How Rosatom Turned Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Power Plant into a Torture Chamber

Phil Black - PII Editor 17/10/2023

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In a Nuclear Prison. How Rosatom Turned Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Power Plant into a Torture Chamber and How the World Can Stop This

Since the city of Enerhodar and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) were occupied, Russian occupying forces have set up a systematic campaign of abductions, torture, and inhumane treatment of ZNPP workers. Russia's state-owned nuclear power corporation Rosatom, which began controlling the plant in March 2022, as well as its agents, are fully informed and even involved in persecution of the facility’s workers.

This is the focal point of the new study “A Nuclear Prison: How Rosatom Turned Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Power Plant into a Torture Chamber and How the World Can Stop This” by Ukrainian documenters and investigators of international crimes, Truth Hounds.

The study is based on interviews with eyewitnesses and victims of these crimes, analysis of photo and video materials, documents, Truth Hounds’ original research, as well as information provided by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. The researchers proved that the actions of the Russian occupying forces, of which Rosatom is aware, constitute serious violations of international law in the form of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Witnesses told Truth Hounds about a whole network of illegal detention facilities at the ZNPP and the city of Enerhodar, where civilians are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment, such as beatings, electric shocks, strangulations, mock executions, rape threats and others. Russians are holding dozens of people in overcrowded, small cells designed for 2–4 individuals. Prisoners are allowed to eat food brought to them by relatives, but those who do not have relatives are forced to beg for food and water from other detainees.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, about a thousand people in Enerhodar have been detained and tortured since March 2022. There is at least one confirmed case of a plant employee, Andrii Honcharuk, who worked as a diver, being tortured to death.

Rosatom and its management are inevitably aware of the criminal actions perpetrated by the Russian occupying forces: the latter are constantly present at the plant and use its facilities to imprison its employees. This is happening during working hours and on a scale so big that it undoubtedly affected the work of the plant’s units. In addition, the management of the corporation was constantly in contact with Russian occupying forces at the NPP, coordinating their activities with them.

Rosatom agents at the plant were occasionally present in person at torture or interrogations of the employees. Witnesses interviewed by Truth Hounds report that Rosatom employees usually did not directly participate in acts of torture, but they “would have been impossible” without their knowledge.

In addition, from the very start of Rosatom seizing control over the station, its employees, together with FSB officers, started conducting mass “conversations” with ZNPP workers. It was a coordinated attempt to intimidate the employees of the nuclear facility and force them to sign new labor contracts with Rosatom.

There were also cases of ZNPP employees being tortured in an attempt to persuade them to cooperate with Rosatom. One of the victims told Truth Hounds that representatives of the Russian occupying forces took him to the forest, severely beat him, kept his head in a plastic bag with fuel, threatened to shoot him and ordered him to dig his own grave. The Russian occupying forces subsequently continued the persecution, with further demands to cooperate with Rosatom.

Thus, Rosatom facilitates the gravest violations of international law: torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. All these actions violate the imperative norms of international law and are prohibited by Art. 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Art. 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 32 and 147 of the Convention (IV) on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War, Art. 75(2) of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, concerning the protection of civilian victims of international war. Violations recorded at ZNPP may also constitute a war crime in the form of torture or inhuman treatment prohibited by Article 8(2)(ii) of the Rome Statute of the ICC, or a crime against humanity in the form of torture prohibited by Article 7(1)(f).

The international community must not ignore the scale of crimes committed by the Russian occupying forces in Ukraine, and particularly at ZNPP. Rosatom's operations and contracts remain intact in 54 countries. Continued business with a nuclear giant who plays a key role in the misappropriation of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and is an accomplice of international crimes is unacceptable.

Based on the research, Truth Hounds and the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) have developed recommendations for the international community on responding to international crimes at the ZNPP. Human rights activists call on states to introduce comprehensive sanctions against Rosatom in order to isolate it from international cooperation and block access to any import of its technologies, services, and fuel. Sanctions should also be applied to company managers responsible for aiding and abetting mass torture and inhumane treatment at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Truth Hounds and CCL also consider it necessary to close Rosatom's offices abroad and to exclude the Russian state corporation from the UN Global Compact, an initiative that provides access to the best global practices in the field of corporate social responsibility.

In addition, Rosatom and its management should be held criminally liable under the principle of universal jurisdiction. We call on states to prosecute Rosatom and its executives for aiding and abetting torture under their own criminal laws.