to the UN General Assembly says Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy system were war crimes and a crime against humanity, and that men from 29 countries were trafficked into its forces.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has concluded that Russian authorities committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts through their strikes on Ukraine’s energy system, according to a report submitted to the UN General Assembly on 26 October 2026. The three-member panel was appointed by the Human Rights Council.
The Commission found that the attacks amounted to “war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects”, according to UN News. It said the strikes were carried out with intent and as part of a state policy to deprive civilians of electricity and other essential services.
What the Commission examined
The investigators looked at large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s energy system, above all in the winter of 2025-2026, and at their cumulative effect since autumn 2022. They said the attacks have become more frequent, more intense and wider in geographic reach, at times involving hundreds of drones and missiles at once. Russian officials, the Commission noted, made public statements about further attacks and referred to a plan to carry them out.
The findings rest on accounts from 255 people in the Dnipro, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions, as well as information from Ukrainian authorities, doctors and non-governmental organisations.
The Commission said last winter’s temperatures fell as low as minus 21 degrees Celsius while millions of people faced long outages of heating, electricity, water and gas. It said commanders who ordered the strikes knew the heating facilities they targeted were “indispensable to the civilian population, particularly during the winter”. Older people and those with reduced mobility struggled to reach shelters during air raid alerts for fear of being trapped in lifts during power cuts, and families with children faced school closures and illness in unheated homes.
Trafficking of foreign nationals
A second finding concerns men recruited into Russia’s armed forces. The Commission said it had “compelling evidence” that Russian authorities trafficked men from 29 countries into their forces through “deception and coercion”. Recruiting agents in several countries presented themselves as legitimate, government-endorsed businesses, handled visas and travel documents and sometimes travelled with the recruits. Soon after arrival, the men were pressed to sign Russian-language contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence.
According to the Commission, many were sent to the front line and given dangerous tasks; many were killed or went missing, while others were captured by Ukrainian forces and became prisoners of war. It called for all trafficked persons to be discharged from the Russian armed forces.
Ukraine’s strikes and the limits of access
The Commission also examined attacks by Ukraine’s armed forces on energy infrastructure in Russia and in occupied parts of Ukraine. It said it could not investigate the effects of strikes inside Russia further because the Russian authorities did not allow access and did not respond to its requests for information. The sources read for this article do not report a Russian reaction to the findings.
Context
The report lands as winter approaches. Geopolitiki has reported that UNHCR warned of “no safe place in Ukraine” as long-range strikes hit energy supply, in UNHCR: “No safe place in Ukraine” as long-range strikes hit energy supply and aid operations ahead of winter, and on a Russian ballistic missile attack on the capital in Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv: one killed and 14 injured, a university dormitory damaged and the Southern Bridge closed, Ukrainian officials say.
The Commission’s recommendations are that attacks on civilians and civilian objects must stop, as international law prohibits them, and that all trafficked persons be released from Russian service. The UN pages consulted do not give a date for the General Assembly’s consideration of the report.