The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Monday he fears the effects of winter on Ukrainians, denouncing repeated Russian attacks targeting energy infrastructure and causing power cuts across the country.
“In Ukraine, civilians are trapped in cycles of terror,” said Volker Türk, in a general address to the Human Rights Council.
He pointed to “the Russian Federation’s constant attacks on civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools and supermarkets, and repeated waves targeting energy infrastructure and causing power cuts across the country.”
“I fear for the Ukrainians this winter,” he said.
Mr. Türk also “regretted” that Russia “has so far refused” to grant his office access to the Russian regions affected by the conflict, “including Kursk”, the scene of a major offensive by Kiev’s forces since August 6.
On August 15, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had sent “a request to the Russian authorities to facilitate access […] to the areas of the Russian Federation affected by hostilities, including the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions, within the framework of [son] human rights monitoring and evaluation mandate”.
The High Commission, which has an office in Ukraine, has already sent several requests for access to Russian-controlled Ukrainian territories and to Russian territory, without a positive response so far.
However, no request for access to Kursk has been sent to the Ukrainian authorities, a spokesperson for the High Commission, Liz Throssell, told AFP, because “we are of the opinion that access to the territory of the Russian Federation must be requested from the Russian authorities.”
The Russian army launched an assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
On August 6, kyiv’s forces rushed into the Kursk region, catching Russian troops off guard and making the largest incursion by a foreign army onto Russian soil since the end of World War II.