The commission, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2022, based its findings on interviews with 255 people who endured winter conditions in nine Ukrainian oblasts, including Dnipro, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr. Temperatures plunged to -21°C last winter, the report noted.
“The scariest thing was to fall asleep and not to wake up; it was like torture to be scared of dying from cold,” a 53-year-old man told investigators. A 74-year-old woman from Kyiv said, “I lay cold and hungry, without medicine, without anything.” The report highlighted that older people are particularly vulnerable, often unable to reach shelters during air raids.
The commission found that Russian commanders were aware that the heating facilities they targeted were “indispensable to the civilian population, particularly during the winter.” It concluded that they committed the war crime of “intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects.”
The report also cited “compelling evidence” that Russian authorities recruited men trafficked from 29 countries into the armed forces, using deception and coercion. After arrival, the men were forced to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence. Many were deployed to front lines and killed, gone missing, or captured. The commission called for all trafficked persons to be discharged.
Investigators also examined attacks by Ukrainian armed forces on energy infrastructure in Russia and occupied areas, but were unable to verify their impact because Russian authorities did not allow access or respond to requests for information.