The warning of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine The disaster is the result of major destruction of power plants and a worsening energy crisis that is affecting access to electricity, clean water and heating, and is raising prices for consumers.
The attacks on the national network included a coordinated attack on August 26, which a new report described as one of the largest Russian attacks since the full-scale invasion began, with “more than 100 missiles and 100 drones in various regions of Ukraine, mainly targeting energy and other infrastructure. Nationwide power outages were implemented to stabilize the grid.”
There have been “nine waves of coordinated, large-scale, long-range attacks”on Ukraine’s electricity grid between March 22 and August 31, 2024the report noted. These damaged or destroyed “numerous electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities” and harmed 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 further cites estimates that the latest attacks on energy infrastructure have “disrupted more than 10 percent of the population – 3.7 million people are at risk of consuming contaminated drinking water“Risks increase for infants and young children, the elderly, immunocompromised individuals, and individuals with significant comorbidities,” the report said.
High tension hits
According to the mission, Russian attacks have hit facilities in 20 of the 24 regions under Ukrainian control, including the capital Kiev, since March 2024. These include 36 recorded attacks 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 hit repeatedly, some to the point of total destruction,” the report said, noting that it “will take years to fully repair and restore them.”
Before the large-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Ukraine had 44.1 gigawatts of available electricity capacity, through its nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plants, as well as renewable sources, the report noted, citing data from the National Bank of Ukraine. But By April 2023, Ukraine’s national electricity grid had lost almost half of its available generating capacity of occupation and destruction. In addition, 42 of the 95 high-voltage transformers were damaged, disrupting electricity distribution to homes.
Fear of forced displacement
According to the UN refugee agency (UN refugee agency), more than 6.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the Russian invasion. About 6.2 million are still in Europe and another 3.6 million are still displaced within Ukraine. The UN refugee agency considers it “unlikely” that these numbers will decrease anytime soon.
Border surveillance carried out by UNHCR and partners has shown a slight increase in departures from Ukraine since April this year, coupled with a lack of access to electricity, water and heating. But “that increase then increased sharply in June 2024”for one in four respondents because there were more and more power outages. In July, almost half of the people approached at the Ukrainian border said they wanted to leave because of problems with access to electricity, water and heating.
“Most of those leaving for energy-related reasons plan to remain abroad temporarily, but for unknown periods of time,” UNHCR said.
Education: Millions of teaching hours lost
In addition to the expected exodus of people from Ukraine, the attacks have also had a serious impact on education. In July 2024, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that between Every month, 78 and 311 million study hours are lost due to power outages.
After the first waves of attacks in March 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine estimated that the national economy would shrink by 0.6 percent. In June 2024, electricity prices rose by more than two-thirds. The country’s government estimated that high electricity costs would add 1.2 percent to consumer inflation and six percent to additional costs for producers.
The UN mission said that given the large number of regions affected by the coordinated attacks, “the high precision of the weapons involved and the enormous scale of the damage inflicted on civilians and the interconnected civilian systems that provide populations 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 generating and transmission infrastructure violated fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”
