Conjuring up the threat of a nuclear incident at the Zaporizhia power plant: an appeal to the Presidents and Heads of Government of NATO member countries

According to numerous concordant reports, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (Enerhodar) is riddled with mines and explosives. More specifically, according to Ukrainian intelligence services, the Russian army has placed explosives in four of the six units at the plant.

In addition, the world has just witnessed the loss of human life, including among Russian soldiers, and the destruction of infrastructure and a vast ecosystem following the blasting of the Kakhovka dam by the Russian occupying forces.

The explosion of this dam is just another episode in the strategy of the political and military authorities of the Russian Federation to terrorise the population and systematically destroy Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

In view of Moscow’s complete disregard for human life, NATO countries must anticipate the possibility that the Russian authorities will include a nuclear accident at the Zaporizhia power station in their military strategy for Ukraine.

As US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham have pointed out, an explosion at the Zaporizhia nuclear complex or a major incident following an interruption in the cooling system would result in a major catastrophe for Ukraine and the states in the region, including a number of NATO member states.

In order to avert such a threat, the Russian Federation should be invited to:

– Immediately withdraw all its soldiers from the site of the Zaporizhia power plant;

– have the Russian military, under the supervision of UN experts, neutralise all explosive material and any other weapons on the site of the power station;

– guarantee free and permanent access to the plant for members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In the absence of a positive and rapid response from the Russian authorities, we ask NATO to take all necessary initiatives, including military ones, to make the Russian authorities understand that this is a red line for the Atlantic Alliance.

Signatories

Cengiz Aktar, professor of political science at the University of Athens

Vera Ammer, Memorial Deutschland, member of the board of International Memorial (2010-2023), Germany

Katarina Ammitzbøll, former member of Parliament, Denmark

Michèle Amzallag, professor, Sorbonne University, France

Guillaume Ancel, lieutenant-colonel (ret.), writer, essayist, France

Antoine Arjakovsky, director of research, Collège des Bernardins, Board member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, France

Olga Artyushkina, senior lecturer in Russian grammar and linguistics, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France

Anders Åslund, economist and former senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Sweden

Nicolas Auzanneau, translator, France/Belgium

Gérard Bensussan, philosopher, professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg, France

Olga Bertelsen, associate professor of Global Security and Intelligence, Tiffin University, USA

Annick Bilobran-Karmazyn, President of ADVULE, France

Marie-Aline Bloch, honorary professor at the Ecole des Hautes Études en Santé Publique, France

Vassilios Bogiatzis, PhD-Historian, research and teaching Associate, Panteion University, Greece

Christian Booß, historian and journalist, Germany

Martin Böttger, physicist, former member of parliament „Sächsischer Landtag“, Germany

Jean-Loup Bourget, emeritus professor of film studies, Ecole normale supérieure, France

Sara Brajbart-Zajtman, philosopher, former director of “Regards”, a progressive Jewish magazine, Belgium

Gastone Breccia, military historian, researcher at University of Pavia, Italy

Giovanna Brogi Bercoff, professor emeritus, Università degli Studi, Milan, Italy

Matthias Büchner, speaker of “Neues Forum”, former member of Parliament Landtag Thüringen, Erfurt, Germany

Daniela Luigia Caglioti, professor of contemporary history, Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy

Marco Cappato, former member of the European Parliament, Italy

Paulo Casaca, former member of the Portuguese Parliament, former member of the European Parliament

Arnaud Castaignet, senior fellow, Open Diplomacy, France

Giovanni Catelli, writer, poet, Eastjournal correspondent, Italy

Mitch Cohen, German-English translator and editor for English, Germany

Dominique Colas, professor emeritus of political science, Sciences Po, Paris, France

Michel Collot, professor of french literature at the University of Paris III, specialising in modern and contemporary french poetry, France

Christophe D’Aloisio, researcher affiliated to the Research Institute Religions, Spiritualities, Cultures, Societies (RSCS, UCLouvain), director of the Institute of Orthodox Theology in Brussels, Belgium

