Publication

Rosatom’s role in the war in Ukraine

Authors: Charles Digges

Publisher: Bellona Foundation

Throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one Moscow corporation has emerged as a key player in and benefactor of the military assaults: Rosatom, the state-controlled nuclear entity, which occupies numerous critical links on the world’s nuclear supply chain.

Now, of course, it is Rosatom that has claimed control of the sprawling Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Southeastern Ukraine — incidentally the largest atomic station in Europe — which Russian forces seized early in the war and have since more or less transferred to the corporation’s control.

This represents the first time in history that a nuclear power plant has been overrun by a hostile aggressor and taken as a prize — and Rosatom is at the very center of these events.

In our newly published working paper, “Rosatom’s role in the war in Ukraine,” we endeavor to catalog each incident throughout the war thus far in which Rosatom has had a hand. It is our hope that by doing so we will give Western governments a better understanding of Rosatom’s wartime activities — as well as their own interactions with the corporation as the nuclear threats become more dire.

Read the working paper here: Rosatom’s role in the war in Ukraine