UN experts warn of Ukraine war’s spillover risks, with no region spared by Russia’s expanding influence

MOSCOW, 22 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

UN Human Rights Council‑appointed experts warned on Monday that continued Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are leaving civilians increasingly vulnerable as winter approaches.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said repeated attacks have already caused prolonged power and heating outages during a brutal 2025‑2026 season when temperatures fell 20 °C below normal, and warned the coming winter could be even harder to endure.

Commission chair Erik Møse told the council that “the coming winter will be more difficult to endure” as attacks persist. He cited the testimony of a 74‑year‑old woman from an 18th‑floor Kyiv apartment who said lifts stopped working during power cuts, leaving her “cold and hungry, without medicine, without anything.”

The commission is also examining Russia’s push to embed patriotic and military education in occupied areas. It reported that weapons training is now compulsory from age 14 and that foreign nationals are being recruited with promises of civilian jobs, only to be forced into military contracts they cannot read. Some recruits have died shortly after reaching the front, while others remain missing, injured or captured, according to families who say recruiting agents have stopped responding.

Separately, Mariana Katzarova, the council‑appointed Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, presented a report titled Nowhere is safe that documents a sharp rise in Russian repression abroad since the 2022 invasion. She cited nearly 400 cases, noting that documented incidents have risen roughly eight‑fold—from 29 in the eight years before 2022 to 89 in the three years since. Between 650,000 and 900,000 people have left Russia, according to her findings.

Katzarova highlighted assassinations, poisonings and assaults on exiled journalists and activists, and said Russia files more INTERPOL “red notices” than any other country, with about half of those reviewed in 2024 breaching INTERPOL’s own rules. She described a Chechen torture survivor detained in Kazakhstan under a Russian extradition request who attempted suicide twice and still faces the risk of torture if returned.

Calling transnational repression “not inevitable,” Katzarova urged the UN to adopt a binding convention that would require host states to screen Russian arrest requests and protect individuals at risk. Both the commission members and the Special Rapporteur serve the Human Rights Council in an independent, unpaid capacity and do not speak for the UN.