The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has issued an alert following extensive damage to power plants, exacerbating the energy crisis and affecting basic necessities like electricity, clean water, and heating, while also driving up consumer prices. Notably, a major coordinated attack on August 26 involved over 100 missiles and drones targeting the national grid. Since March 2024, there have been nine waves of large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s power system, damaging or destroying numerous facilities and severely impacting civilian life, including electricity, water, and sanitation services.
Estimates indicate that recent attacks have put over 10% of the population, approximately 3.7 million people, at risk of consuming contaminated water, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups. Russian strikes since March 2024 have hit facilities in 20 of the 24 regions under Ukrainian control, with many energy facilities repeatedly targeted. Prior to the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine had 44.1 gigawatts of electricity capacity. By April 2023, nearly half of this capacity was lost due to occupation and destruction, and 42 out of 95 high-voltage transformers were damaged, disrupting electricity distribution.
The energy crisis has led to significant forced displacement. According to the UN refugee agency, over 6.7 million Ukrainians have fled since the invasion, with 6.2 million in Europe and 3.6 million internally displaced. Recent energy outages have intensified departures, with nearly half of those leaving by July 2024 citing difficulties with electricity, water, and heating.
Education has also suffered, with UNICEF estimating the loss of up to 311 million hours of study each month due to power outages. Economic impacts include a projected 0.6% shrink in the national economy and substantial increases in electricity prices, adding to consumer inflation and production costs.
The UN Mission stated that the extensive regional impact, high precision of the attacks, and substantial civilian harm suggest possible violations of international humanitarian law.
Original Story https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/09/1154516
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