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

The occupation of the ZNPP is unprecedented in the history of global nuclear energy. For the first time, a civilian nuclear facility of this scale has been seized by force by occupation troops and used by an aggressor state for military purposes. Russia’s actions constitute a gross violation of the UN Charter, the IAEA Statute, international humanitarian law, and the fundamental principles of nuclear and physical security.

From the first day of the seizure, Russia has turned the plant into a military site. Military equipment, weapons, and ammunition have been deployed on the ZNPP premises and in its immediate vicinity, and the perimeter has been mined. Using a nuclear facility as cover for military units creates direct technological and security risks for Ukraine, Europe, and the entire international community.

During the occupation, the ZNPP has repeatedly experienced full and partial losses of external power supply. Each such incident significantly increased the risk of an emergency situation and demonstrated the dangerous vulnerability of the plant’s safety systems. Russia’s deliberate disregard for basic nuclear safety standards has consequences far beyond the region.

The occupation authorities systematically obstruct the full-fledged work of IAEA experts at the plant. Restrictions on access to critically important areas prevent a complete and objective assessment of the safety situation. The presence of international missions must not be used as an instrument to legitimise or normalise the occupation of the plant.

Russia’s occupation of the ZNPP is accompanied by grave human rights violations. At least 35 civilians—ZNPP employees and residents of Enerhodar—have been unlawfully deprived of liberty, subjected to pressure and torture, and sentenced on fabricated charges. Overall, since 2022, up to two thousand civilians in Enerhodar have been subjected to illegal detention, torture, and enforced disappearances. The use of personnel of a strategic nuclear facility as hostages is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and an additional risk factor for the plant’s safety.

The criminal and extremely dangerous intentions of the Russian Federation to restart Ukrainian power units at the temporarily occupied ZNPP under its own control amount to an attempt to unlawfully appropriate Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure. Any transition of the units to generation mode under occupation would be illegal, contrary to international law, and would create unacceptable nuclear safety risks.

The situation around the ZNPP has a global dimension. The use of a civilian nuclear facility during war as an instrument of military pressure affects perceptions of the reliability of the international nuclear safety and non-proliferation regime. It undermines confidence in existing security guarantees and may influence states’ strategic approaches in the areas of defence and deterrence. In the long term, these trends complicate the maintenance of global strategic stability.

In response to these challenges, Ukraine has initiated a process of reviewing approaches to the aggressor state’s participation in the work of international organisations, including within the IAEA framework. Preserving formal procedural neutrality in the face of systematic violations of nuclear safety principles undermines trust in international institutions.

The MFA emphasises that any visits by senior officials of international organisations to Russia in a nuclear context must have a clear and publicly defined mandate aimed exclusively at ending the occupation and demilitarising the ZNPP. Such contacts must not create the impression that the current status quo is acceptable. International nuclear events cannot be conducted on a “business as usual” basis with the participation of a state that has occupied Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and is creating systemic nuclear risks, including through systematic attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear energy system.

We call on the international community to take decisive, coordinated, and practical actions aimed at the immediate demilitarisation and de-occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant; the restoration of Ukraine’s full sovereign control over the facility; unhindered international monitoring; the release of all unlawfully detained persons; holding the Russian Federation accountable for creating nuclear risks; and amending the IAEA Statute to prevent the aggressor state from exerting a destructive influence on the Agency’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 Nuclear Power Plant must be returned under Ukraine’s full sovereign control in accordance with international law.