Ukraine asks the International Nuclear Security Agency (IAEA) to apply to NATO with a demand to close access to the airspace over its nuclear facilities and to intensify actions to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism, which is the fact that the troops of the Russian Federation seized the Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) and the exclusion zone.

"To return the situation related to the safety of nuclear installations and facilities at the Chornobyl site and in the exclusion zone to the legal field, we insist on taking urgent decisive actions and ask the IAEA to send a request to NATO to introduce the A2/AD zone (Anti Access and Area Denial) over the territory of Ukraine, taking into account the risks and geography of the nuclear power plants of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom," a joint appeal to the IAEA dated March 2, 2022 said.

The appeal was signed by Minister of Energy Herman Haluschenko, Head of the State Nuclear Inspectorate Oleh Korikov and Head of Energoatom Petro Kotin.

According to the text of the appeal, the representatives of Ukraine also insist on actions by the IAEA for an immediate ceasefire and prevention of the approach of the occupying forces closer than 30 km from the nuclear power plant, as well as the activation of the headquarters at the IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) to coordinate actions to prevent implementation of acts of nuclear terrorism at the Chornobyl NPP and humanitarian and psychological assistance to its personnel.

"The fact of the capture of the world-famous Chornobyl nuclear power plant has all the signs of an act of nuclear terrorism committed against the nuclear facilities of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and its personnel by the military formations of the Russian Federation," the appeal said.

Its authors said that the Chornobyl personnel, who have been held by the Russian military without rotation for the seventh day, are experiencing psychological pressure and moral exhaustion and, as a result, have limited opportunities for communication, movement and full implementation of routine and repair work, which leads to a violation of the radiation regime and represents a danger to his life and health.

"By informing the IAEA about the state of safety of nuclear facilities in the context of hostilities, we expect specific joint actions from the IAEA in the form of pressure, usually used by member countries of the organization, against parties that evade respect for the priority of safety," the authors of the appeal said.

At the same time, they said that the Russian Federation completely ignores the principles of peace, security and unity, for the sake of which the IAEA was created in the UN structure, and in this regard, they propose to exclude its access to the intellectual and technical resources of the agency while simultaneously strengthening control over use of nuclear material in that country.

In addition, they insist on the termination of all relations with all Russian citizens responsible for nuclear energy, employed in all UN structures.

"Joint stay in international organizations in the existing format with such member countries is unacceptable for Ukraine and, we hope, for other member countries as well," the authors of the appeal said.

They also said that the military aggression of the Russian Federation as a nuclear state against Ukraine under the cynical name of "peace enforcement special operation" destroyed the fundamental foundations of the international security system created after World War II.