By the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign

Fifteen Ukrainian nuclear energy workers — all members of Atomprofspilka, the Nuclear Energy and Industry Workers’ Union of Ukraine — have been abducted, tortured, and sentenced to long prison terms by Russian occupation authorities at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Their imprisonment is part of a broader campaign of intimidation against Ukrainian civilians and trade unionists in the occupied territories.

The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign will host a rally in London to demand the release of the Zaporizhzhia 15 and to amplify eyewitness accounts from Ukrainian trade union leaders who have survived occupation and repression.

Speakers

• Khrystyna Levchenko, Head of the Youth Organisation of Atomprofspilka and union representative at the Zaporizhzhia NPP — who escaped Russian occupation.
• Ivanna Khrapko, Deputy Chair of the State Employees’ Union of Ukraine and President of the Youth Council of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine.
• Chair: Chris Kitchen, General Secretary, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

Thursday 27 August, 5:45pm
UNISON Central Office (Ground Floor)
130 Euston Road, London, NW1 2AY
Nearest stations: Euston, King’s Cross

The situation

Since Russia’s seizure of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in 2022, Ukrainian staff have faced coercion to accept Russian citizenship and sign contracts with Rosatom, Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation. Those who refused have been subjected to abduction, torture, and fabricated trials.

According to Atomprofspilka, at least 1,000 workers have endured psychological and physical abuse, and 15 employees remain imprisoned on false charges — some sentenced to up to 25 years.

The union’s president, Valerii Matov, has appealed to the British trade union movement to campaign for their release and to press for sanctions against Russian energy company Rosatom and accountability for nuclear terrorism, saying: “Abduction, torture and conviction on false charges of ZNPP employees is a mechanism of intimidation and subjugation of ZNPP employees and residents of Enerhodar. Atomprofspilka demands the unconditional release of 15 illegally imprisoned workers of the occupied ZNPP and all residents of Enerhodar who are in the dungeons of Russian prisons, and the mandatory implementation of international humanitarian law.”

NUM call for solidarity

The rally follows a motion submitted to the TUC Congress by the National Union of Mineworkers, calling for global trade union action to secure the release of detained ZNPP workers and to highlight the suppression of free trade unions in occupied Ukraine.

The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign urges trade unionists, journalists, and supporters of human rights to attend and stand in solidarity with Ukrainian workers resisting occupation.