Annie Daubenton, journalist, essayist and consultant, specialising in central and eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, Ukraine), France

Julia David, associate member of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary History (CNRS/ENS), France

Isabelle de Mecquenem, professor of philosophy, University of Reims, member of the Conseil des sages de laïcité et des valeurs de la République at the Ministry of Education, France

Christian Dietrich, president of the International Association of Former Political Prisoners and Victims of Communism, Germany

Massimiliano Di Pasquale, associate researcher at the Gino Germani Foundation, Italy

Ana Miguel dos Santos, lawyer, former member of Parliament, Portugal

Jean Bernard Dupont-Melnyczenko, professor of history, honorary dean of the College of academic inspectors of the Académie d’Amiens, France

Olivier Dupuis, former member of the European Parliament, Belgium

Emmanuel Dupuy, president of the Institute for Prospective and Security in Europe (IPSE), France

Martin Exner, member of Parliament, Czech Republic

Penelope Faulkner, vice-president of Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam, France

Andrej Findor, associate professor at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Jean-Louis Fournel, professor at the University of Paris 8, France

Mridula Ghosh, senior lecturer of international relations, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, board chair of the East European Development Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine

Sébastien Gobert, journalist, France/Ukraine

Bernard Golse, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, professor at the University of Paris V-René Descartes, founder of the Institut Contemporain de l’Enfance, France

Marija Golubeva, historian, former member of Parliament, former Minister of the Interior, Latvia

Oleksii Goncharenko, member of Parliament, vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe committee on migration, refugees and displaced persons, Ukraine

Svetlana Gorshenina, historian, art historian, historiographer and specialist on Central Asia, director of research at CNRS Eur’Orbem, Université Paris-Sorbonne, France

Iegor Gran, writer, France

Andrea Graziosi, professor of contemporary history, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Steffen Michael Gresch, actor and author, member of the opposition in East-Germany in the 1980s, Germany

Paul Grod, president, Ukrainian World Congress, USA

Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse, professor, University of Warsaw, head of department of European Union Policies at the Institute of European Studies, Poland

Florence Hartmann, journalist and essayist, former spokesman for the ICTY prosecutor (Yugoslavia & Rwanda), France

Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs (AMO), Czech Republic

Oleksandr Havrylenko, professor at the V.N. Karazin National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

Richard Herzinger, columnist, Berlin, Germany

Gerold Hildebrand, former member of oppositional Environmental Library in East-Berlin, Germany

Halyna Hryn, editor, Harvard Ukrainian studies, president of Shevchenko Scientific Society in the US

Yaroslav Hrytsak, professor, Ukrainian Catholic University of Lviv, Ukraine

Christian Kaunert, professor of International Security Policy, Dublin City University and University of South Wales

Oliver Kloss, Politologist, former member of the subversive resistance in East Germany, Human Rights Working Group in Leipzig, Germany

Adrian Kolano, editor-in-chief at European Foreign Affairs, Poland

Christiane Körner, literary translator, Germany

Oksana Kozlova, lecturer in Russian, faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication – ULB, Belgium

Volodymyr Kravchenko, professor, department of history, director of the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Programs, CIUS, University of Alberta, Canada

Bertrand Lambolez, professor of Neuroscience Paris Seine, director of research INSERM, France

Gérard Lauton, honorary senior lecturer, applied mathematics, Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC), France

Sylvie Lindeperg,professor at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and emeritus member of the Institut Universitaire de France

Jonathan Littell, writer, Prix Goncourt, France

Frédérique Longuet Marx, anthropologist, France

Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director, Russia and Eurasia, head of the Ukraine Forum, Chatham House, UK

Jacobo Machover, Cuban writer exiled in France, former senior lecturer at University of Avignon, France

Luigi Marinelli, professor of literature, department of European, American and Intercultural Studies, ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy

Marie Martin, lecturer in film studies, University of Poitiers, France

Eric Marty, writer and professor emeritus, University of Paris, member of the IUF, France

