GENEVA - UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said he was outraged by the repeated large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, following further strikes last night that shut down heating and electricity in major urban areas, including in Kyiv and Odesa.
"This, as the people of Ukraine are gripped by extreme cold, with temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius at night," the High Commissioner said.
"Civilians are bearing the brunt of these attacks. They can only be described as cruel. They must stop. Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a clear breach of the rules of warfare.".
Last night's attacks with long-range weapons caused emergency power and heating outages in several regions. In Kyiv City, the mayor has reported that 5,635 multi-storey residential buildings were left without heating this morning, nearly 80 per cent of which had only recently had heating restored after outages caused by a similar attack on 9 January.
"This means that hundreds of thousands of families are now without heating and several areas, including a significant part of Kyiv, are also without water," he said. "This affects in particular the most vulnerable, including children, older people and those with disabilities."
The Russian Federation has persisted in launching these large-scale strikes despite extensive and well-documented public information regarding their severe impact on the civilian population, Türk said.
Since October last year, the Russian armed forces have renewed systematic large-scale attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, with strikes recorded in at least 20 regions of the country.
Following on similar strikes in 2024, these attacks have degraded Ukraine's energy system as a whole, which has resulted in rolling power outages across most regions of Ukraine, routinely lasting up to 18 hours per day over recent months.
"I call on the Russian authorities to immediately cease these attacks," Türk said. "It is appalling to see civilians suffering in this way."
