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UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said Tuesday UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk was outraged by the repeated large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was outraged by the repeated large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, following more strikes last night which shut down heating and electricity in major urban areas, including in Kyiv and Odesa. This as the people of Ukraine are gripped by extreme cold, with temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius at night.” said Shamdasani.
Addressing the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva, the spokesperson said, “last night’s attacks with long-range weapons caused emergency power and heating outages in several regions.”
“In Kyiv City, the mayor has reported that 5,635 multi-storey residential buildings were left without heating this morning, nearly 80 per cent of which had only recently had heating restored after outages caused by a similar attack on the 9th of January,” she said.
“This means hundreds of thousands of families are now without heating and several areas, including a significant part of Kyiv, are also without water,” said the spokesperson.
“Civilians are bearing the brunt of these attacks, and they can only be described as cruel. They must stop,” said Shamdasani.
“It is appalling to see civilians suffering in this way. Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a clear breach of the rules of warfare,” she said.
STORY: OHCHR / RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
TRT: 01:46
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 JANUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, flag alley
2. Wide shot, Briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was outraged by the repeated large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, following more strikes last night which shut down heating and electricity in major urban areas, including in Kyiv and Odesa.”
3. Wide shot, Briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“This as the people of Ukraine are gripped by extreme cold, with temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius at night.”
5. Wide shot, Briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Last night’s attacks with long-range weapons caused emergency power and heating outages in several regions.”
7. Wide shot, Briefing room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“In Kyiv City, the mayor has reported that 5,635 multi-storey residential buildings were left without heating this morning, nearly 80 per cent of which had only recently had heating restored after outages caused by a similar attack on the 9th of January.”
9. Wide shot, Briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“This means hundreds of thousands of families are now without heating and several areas, including a significant part of Kyiv, are also without water.”
11. Wide shot, Briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Civilians are bearing the brunt of these attacks, and they can only be described as cruel. They must stop.”
13. Wide shot, Briefing room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“It is appalling to see civilians suffering in this way. Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a clear breach of the rules of warfare.”
15. Wide shot, OHCHR headquarters
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