Ukraine: the UN calls Russia's war on energy a crime against humanity, Europe must protect Ukraine's winter

The finding is remarkably clear. On Monday 26 October, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, set up in 2022 by the United Nations Human Rights Council, presented its report to the General Assembly. Its three members, Erik Møse, Pablo de Greiff and Vrinda Grover, conclude that the Russian authorities committed war crimes by deliberately targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, and that the repetition of these attacks, carried out as part of a policy to deprive civilians of electricity, constitutes a crime against humanity in the form of "other inhumane acts".

The facts

According to UN News, the report draws on the testimony of 255 people in nine regions, supplemented by information from authorities, doctors and NGOs. It focuses in particular on the winter of 2025-2026, when temperatures fell to minus 21 degrees and millions of Ukrainians were deprived of heating, electricity, gas and water for long periods. The commissioners consider that Russian commanders knew the heating plants they targeted were indispensable to civilians, especially in winter.

The victims described are first and foremost the most vulnerable: older people, people with reduced mobility, patients relying on electric medical devices, children kept out of school or falling ill in freezing homes. A 74-year-old Kyiv resident told investigators she stayed lying down, "cold and hungry, without medicine, without anything".

The same report says it has evidence that human trafficking was used to recruit nationals of 29 countries into the Russian army, lured by fake job offers and then sent to the front. According to the Belga agency dispatch carried by La Libre, most of these recruits have been killed, wounded, captured or gone missing.

Above all, the commission's chair warns, according to UN News, that as the cold approaches the Russian forces "have once again intensified their attacks". The attacks continue: on the night of 26 to 27 October, strikes on Kyiv led to traffic restrictions on the South Bridge and split a metro line in two, reports the Kyiv Post, citing the city's military administration.

The positions at stake

Moscow does not recognise the commission's mandate. According to Euromaidan Press, Russia's mission to the UN dismissed its conclusions as "falsified" data.

One might object, in defence of these strikes, that the law of war allows dual-use infrastructure to be targeted under certain conditions. But those conditions are strict: the military advantage must be concrete, and the harm to civilians must not be excessive. That is precisely what the commission disputes, describing a deliberate strategy of deprivation rather than a series of isolated strikes.

The commission also states that it examined Ukrainian attacks on energy facilities in Russia and in the occupied territories. Lacking access and any response from the Russian authorities, it was unable to assess their consequences, UN News notes. International law applies to everyone, and this caveat strengthens the credibility of the work rather than weakening it.

Analysis: the law must not become the adjustment variable of peace

The report comes at a delicate moment. The Kremlin has announced negotiations with Ukraine under US mediation, scheduled for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi, according to AFP. At the same time, a local truce is holding in Oleshky, according to the BBC and Reuters as cited by Just Security. The temptation will be strong, in Washington and elsewhere, to file the UN findings away as obstacles to a deal.

That would be a mistake. A peace that erased the question of crimes committed against civilians would not last: it would tell every aggressor that depriving a population of heating is just another means of pressure. The Gaullist tradition of French diplomacy has always tied France's independence to respect for a rules-based international order. Defending the United Nations Charter and humanitarian law is not idealism; it is the protection of small states as well as great nations.

There is also a question of concrete solidarity. In January the European Union said it had devoted at least 3 billion euros to Ukraine's energy security and deployed 447 backup generators, according to the European Commission's representation in France. Ukraine's Ministry of Energy said in February that France had committed to providing 150 generators and 71 million euros for 2026. These efforts matter, but they fall short of a winter that is opening with a new intensification of strikes.

Conclusion: making Ukraine's winter a European priority

France could put forward three proposals. First, a jointly funded European emergency plan for the winter, focused on heating for cities, hospitals and schools. Second, political and material support for the justice mechanisms the commission is calling for, so that responsibility can be established before independent courts. Finally, a clear demand, in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere: the protection of civilians and vital infrastructure must be among the first commitments of any truce.

One question remains that Europeans can no longer dodge: if they are not at the table where peace is decided, how will they ensure that the law they invoke is respected there?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.