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 Russian attacks on Ukraine power grid probably violate humanitarian law.
International Energy Agency separately warns that the coming winter would prove to be the ‘sternest test yet’ for Ukraine’s energy grid.

Russian air strikes on Ukraine’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities probably violate international humanitarian law, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU).

The report published on Thursday focused on nine waves of attacks between March and August this year.

HRMMU said it had visited seven power plants that were damaged or destroyed by attacks, as well as 28 communities affected by the strikes.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law,” the report said.

The first big wave of strikes hit in 2022, several months after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February that year.

The attacks have continued throughout the war, though Moscow has markedly stepped up its campaign since last March.

Each wave of strikes has left Ukrainian cities without power for hours at a time for weeks on end.

Ukraine says the targeting of its energy system is a war crime, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for four Russian officials and military officers for the bombing of civilian power infrastructure.

Russia says power infrastructure is a legitimate military target and has dismissed the charges against its officials as irrelevant.

“Russia is trying to plunge Ukraine in the dark with targeted attacks on its energy systems,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday as she announced that 160 million euros ($178m) from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter.

Russia has knocked out about 9 gigawatts of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which von der Leyen said was the “power equivalent of the three Baltic states”.

A fuel power plant is being dismantled in Lithuania and will be rebuilt in Ukraine, where 80 percent of the country’s thermal plants have been destroyed, she said. A third of Ukraine’s hydropower is also out.

The HRMMU said the attacks posed risks to Ukraine’s water supply, sewage and sanitation, to the provision of heating and hot water, public health, education and the wider economy.

It highlighted a particular problem in urban areas, where most homes are linked to centralised heating and hot water systems.

The report said that nearly 95 percent of residents in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, relied on centralised basement heating systems whose output required electric pumps to reach the upper floors of the building.

“Without emergency electricity supply, millions of urban residents could be left without heat,” it said.

HRMMU cited experts as saying that Ukrainians should expect power outages of between four and 18 hours a day this winter.