Ukraine has launched an initiative to amend the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arguing that the current rules fail to address serious violations of nuclear safety by member states.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X that the existing statute offers no mechanism to respond when a country deliberately undermines the safe and secure use of nuclear energy, while still retaining full decision-making rights within the agency.
Proposal to strip violators of governance rights
Kyiv is proposing the introduction of a formal procedure that would allow such states to be disqualified from participating in IAEA governance, including its decision-making bodies.
“This is not about politics, but about credibility, safety and justice,” Sybiha wrote.
He confirmed that Ukraine’s permanent mission in Vienna has been instructed to formally submit the proposed amendments to the IAEA Secretariat and distribute them among member states for consideration.
Russia's record of nuclear safety violations
The initiative comes amid ongoing concerns over nuclear safety in Ukraine during Russia’s full-scale invasion, including repeated warnings from Kyiv about risks to nuclear facilities in occupied territories.
Since capturing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant - Europe's largest - in March 2022, Russian forces have violated nearly all international nuclear safety principles, according to IAEA reports. Moscow has used the facility as a military base, storing armored vehicles inside reactor buildings while establishing firing positions on rooftops.
The plant has experienced repeated blackouts under Russian occupation. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has brokered four temporary ceasefires to allow repairs to damaged power lines connecting the plant to Ukraine's grid.
Ongoing threats to nuclear infrastructure
Ukrainian intelligence has also uncovered Russian plans to strike substations powering Ukraine's operational nuclear plants, which Foreign Minister Sybiha described as part of Moscow's "genocidal goal to deprive Ukrainians of electricity in the freezing winter."
In December 2025, the IAEA confirmed that Chornobyl's protective arch over the destroyed reactor four "lost its primary safety functions" after a Russian drone strike punched a hole in the structure - an attack Ukrainian authorities classified as a violation of the laws of war.
