Moscow’s intensified, systematic bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that cut off electricity, heat and water “with the intent of Russia’s authorities to inflict harm to the civilian population” amounts to war crimes, a three-person Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded in a United Nations report Oct. 26.
It also documented and condemned Moscow’s use of lies and chicanery to coerce thousands of men from over two dozen countries into the Russian army for combat at the front in Ukraine.
During Ukraine’s harsh 2025-26 winter, millions of people were left without electricity for hours, even days, in the hardest-hit cities.
Ukrainian authorities have documented deaths from the cold in homes and even in hospitals, with patients suffering from cold-related trauma, including frostbite and hypothermia, the panel noted. As the Kremlin intends, the blackouts also take a psychological toll, with people describing their exhaustion, insomnia and depression to the panel. One Kyiv resident, who the report didn’t name, said he tried to keep himself awake overnight for fear the cold would kill him in his sleep.
“As the cold season approaches, the attacks have intensified once again, raising serious concerns about the threats to civilians’ lives and health,” said Erik Mose, the commission’s chairman. He had previously served on the Supreme Court of Norway.
The other two panelists are Pablo de Greiff, director of the Transitional Justice Program at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University School of Law, and Vrinda Grover, an advocate practicing at the Supreme Court of India.
The commission, which was convened a week after Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, interviewed over 3,000 people during its investigation.
Putin orders ‘massive strikes’
The Kremlin claims it only targets Ukraine’s energy sites that have a military purpose. But as the U.N. report noted, Russian President Vladimir Putin openly declared Sept. 1 that he had “given instructions to prepare and carry out massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy” with no pretense of any restrictions.
The report noted Kyiv has recently carried out energy-related attacks on the Russian Federation and Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine. It couldn’t investigate further as Russian authorities refused to cooperate.
The U.N. panel interviewed 245 foreign nationals, finding that Russian authorities “trafficked persons from 29 countries” across Latin America, Africa and Asia, “using deception or coercion” to force them to sign army contracts in Russian, which few of them understood. After having been promised high-paying jobs as drivers, mechanics or security guards, their passports were seized on their arrival in Russia, and most were sent to fight in Ukraine.
Ending up at the front with little or no training, they were often beaten by their commanders and dispatched to retrieve bodies of fallen soldiers, or forced into assault missions from which few came back.
One man insisted he hadn’t signed up for combat. He told investigators, “They took me 100 meters away, shot four Russians in my presence and told me, ‘If you don’t sign, you are the next.’”
In a glaring contrast, the panel noted that all foreign nationals it interviewed who joined “the Ukrainian armed forces did so knowingly and voluntarily.”
While the U.N. report focused on the targeting of Ukraine’s power network, Moscow has also been escalating its strikes against residential buildings and other civilian facilities, including public transport, especially the vital rail network. The most recent deadly strike was Oct. 29 in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, when a Russian jet-powered drone hit a platform in the city’s main rail depot between two waiting passenger trains. Fourteen people were killed and four more seriously wounded.
The week before, an approaching drone forced a train evacuation near Kyiv. Daryna Styrchuk, 24, although visibly anxious, told the Kyiv Post she believed Moscow’s relentless attacks made Ukrainians more resilient. “I think we’re ready for anything now,” she said.