{"id":743184,"date":"2026-02-05T03:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/743184\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T03:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:59:19","slug":"russian-strikes-on-ukraines-energy-grid-raise-legal-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/743184\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid raise legal questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Russian missiles and drones have pounded Ukraine\u2019s energy grid in recent weeks, plunging people into frozen darkness<\/a> in one of the country\u2019s coldest winters on record.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has accused Russia of illegally targeting power infrastructure during the war<\/a> to deny civilians light, heating and running water.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, on the eve of a new round of talks<\/a> about ending the conflict and as temperatures in Kyiv hovered around minus 20 C (minus 3 F).<\/p>\n

Russia says its attacks are a legitimate part of its military campaign against its neighbor. Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine<\/a> itself is widely regarded as an illegal act of aggression.<\/p>\n

So, are attacks on energy installations allowed during war?<\/p>\n

What international law says<\/p>\n

Combatants can legally target a power grid if the attack \u201cdirectly affects a valid military target\u201d \u2014 but they cannot cause excessive civilian casualties, said David Crane, former chief prosecutor at the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

In the case of Russia\u2019s attacks on Ukraine, \u201cthe indiscriminate and widespread targeting does not come close to what is legal,\u201d he said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that parts of energy systems providing essential services to civilians \u201care in principle civilian objects, and as such are protected against direct attack and reprisals as well as incidental harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretrial judges from the International Criminal Court, in fact, issued arrest warrants<\/a> in 2024 for top Russian military brass and the country\u2019s former defense minister for their alleged involvement in missile strikes targeting electricity infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In announcing warrants for former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia\u2019s chief military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the court said that judges found \u201creasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects, and for those installations that may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia is not a member of the court, rejects its jurisdiction, and refuses to extradite suspects to face justice in the ICC\u2019s courtrooms in The Hague, Netherlands.<\/p>\n

What Russia says<\/p>\n

The Russian military has repeatedly said that it has targeted energy facilities and other infrastructure that support Ukrainian military industries and armed forces. It has denied targeting residential areas despite daily evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Wednesday that \u201cour military is striking the targets that they believe are associated with the military complex of the Kyiv regime, the operation is continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Ukraine says<\/p>\n

Kyiv accuses Russia of seeking to wear down Ukrainians\u2019 appetite for the fight by inflicting grinding hardship on civilians forced to live in dark, freezing homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Authorities say Russia has tried to cripple Ukraine\u2019s electricity network by targeting substations, transformers, turbines and generators at power plants. Ukraine\u2019s largest private power company, DTEK, said that this week\u2019s overnight attack was the ninth major assault on the company\u2019s thermal power plants since October.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s energy sector has suffered more than $20 billion in direct war damage, according to a joint estimate by the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Russian missiles and drones have pounded Ukraine\u2019s energy grid in recent weeks, plunging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[219836,7667,2000,299,4179,10546,8617,2301,7659,7661,212683,29906,657,7662,28064,2601,7660,263],"class_list":["post-743184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-david-crane","tag-dmitry-peskov","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-general-news","tag-kyiv","tag-military-and-defense","tag-moscow","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sergei-shoigu","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-valery-gerasimov","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116016025794139927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}