The risk of an accident at Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant will “undoubtedly” increase as both Kyiv and Moscow prepare for military strikes in the coming months, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog has warned.
“There is a lot of talk about big, big maneuvers and actions in early spring or late winter,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Politico. Bombing and shelling will undoubtedly increase the likelihood of a nuclear accident.”
A top Nato official said Russia is likely to make renewed pressure to capture Ukrainian territory this spring Told last week, while Ukraine also They say It is preparing for a major counter-attack.
Russian army on Saturday Told It illegally launched a new offensive in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhya region attachment By Moscow in September.
Russian troops occupied the plant, Europe’s largest, in the weeks before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, although day-to-day operations are still carried out by Ukrainian employees. Enrhodar, the town housing the plant, is situated on the banks of the Dnipro River, one side of which is under Russian control while the other is in Ukrainian hands.
Grossi was in Brussels earlier this week to speak to the European Parliament and participate in a gathering of EU foreign ministers. He is leading a new push to create a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhya plant, which has been hit by rockets and artillery shells in past months. Although attacks have decreased in recent weeks, Grossi said there were “thousands of soldiers” near the plant.
safety zone
The agency has called for months for a zone to keep both Ukrainian and Russian troops away from the plant, but progress on the plan has stalled. Grossi said “political will” is needed from both Kyiv and Moscow to change this.
“Besides sitting on our hands, the zone is the only concrete viable initiative in this regard,” the IAEA chief said, adding that he would visit Russia again in February; He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in October to press for the zone.
united nations agency Is up to four specialists stationed in Zaporizhzhya, where all six reactors Closed since September.
Grossi said there have been “numerous allegations” of ill-treatment by Russian soldiers with Ukrainian staff at the site, and that the IAEA has “intervened … to facilitate the release of some”. Arrested by the Russians.
While Moscow insists the plant is located on newly acquired Russian soil, Kyiv is wary of any deal that could signal international approval for Russian presence in its region.
Earlier this month, Petro Kotin, chairman of Ukraine’s state-run Energoatom nuclear operator, Told The UN security buffer was not “realistic” and instead asked Ukraine’s military to take back the facility by force.
But Grossi warned that any attack “puts the installation at great risk.”
He is pressing EU foreign ministers to join and use his “own channels of communication” with Ukraine and Russia to “pass the message … that it is necessary to avoid a nuclear accident” and A safety zone is needed.
Grossi also addressed frequent calls from Russian propagandists and some politicians That Moscow should respond to tremors on its battlefield by unleashing its nuclear arsenal.
“I do not see how a conventional war between a non-nuclear weapon state and a nuclear weapon state – no matter how dramatic … could justify the use of nuclear weapons,” he said.
Lewis Guillot contributed reporting.