The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine condemns the ongoing occupation by Russia of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been under the illegal military control of the aggressor state since March 4, 2022.

The occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is unprecedented in the history of world nuclear energy. For the first time, a civilian nuclear facility of this scale has been forcibly seized by occupying forces and used by an aggressor state for military purposes. Russia’s actions grossly violate the UN Charter, the Statute of the IAEA, the norms of international humanitarian law, and the basic principles of nuclear and physical security.

From the first day of the seizure of the station, Russia has turned it into a military site. Military equipment, weapons, and ammunition are located on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and in its immediate vicinity, and the perimeter is mined. The use of a nuclear facility as a cover for military units creates direct man-made risks for Ukraine, Europe, and the entire international community.

During the occupation, the ZNPP repeatedly suffered complete and partial loss of external power. Each such incident significantly increased the risk of an emergency and demonstrated the dangerous vulnerability of the safety system. Russia’s deliberate disregard for basic nuclear safety standards has consequences that extend far beyond the region.

The occupation authorities systematically impede the full-fledged activities of the IAEA experts at the plant. Restricting access to critical areas makes it impossible to fully and objectively assess the level of safety. The presence of international missions cannot be used as a tool that legitimizes or normalizes the occupation of the plant.

The Russian occupation of the ZNPP is accompanied by gross human rights violations. At least 35 civilians — ZNPP employees and residents of Enerhodar — have been illegally deprived of their liberty, subjected to pressure and torture, and convicted on trumped-up charges. In total, up to two thousand civilians have been subjected to unlawful detention, torture and enforced disappearances in Enerhodar since 2022. The use of employees of a strategic nuclear facility as hostages is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and an additional risk factor for the safety of the plant.

The criminal and extremely dangerous intentions of the Russian Federation to launch Ukrainian power units at the temporarily occupied ZNPP under its own control are an attempt to illegally appropriate Ukrainian nuclear infrastructure. Any transfer of power units to generation mode under occupation conditions will be illegal, will contradict international law and will create unacceptable risks for nuclear safety.

The situation around ZNPP has a global dimension. The use of a civilian nuclear facility in wartime as an instrument of military pressure affects the perception of the reliability of the international nuclear safety and non-proliferation system. This weakens trust in existing security guarantees and may affect the strategic approaches of states in the field of defense and deterrence. In the long term, such trends make it difficult to maintain global strategic stability.

In response to these challenges, Ukraine initiated a process of reviewing approaches to the participation of an aggressor state in the activities of international organizations, in particular within the IAEA. Maintaining formal procedural neutrality with regard to systematic violations of the principles of nuclear safety undermines trust in international institutions.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that any visits by high-ranking officials of international organizations to Russia in a nuclear context must have a clear and publicly outlined mandate aimed exclusively at ending the occupation and demilitarizing the ZNPP. Such contacts cannot create the impression of the acceptability of the existing status quo. International events in the nuclear sphere cannot take place in the “business as usual” format with the participation of a state that occupied the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and creates systemic nuclear risks, in particular through systematic shelling of the Ukrainian nuclear energy system.

We call on the international community to take decisive, coordinated and practical action aimed at the immediate demilitarization and deoccupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP; the restoration of full sovereign control of Ukraine over the plant; ensuring unhindered international monitoring; the release of all illegally detained persons; holding the Russian Federation accountable for creating nuclear risks; and amending the IAEA Statute to prevent the destructive influence of an aggressor state on the organization’s activities.

The security of Europe and the world cannot be held hostage by a terrorist state that uses nuclear energy as an instrument of war. The Zaporizhzhia NPP must be returned to full sovereign control of Ukraine in accordance with international law.