Ukraine decries Russia’s seizure of Chernobyl NPP as “nuclear terrorism,” asks IAEA to urgently appeal to NATO

03.03.2022 12:08

Ukrinform

Ukraine is asking the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to call on NATO to close access to the airspace over the country’s nuclear facilities and intensify efforts to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism, such as the seizure of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the exclusion zone.

"In order to reestablish legal regulation of safety of nuclear installations within the Chernobyl NPP site and within the Exclusion zone we insist that immediate decisive measures be taken,” the appeal of March 2 reads.

The officials urge the IAEA to appeal to NATO with a request to establish the A2/AD zone (Anti Access/Area Denial) over the territory of Ukraine, taking into account the risks and geography of the location of NNEGC Energoatom.

The appeal was signed by the Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, Head of the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation Oleh Korikov, and NNEGC Energoatom CEO Petro Kotin.

According to the text of the appeal, Ukraine also insists on the actions on the part of the IAEA toward the immediate ceasefire and banning the occupation forces from approaching closer than 30 km to the NPP, as well as stepping up efforts by the IAEA EIC headquarters to coordinate activities to prevent nuclear terrorism at the Chornobyl NPP and provide humanitarian and psychological assistance to its personnel.

"The seizure of the world-famous Chernobyl nuclear power plant by the Russian Federation has all indications of an act of nuclear terrorism committed against Chernobyl nuclear facilities and its personnel by the Russian military," the appeal stressed.

Its authors noted that the Chernobyl NPP personnel, who had been held captive by the Russian military without rotation for seven days, remained under psychological pressure and went morally exhausted. They have limited opportunities to communicate, move, and carry out full-fledged maintenance and repair work, which endangers their lives and health.

"Informing the IAEA on the security status of nuclear facilities during military actions, we expect concrete joint action by the IAEA in the form of ‘peer pressure,’ which is commonly used by member states of the organization as concerns to the parties evading priority of the security,” the appeal says.

At the same time, its authors emphasize that the Russian Federation completely ignores the principles of peace, security and unity, for which it was created.

The IAEA is part of the UN, and therefore it is proposed to rule out Russia's access to the agency's intellectual and technical resources while strengthening control over the accounting, control and use of nuclear material in this country.

In addition, it is insisted that severing all relations with all citizens of the Russian Federation responsible for nuclear energy, who are employed in all UN structures.

"Joint participation in the international organizations with such member-states in the existing format is unacceptable for Ukraine and, we hope, for other Member States as well,” the authors of the appeal said.

They also stressed that the military aggression of the Russian Federation, as a nuclear state, against Ukraine under the cynical designation of a "special operation with coercion to peace" destroyed the fundamentals of the international security system formed after World War 2.