RUSSIA targeted Ukrainian energy and civilian infrastructure in overnight attacks which could have violated humanitarian law, Ukrainian officials claimed today.

All 42 drones and one of four missiles launched by Russia in the latest attacks were shot down, Ukraine’s air force said.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine criticised Russia over its repeated strikes on the energy grid in the Sumy region.

It said that the attacks posed risks to the water supply, sewage and sanitation, provision of heating and hot water, public health, education and the wider economy.

Ukraine has also targeted Russian energy infrastructure, such as oil refineries, arguing they are vital to its war effort and therefore military targets.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law,” the monitoring mission said in a report.

The European Union estimates that about half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed, making the job of heating homes, hospitals and schools increasingly difficult as temperatures dip ahead of the third war winter that the nation will face.

EU leader Ursula von der Leyen was expected to travel to Ukraine today to promise  €160 million (£134m) in fresh energy funds.

Ms Von der Leyen told reporters yesterday that the majority of the funds would come from the Russian assets frozen in the EU since 2022 because of its invasion.

“It is only right that Russia pays for the destruction it caused,” she said.

She will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.