A U.N.-backed inquiry reported on Monday that Russia committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine by deliberately attacking energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures.
The independent commission of inquiry was authorized by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to investigate rights violations soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Monday's presentation to the General Assembly's human rights committee was its first report focused on the effects of Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy system.
According to the report, the power cuts left millions of civilians in cold and darkness during winter. Elderly residents were stranded without working elevators when they needed to reach shelters during missile and drone attacks, and hospital patients lost access to critical devices that keep them alive.
Commission chair Erik Mose, a former Norwegian judge, told a U.N. news conference by video that the strikes were war crimes because they were intentionally aimed at civilian objects. He added that they were also crimes against humanity for "inflicting great suffering to civilians." Mose said the intensifying attacks as this winter approaches raise serious concerns about the danger to civilians.
The findings draw on accounts from 255 Ukrainians who lived through winter conditions in Kyiv and eight other regions in 2025-26, along with government officials, doctors and civic organizations. Mose said Russia has not answered requests for comment on any of the commission's reports, including this one.
Russia's U.N. Mission said on Monday that Moscow does not recognize the commission's mandate and described its conclusions as based on "falsified data." Throughout the war, Russia has maintained that its forces strike only military or military-related targets, or those used in the interest of Ukraine's armed forces, despite multiple reports and evidence indicating otherwise.
The inquiry also reported evidence that Russia recruited men from 29 countries into its armed forces "through deception or coercion," in violation of international law. The men, aged 18 to 60, came mostly from vulnerable and marginalized communities with poor economic backgrounds and low education levels, the commission said.
Russian authorities openly recruit foreigners, offering perks such as accelerated citizenship or making military enlistment mandatory for some foreigners seeking permanent residency, and official rhetoric usually stresses that such service is voluntary. The commission, however, said agents in other countries, presenting themselves as legitimate and government-endorsed businesses, arranged visas and sometimes traveled with the recruits. Soon after arriving, the men were made to sign Russian-language documents with the Defense Ministry that they did not understand. "The recruits were shocked to discover that they would be serving for the Russian armed forces," the commission said.
The commission examined recruitment of nationals from 48 countries and found deception or coercion affecting men from 29: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Botswana, Cameroon, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
