Volker Türk stated he was outraged by renewed in a single day assaults that knocked out energy and heating in main cities – together with Kyiv and Odesa – as temperatures plunged properly beneath zero and civilians bear the brunt of what he described as illegal assaults on civilian infrastructure.
He stated the Russian strikes “can only be described as cruel. They must stop. Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a clear breach of the rules of warfare.”
According to Ukrainian authorities, the most recent long-range assaults triggered emergency energy and heating outages throughout a number of areas.
In Kyiv alone, town’s mayor reported that 5,635 multi-storey residential buildings had been left with out heating on Tuesday morning, almost 80 per cent of which had solely just lately had heating restored after related strikes earlier this month.
Since October final yr, Russian armed forces have renewed systematic large-scale assaults towards Ukraine’s power infrastructure, with strikes recorded in no less than 20 areas of the nation.
Mr. Türk known as on Russian authorities to right away halt the assaults, warning that continued strikes on important civilian infrastructure danger compounding human struggling.
Humanitarian penalties
“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,” Mr. Türk stated, warning that the affect falls most closely on youngsters, older folks and individuals with disabilities.
The humanitarian toll was underscored by Matthias Schmale, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, who stated that over the previous 48 hours tens of 1000’s of civilians as soon as once more woke to freezing properties and extreme disruptions to primary companies.
“Parents cannot prepare hot meals for their children, and many older people have been left isolated in cold homes yet again,” he stated. “The hideous strikes on energy that have such a huge negative impact on the lives of the civilian population violate international humanitarian law and should end immediately.”
Nuclear security dangers
The assaults have additionally raised recent issues over nuclear security. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated a number of electrical substations very important for nuclear security had been affected.
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant briefly misplaced all off-site energy, whereas energy traces to different nuclear services had been additionally impacted. “The IAEA is actively following developments in order to assess impact on nuclear safety,” Director General Rafael Grossi stated.
Chernobyl was the positioning of the world’s worst nuclear accident in April 1986, when a reactor explosion launched large quantities of radioactive materials throughout Ukraine, Europe and past.
Although the plant has lengthy ceased energy technology, it requires a secure electrical energy provide to take care of cooling programs, radiation monitoring and the protected administration of nuclear waste, making uninterrupted energy vital to stopping new security dangers.
https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2026/01/1166798