By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on Thursday warned that repeated Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and power cuts in Ukraine will uproot additional 500,000 people ahead of the coming winter.
UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine in a alert follows significant destruction to power plants and the worsening energy crisis that has affected access to electricity, clean water and heating, while also pushing up prices for consumers.
It said that the strikes on the national grid included one coordinated attack on 26 August described in a new report as one of Russia’s largest since the onset of the full-scale invasion, involving “more than 100 missiles and 100 drones across numerous regions in Ukraine, primarily targeting energy and other infrastructure. Power cuts were implemented nationwide to stabilize the grid.”
There have been “nine waves of long-range and large-scale coordinated attacks” on Ukraine’s electric power system between 22 March and 31 August 2024, the report noted.
These have damaged or destroyed “numerous power generation, transmission, and distribution facilities” and caused harm to the civilian population and the country’s electricity supply, water distribution, sewage and sanitation systems, heating and hot water, public health, education and the economy.
The report cited that the latest attacks on energy infrastructure have “put over 10 per cent of the population 3.7 million people at risk of consuming contaminated drinking water. Risks increase for infants and young children, older persons, immune-compromised individuals and those with important comorbidities,” it noted.
The mission said that Russian attacks have hit facilities in 20 of the 24 regions under Ukrainian control, including the capital Kyiv since March 2024.
These included 36 recorded strikes on power plants in nine regions and at least 101 confirmed attacks on electricity distribution and transmission facilities in 17 regions.
“Many energy facilities were struck repeatedly, some until the point of total destruction,” it said.
It noted that it will “take years to fully repair and restore”.
Ukraine had 44.1 gigawatts of available electricity capacity, via its nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric plants, as well as renewable sources before the war, the report noted.
It cited data from the National Bank of Ukraine. But by April 2023, Ukraine’s national grid had lost nearly half of its available production capacity from occupation and destruction. Additionally, 42 of its 95 high-voltage transformers were damaged, disrupting electricity distribution to homes.
According to the UNHCR, more than 6.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the Russian invasion.
Some 6.2 million are still in Europe and another 3.6 million remain internally displaced inside Ukraine.
The agency said it “unlikely” that these numbers will decrease soon.
Border monitoring conducted by UNHCR and partners showed a slight increase in departures from Ukraine since April this year linked to a lack of access to electricity, water and heating.
UNHCR reported “that rise then starkly increased” by June 2024 to one in four respondents as energy outages became more frequent.
It stressed that by July half of those contacted at the Ukrainian border said they were leaving because of difficulty accessing electricity, water and heating.
“Most of those departing for energy-related reasons are intending to stay abroad temporarily, but for unknown periods,” UNHCR said.
UNICEF estimated that between 78 and 311 million hours of study have been lost each month from power outages beyond the expected exodus of people from Ukraine.
The attacks have seriously impacted education, too.
National Bank of Ukraine estimated that the national economy would shrink by 0.6 per cent.
By June 2024, electricity prices rose by more than two-thirds.
Ukranian Government estimated that high electricity costs would add 1.2 per cent to consumer inflation and six per cent in additional costs for producers.
UN Mission said that in view of the large number of regions affected by the coordinated attacks, “the high precision of the weapons involved, and the sheer scale of harm inflicted on civilians and interconnected civilian systems supplying the population with services essential to their health and survival 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.”
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