Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, IAEA

Parallel fake: ‘Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is completely safe under Russian control.’ The situation around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (occupied by the Russian army since 2022) remains very tense. The IAEA insists on the withdrawal of illegal military forces from the plant and its return to Ukrainian control. Currently, six of the seven principles of nuclear safety have been violated at the ZNPP.

‘The IAEA wants to “steal” the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from its legal owner, Russia,’ was how the russian media reacted to the resolution on Ukraine's nuclear safety in the context of russian aggression, adopted at the end of the 69th session of the IAEA General Conference. The russians stated that the adopted document is ‘purely anti-russian in nature and calls into question the territorial integrity of russia.’ russian media also insist that IAEA member states have no authority to adopt resolutions in support of Ukraine and claim that the Agency has no mission at the temporarily occupied ZNPP. In other publications, the kremlin's special services brazenly lie that the ZNPP is completely safe under russian control.
The 69th session of the IAEA General Conference was held at the Vienna International Centre in Austria on 15-19 September 2025, during which IAEA member states adopted the resolution ‘Nuclear Safety, Physical Nuclear Security and Safeguards in Ukraine’: https://www.iaea.org/gc69/gc69res14
IAEA member states called on russia to immediately withdraw military and other personnel from the ZNPP. The IAEA document confirms that the ZNPP and all nuclear facilities in Ukraine must operate under the full sovereign control of the competent Ukrainian authorities. No one is going to steal the Zaporizhzhya NPP from its legal owner, as russian propaganda claims. On the contrary, IAEA member states insist on returning it to the control of Ukrainian specialists.
The resolution emphasises that seven safety principles must be strictly adhered to at the russian-occupied plant, including a ban on any attacks on the NPP, a ban on the use of the plant as a weapons storage facility, and the provision of a reliable external power supply from the grid for all nuclear facilities. Six of these seven principles are constantly being disregarded by russia. The IAEA reports catastrophic violations of nuclear safety rules by the russian army at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
Due to the russian war, the Zaporizhzhia NPP is operating in conditions not provided for in the design. As a result of the occupiers blowing up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in June 2023, the main source of water supply for cooling the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia NPP was destroyed. The plant has lost its external power supply nine times and has been in a state of blackout. Due to constant russian shelling, only one of ten power lines is currently operational, increasing the risk of a complete power outage at Europe's largest nuclear facility. Ukraine and its partners insist on at least basic repairs to the power lines.
russian media are also cynically lying about the absence of an international observer mission at the captured Ukrainian nuclear facility and other Ukrainian stations. According to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, the nuclear safety and security of the ZNPP remains a priority for the Agency's work: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/statements/director-generals-statement-to-the-sixty-ninth-regular-session-of-the-iaea-general-conference
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Agency has sent more than 200 monitoring missions to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. At the same time, Grossi stressed that russian military actions continue to pose the main threat to Ukrainian energy facilities. According to the IAEA, in recent weeks, the international mission has witnessed an increase in air threats from the terrorist country to four more nuclear power plants in Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2025 alone, more than 500 flights of russian drones and missiles have been recorded in the 30-kilometre surveillance zones around Ukrainian nuclear power plants. The Director General of the Agency recalled that in February 2025, a russian drone struck the protective sarcophagus of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl NPP.
The IAEA members' resolution concludes that russia continues to threaten the nuclear safety of Ukraine and the entire world with constant attacks on critical infrastructure. 
Read another fake: russia intensifies its aggression against Europe.
Based on materials from Stopfake.org