Check against delivery

 Statement by Mr. Sergii SHUTENKO, Director of the Department General for International Security and Military-Technical Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, at the Third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons 

Cluster 3: Peaceful use of nuclear energy

(6 May 2025, New York)

 

Mr. Chair,

Ukraine aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union under this cluster. We would like to make some additional remarks in our national capacity.

The peaceful atom is meant to serve humanity. Yet, today in Ukraine, it is being deliberately attacked and abused as a tool of war. Russia’s military aggression has inflicted catastrophic and systemic damage on Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure.

The most alarming example of this is the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which remains under illegal Russian military occupation.  Since March 2022, eight power outages have occurred at the plant. As the IAEA Director General warned, each such outage is a stark reminder of the plant’s precarious situation.

The situation worsened with the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in 2023, which compromised the plant’s cooling systems. Today, while all six reactors are in cold shutdown, this stability cannot be guaranteed as long as the site remains inaccessible to Ukraine’s regulatory authorities.

Mr. Chair,

On 14 February 2025, a Russian drone strike damaged the New Safe Confinement at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This breach ignited a fire that took nearly three weeks to extinguish. While no radioactive release occurred, the incident raised serious concerns about the long-term integrity of this critical structure.

On 8 July 2024, a Russian missile struck the National Children’s Hospital Okhmatdyt in Kyiv—a leader in paediatric cancer treatment and a participant in IAEA Technical Cooperation projects. No radiological release occurred, but the message was clear: hospitals are not safe from this aggression.

In Kharkiv, the Neutron Source facility—used for research and isotope production — was struck multiple times. Although no radioactive leak occurred, the facility was critically damaged.

Mr. Chair,

Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine was a reliable partner in the IAEA’s Technical Cooperation Programme. Our projects focused on nuclear medicine, radiological laboratories, Chornobyl rehabilitation, and regulatory capacity. These initiatives have been severely disrupted. In 2022, technical cooperation with Ukraine was effectively suspended for several months.

The war has forced Ukraine to shift from forward-looking development to emergency response. Resources once earmarked for innovation are now spent to replace damaged equipment, secure orphan sources, and restore basic infrastructure.

Despite this devastation, Ukraine’s remains fully committed to peaceful use of nuclear energy remains We continue to collaborate with the IAEA and our partners to stabilize the situation, safeguard nuclear material, and protect personnel. The IAEA’s continuous presence at Ukrainian nuclear sites has been indispensable, and we thank Director General Grossi and all donor countries for their invaluable support.

We also recognize the IAEA’s delivery of more than 100 shipments of equipment to Ukraine.

Distinguished delegates,

Ukraine’s experience serves as both a warning and a call to action. If nuclear power plants can be occupied, containment structures can be struck by drones, and cancer hospitals can be shelled without consequence, the very credibility of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy is at risk.

Let us ensure that this does not become the new normal. Let us reaffirm our shared commitment to keeping nuclear technology in the service of humanity, not destruction.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.