UN atomic watchdog to visit Moscow amid fears of nuclear fallout from Russian strikes on Ukraine
Head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog has said he will visit Moscow in the coming days to speak with officials about Russia’s persistent attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure which threaten nuclear safety.
“I have from the very beginning of this war, insisted and managed to keep a very open channel of communication with, of course, with Kiev and with Moscow. I’ve met President Putin several times, Minister Lavrov and the CEO of Rosatom, the people from the military and the nuclear regulator. And I think this is essential,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told reporters.
He added that there were “a few occasions where we had close calls” with regard to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia which is under Russian occupation.
Grossi did not condemn either side for attacks on the plant saying because it lay so close to the front line it was hard to determine responsibility.
More than half of Ukraine’s power is generated by three functioning nuclear plants and Russia has increasingly threatened their ability to function.
Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is not under Ukraine’s control, in the southeast of the country, was occupied by Russia in the opening days of the full-scale invasion. It is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world.
Grossi visited an electrical substation in the Kyiv region of Ukraine on Tuesday and said that damage to such key power grid facilities during the war poses a threat to nuclear safety by potentially disrupting vital cooling procedures at atomic plants.
Addressing Grossi during his visit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “You saw the results of these regular missile attacks by the Russian Federation against our energy system. You know that under no circumstances should you fire at a nuclear power plant. I know that the corresponding messages were public from you and towards the Russian Federation, and I also know that you communicated, in the Kremlin, with Putin, telling him not to.”
Zelenskyy also said that Russia had “taken hostage” two Ukrainian engineers who worked at the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant and “they were thrown behind bars today because they supposedly had some Ukrainian content on their phones.”
Russia has repeatedly tried to destroy Ukraine’s power grid, depriving the country of heat, electricity and running water in an effort to break the Ukrainian spirit. The attacks have also sought to disrupt Ukraine’s defence manufacturing industry.
The war has brought fears of a nuclear catastrophe as Zaporizhzhia has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire of fighting, and while its six reactors have been shut down for months, it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.
Russia has been attacking electricity substations which can also threaten nuclear safety.
When substations providing electricity to nuclear plants are damaged or cease to function, Grossi said, emergency diesel generators at nuclear plants become the “last line of defence” against disaster.
