On July 17, at Chornobyl NPP a meeting was held with heads and members of foreign diplomatic institutions and missions accredited in Ukraine. The event was arranged to pursue the order of the President of Ukraine and was dedicated to implementation of the Peace Formula, in particular, the implementation of points related to nuclear and radiation safety.
The event was attended by the heads of embassies of G7 countries and the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, heads and members of the diplomatic missions of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Türkiye, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Brazil, India, Spain, the Republic of Korea, Egypt, the Vatican, the UN Resident Coordinator Office in Ukraine, as well as heads of relevant ministries, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, etc. Representatives of the embassies of Argentina, Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia also joined online.
The guests of ChNPP industrial site visited Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility-2 (dry type) and New Safe Confinement where SSE ChNPP First Deputy Director General Valeriy Seyda informed them about details of these facilities construction and operation.
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrii Yermak held a meeting where, in particular, he noted that Chornobyl NPP was chosen as the venue for meeting not by chance: representatives of the diplomatic corps have to see with their own eyes the consequences of nuclear safety non-observance. Andrii Yermak reminded that after start of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine russian troops seized Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the notorious nuclear disaster occurred in 1986, damaged the plant's equipment and set up their positions in radiation-contaminated soil.
The meeting’s most impressive and emotional part was the story of Lyudmila Kozak, ChNPP Physical Protection Service engineer, who, on the example of her own staying at NPP site from the first days of its occupation by russian troops, conveyed to foreign diplomatic missions’ representatives the message on all dangers and cynicism of using the nuclear facilities as the means of armed aggression and nuclear blackmail.
The head of the President's Office noted: "Their activities here threatened global nuclear safety and security. That is why we are very concerned about the situation at Zaporizhzhia NPP which is still occupied. And today one can only theoretically imagine what consequences will be if something happens”.
Andrii Yermak emphasized that the Ukrainian Peace Formula proposed by Volodymyr Zelensky is designed to contribute to solving global crises and risks that russian federation creates for the whole world with its actions.
According to him, Ukraine will initiate the joint establishment of international mechanisms that can be applied in case of any armed conflict in the world and will be reflected in changes to international law and resolutions of the UN General Assembly. "We must stop this russian aggression and prevent other potential acts of aggression against Ukraine and in other places of the planet. It is also necessary to deal with the consequences of war all over the world. We must make the world safer," Head of the President's Office concluded.
During the discussion with diplomats, Minister for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets mentioned that in order to restore the world's nuclear safety and security Ukraine must have control over all such facilities as the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia NPPs.
The minister also said that russian federation’s aggression against Ukraine had already caused more than 54 billion dollars of damage to the environment. At COP27 Climate Change Conference in Egypt the President of Ukraine proposed to create a platform for assessing environmental damage caused by the war, this work is already underway. International Work Team on Environmental Consequences of War, which is co-chaired by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrii Yermak and the former EU Environment Commissioner and ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Margot Wallström, deals with the issue of compensation for damages and countermeasures against the ecocide committed by russian federation.
For his part, the Minister for Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko mentioned that during the occupation ChNPP personnel had worked for 600 hours without rotation, having been in fact as prisoners near the armed men.
He informed the diplomats about the current situation and risks related to the ongoing Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia NPP, as well as the consequences of Kakhovka HPP dam blast.
Government officials emphasized that the only way to ensure nuclear safety is to withdraw russian troops from Zaporizhzhia NPP and to return the plant to Ukrainian control. And in particular, this is precisely why radiation and nuclear safety, ecocide and immediate protection of the environment are important points of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Peace Formula, for the implementation of which the whole world must join efforts.
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mykola Tochytsky emphasized that the Ukrainian Peace Formula and its key elements are already supported in a number of international documents, in particular, the resolution of UN General Assembly dated February 23, 2023. He also informed that various states started work on some elements of the Ukrainian Peace Formula that demonstrates readiness to become leaders or participants in the implementation of certain points.
In his closing remark Andrii Yermak said that it is the third meeting in this format and thanked the ambassadors and diplomatic representatives who joined this format of consultations for the first time today, and informed that the next meeting in a similar format will take place at the end of August-September. It will also be at the facilities whose example should demonstrate to the world that only joint efforts will reduce the dangers and challenges caused by russia for Ukraine and the world as a whole.