Written Statement on behalf of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and EURATOM. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine align themselves with this statement, and Australia, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom wish to express their support.
EURATOM and the above States in their capacity as Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention, issue this statement to denounce the decision of the Russian Federation to report on Ukrainian civil nuclear facilities situated in the regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, notably the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

We recall
- United Nations General Assembly Resolutions A/RES/68/262 of 27 March 2014 and A/RES/ES-11/4 of 12 October 2022 (1), calling upon all States and international organisations and specialised agencies not to recognise any alteration by the Russian Federation of the status of Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, qualifying it as a violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law, and refrain from any action and dealing that might be interpreted as recognising any such altered status;
- Resolution GOV/2022/71 of the IAEA Board of Governors (2) deploring and not recognizing the Russian Federation’s attempted illegal annexation of regions of Ukraine, the Russian Federation’s attempts to take ownership of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and its attempted illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territory on which the plant is located and calling upon the Russian Federation to immediately abandon its baseless claims of ownership of the plant;
- Resolutions GC(67)/RES/16 and GC(68)/RES/15 of the IAEA General Conference (3) reaffirming that Ukrainian nuclear power plants and installations, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, must operate safely and securely under full sovereign control of Ukraine and calling for the urgent withdrawal of all unauthorized military and other personnel from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
We stress the importance of respecting the principles of the UN Charter and international law, especially the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, as confirmed by UNGA resolutions, while ensuring compliance with the obligations of the Joint Convention. We reiterate that the attempted illegal alteration by the Russian Federation of the status of Ukraine’s civil nuclear facilities has no validity under international law and that the reporting of the Russian Federation on Ukraine’s civil nuclear facilities, notably the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, in the framework of the 8th Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention is therefore invalid. Only Ukraine’s competent authorities are entitled to report on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
We reiterate our strongest support to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and do not recognise the Russian Federation’s attempted illegal annexations of parts of its territory and consider the act of reporting on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant as an attempt by the Russian Federation to legitimize its illegal seizure of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
We welcome the fact that this serious situation has been reflected in the Summary Report of the 8th Review Meeting.
We stand firmly with Ukraine in defending its ownership and sovereign rights over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and support its efforts in ensuring compliance with the obligations under the Joint Convention.

(1) Resolutions of the UN General Assembly A/RES/68/262, of 27 March 2014, on ‘Territorial integrity of Ukraine’ and A/RES/ES -11/4, of 12 October 2022, ‘Territorial integrity of Ukraine: defending the principles of the Charter of the United Nations’.
(2) Resolutions GOV/2022/58 of 15 September 2022, GOV/2022/71, of 17 November 2022, of the IAEA Board of Governors on ‘The safety, security and safeguards implications of the situation in Ukraine’ and GOV/2024/18, of 7 March 2024, on ‘Nuclear safety, security and safeguards in Ukraine’.
(3) Resolutions GC(67)/RES/16, of 28 September 2023, and GC(68)/RES/15, of 20 September 2024, of the IAEA General Conference ‘on Nuclear safety, security and safeguards in Ukraine’.