The United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has established that Russia committed crimes against humanity, saying the motive for attacking critical infrastructure was to deprive civilians of electricity and heating, CNN reported on Monday, citing a report it reviewed.

The panel said Russian commanders knew the consequences of depriving civilians of heating during winter.

“Russian commanders who were ordering these attacks knew that the heating facilities they targeted were indispensable to the civilian population, in particular during the winter,” the UN panel wrote in the report to the General Assembly.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said the report confirmed long-held concerns that Russia “deliberately deprived millions of people of electricity, heating and water, turning cold and darkness into instruments of war.”

Many Ukrainians endured temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius last winter after Russia’s large-scale attacks significantly reduced Ukraine’s thermal power generation by 70 per cent.

The report cited medical accounts of cold-related injuries and deaths following the failure of heating systems.

“Medical personnel from hospitals reported that during the past winter, they attended to patients who developed cold-related trauma, including various degrees of frostbite and hypothermia. The patients had developed these conditions at home, due to exposure to unheated premises and required hospitalization,” the report said.

The UN panel also found that Russia recruited foreigners from Africa, India and Latin America through deception to bolster its troops.

“Promised payments and bonuses were usually diverted by recruiting agents and military commanders, passports and phones were often confiscated, and contacts between agents and families were interrupted, once the recruits were deployed to the front.”

The UN panel said Russia violated the rights of recruits through deceptive employment practices.

It also investigated Ukraine’s recruitment of foreigners, concluding that those who joined its troops “did so knowingly and voluntarily.”