Alain Maskens, physician, oncologist, founder and former medical coordinator of the European Organization for Cooperation in Cancer Prevention Studies (ECP), Belgium

Marie Matheron, actress, France

Alexandre Melnik, professor at ICN Business School, expert and consultant in geopolitics, France

Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, professor, faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Liège, Belgium

Aude Merlin, senior lecturer, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Yevhenii Monastyrskyi, PhD student, Department of History, Harvard University, USA

Alexander Motyl, professor of political science, Rutgers University-Newark, USA

Véronique Nahoum-Grappe, anthropologist, researcher at EHESS, Centre Edgar Morin, France

Boris Najman, associate professor and researcher in Economics at University Paris East Créteil, France

Laure Neumayer, professor of political science, University of Picardie Jules Verne, France

Olevs Nikers, president of the Baltic Security Foundation, Latvia

Elena A. Nikulina, analyst of Ukrainian/Russian affairs, Ukraine/Germany

James Nixey, director of Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, UK

Alexis Nuselovici, professor of general and comparative literature at the University of Aix-Marseille, France

Lydia Obolensky, professor of Russian language and literature, Belgium

Doris Pack, president of EPP Women, president of the Robert Schuman Institute, former member of the European Parliament and the Bundestag, Germany

Carmelo Palma, journalist, director of Strade-on-line, Italy

Filipe Papança, professor at the Military Academy (Amadora), Portugal

Anne-Marie Pelletier, academic, theologian, Collège des Bernardins, Paris, Ratzinger Prize 2014, France

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, professor, Northwestern University and Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, USA

Serhii Plokhii, professor of History, Harvard University, USA

Antony Polonsky, emeritus professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University, USA

Elena Poptodorova, vice president of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, former Ambassador to the USA, former member of the Bulgarian Parliament, Bulgaria

Bohdan Prots, associate professor, Danube-Carpathian programme and State Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine

Eva Quistorp, theologian, writer, former member of the European Parliament, Berlin, Germany

Utz Rachowski, writer and former political prisoner in East-Germany, Germany

Pierre Raiman, doctoral student in contemporary history at the University of Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne, secretary of “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre !”, France

Philippe Robert-Demontrond, professor at the University of Rennes 1, France

Christian Rocca, Linkiesta editorial director, Italy

François Roelants du Vivier, former member of the European Parliament, former senator, Belgium

Sylvie Rollet, emeritus professor, chairwoman of “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre !”, France

Avita Ronell, university professor of German and comparative literature, New York University, USA

Nanou Rousseau, honorary president of the Federation of Mothers for Peace, France

Malkhaz Saldadze, associate professor at Ilia State University, Georgia

Andrei Sannikov, chairman of the European Belarus Foundation, deputy foreign Minister of Belarus (1995-1996), presidential candidate 2010, former prisoner of consciousness, Belarus

Ulrich Schmölcke, senior researcher at the ZBSA, Schleswig, Germany

Myroslav Shkandrij, professor emeritus Ukrainian literature and language, University of Manitoba, Canada

Giovanna Siedina, professor of Russian and Ukrainian literature, University of Verona, Italy

Vasile Simileanu, director of GeoPolitica Magazine, Romania

Wally Struys, professor emeritus, defence economist, Royal Military Academy, Belgium

Malvina Tedgui, psychoanalyst, France

Patrizia Tosini, associate professor of history of Modern Art, Roma Tre University, Italy

Greta Uehling, PhD, teaching professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Cécile Vaissié, professor of Russian and soviet studies at the Université Rennes 2, Head of the Russian Department, France

Maïrbek Vatchagaev, Chechen historian and political analyst of the North Caucasus at the Jamestown Foundation, co-editor of the journal “Caucasus Survey”

Emmanuel Wallon, emeritus professor of political sociology, France

Charlie Weimers, member of the European Parliament, Sweden

Miroslav Žiak, former member of Parliament, Slovakia

Othar Zourabichvili, president of the Georgian Association in France

Appeal promoted by the Association “Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre”, Paris