We are alarmed by the increasing threats to nuclear safety and security posed by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine. Over the past 15 months, Russia first devastated the Chernobyl site and shelled other nuclear installations before illegally seizing and attempting to claim the ownership of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

As a consequence, each of the IAEA Director General’s “seven indispensable pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security in an armed conflict” has been compromised at the ZNPP. The site has been heavily militarised, its surroundings are mined, it was subject to repeated shelling and external power has been cut off a number of times. The Ukrainian staff is working under unbearable conditions, in increasingly small numbers along with unlicensed management and other staff. The proverbial “accident waiting to happen” is a potential nuclear disaster.

This is simply unacceptable.

Russia must urgently withdraw from the ZNPP and return control to its legitimate owner, Ukraine. The EU and its Member States will never recognise Russia’s attempted illegal seizure of the ZNPP.

Russia has shown no sign of complying with the three IAEA Board of Governors’ resolutions adopted in 2022, or the previous IAEA General Conference consensus resolutions which state that “any armed attack on and threat against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the UN Charter, international law and the Statute of the Agency”. We urge all UN Member States to hold Russia accountable.

The EU fully supports the IAEA’s work to assist Ukraine in maintaining nuclear safety and security, and to implement safeguards pursuant to Ukraine’s safeguards obligations. We stress the importance of the IAEA’s continued presence at all of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, which was achieved in January and the need to ensure a regular rotation of IAEA experts to and from all nuclear power plants.

We continue to support the IAEA Director General’s efforts to reach agreement on the protection of the ZNPP, in full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and ownership of the plant. And once such agreement is reached, we call on both sides to honour and effectively enforce it.

Since the start of Russia’s war of aggression, the EU has provided Ukraine with more than €53 million in nuclear safety related material assistance - medical countermeasures, radiometric instruments, personal protective equipment, critical medical supplies and decontamination provisions – as well as €5.6 million through the IAEA to support Ukraine, also for the establishment of permanent IAEA experts’ presence in the nuclear facilities. This does not include nuclear safety and security assistance provided by EU Member States bilaterally or through the IAEA. We encourage further information sharing and donor coordination to maximise the synergies between various assistance activities.

The EU urges the Russian Federation to immediately stop its war of aggression against Ukraine, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its armed forces and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine, and fully respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

The EU will stand with Ukraine for as long as necessary.

Russia’s illegal aggression has taken us to the brink of nuclear disaster. Russia started this war, and it can end this war.