Ukraine will never agree to legalize the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the only way to guarantee nuclear safety is through the withdrawal of Russia’s military, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
The statement came in response to claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 2 that Moscow was open to “three-way cooperation” with the US and Ukraine over the plant.
In comments made during his meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Beijing, Putin said that under “favorable circumstances” Russia would “cooperate with American partners at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.”
He added that he had already discussed with US President Donald Trump the possibility of working together “all three of us,” but provided no further details of what such “cooperation” might look like.
A statement from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said: “The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is and will remain an integral part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Any attempts by Russia to question this fact are legally null and void as well as politically futile.”
“Ukraine will never agree to the legalization of the occupation, and the international community must intensify its joint efforts to restore Ukraine’s legitimate control over the plant,” it continued.
It added that nuclear safety could not be established at the plant until it had seen “the immediate and complete withdrawal of Russian military and other personnel… its full international monitoring, and its return to Ukraine’s full control.”
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and ranks among the 10 largest in the world.
It has been under Russian control since 2022, with management being told that the plant now belongs to Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear power company.
The Foreign Ministry statement said that since the occupation Russia has “turned [the plant] into a military base, damaged its infrastructure and normal functioning, and resorted to pressure, threats and even the capture of ZNPP employees.”
The UN’s nuclear watchdog has repeatedly raised concerns about security risks at the plant, which is located on the front line of Russia’s invasion, while Ukrainian officials have expressed fears that Russia is endangering the facility as well as the surrounding population.
Kyiv has also shared its worries that Russia is preparing to connect the plant to its own power grid.
The fate of the plant has been critical in talks on reaching a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.
In March, it was widely reported that Trump had suggested to Volodymyr Zelensky that the US could own and run Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the event of a ceasefire.
Zelensky said that Trump had then proposed a joint initiative to restore the Zaporizhzhia plant, which he said would be acceptable to Ukraine if the US invested in bringing the plant’s technology up to date and helped to return it to Ukrainian control.
According to The Wall Street Journal in April, Washington was also mulling the creation of a neutral zone around the plant.
In response to the April reports, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Moscow “does not consider it possible” to transfer the plant to Ukraine or any other country.
“The return of the plant to the Russian nuclear industry is a long-accomplished fact, which the international community simply has to recognize,” the statement read.