Mr Chair,

Ukraine takes note of the item before the Board concerning the designation of members to serve on the Board of Governors in accordance with Article VI of the Statute.

At the outset, Ukraine wishes to make clear that our statement is not directed against the statutory procedure as such. We recognize that the Statute establishes a specific mechanism for the designation of members most advanced in the technology of atomic energy, including the production of source materials. However, Ukraine cannot remain silent when this procedure is applied in a manner that risks normalizing the participation of the Russian Federation in the governing body of this Agency at a time when Russia itself has created the gravest nuclear safety, nuclear security and safeguards crisis in the history of the IAEA.

The Board of Governors is not a purely technical forum. It is the organ entrusted with the responsibility to uphold the objectives and functions of the Agency. Under Article II of the Statute, the Agency shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. Under Article III, the Agency shall conduct its activities in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations, including the promotion of peace and international cooperation.

Russia’s actions are in direct contradiction to this foundation.

Since the beginning of its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russian Federation has attacked, occupied and attempted to illegally appropriate Ukrainian nuclear facilities. It continues to occupy the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, to interfere with the normal authority of Ukraine’s competent regulator and operator, and to create conditions in which nuclear safety, nuclear security and safeguards cannot be fully ensured in the manner required by the Statute, by relevant safeguards agreements, and by basic international nuclear safety principles.

This Board has already addressed these facts. It has deplored the Russian Federation’s actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine. It has called for the withdrawal of Russian military and other unauthorized personnel from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It has rejected Russia’s attempts to take ownership of that plant and has reaffirmed that the facility must be returned to the full control of the competent Ukrainian authorities.

Therefore, the issue before the Board is not whether the Russian Federation possesses nuclear technology. The issue is whether a State that uses force against the nuclear facilities of another Member State, occupies the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and undermines the very principles that this Agency is mandated to protect, can be treated as an ordinary member designated to serve on the Agency’s governing body.

For Ukraine, the answer is clear.

A place on the Board of Governors is not merely a reflection of technical capacity. It carries institutional responsibility. It presupposes respect for the Statute, for the sovereign rights of Member States, for the purposes and principles of the United Nations, and for the Agency’s central mission: to ensure that nuclear energy serves peace, health and prosperity, not coercion, occupation or war.

Russia has placed itself in fundamental contradiction with these responsibilities.

Mr Chair,

Ukraine appeals to the members of the Board to demonstrate the courage that this moment requires.

No member of this Board can say that it does not know what is happening. No member of this Board can say that the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is a normal circumstance. No member of this Board can say that a State which has turned a peaceful nuclear facility into an instrument of occupation and pressure is acting consistently with the purposes of this Agency.

The facts are before the Board. The responsibility is before the Board as well.

The Board should not hide behind procedure when the very integrity of the Agency is at stake. It should not allow fear, hesitation or political convenience to replace judgment. It should not allow the aggressor State to be treated as an ordinary participant in the governing body of the very institution whose principles it continues to violate.

Ukraine urges the members of the Board to act with the seriousness that this moment requires — in a way that reflects the truth of the situation, the responsibility of this institution, and the judgment of history.

There will come a time when future generations will ask what this Board did when a Member State occupied the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and placed it at the centre of a war of aggression. Ukraine hopes that the answer will not be silence, hesitation or business as usual.

Ukraine requests that this statement be reflected in the records of the meeting.

Thank you, Mr Chair.