AIn view of the ongoing shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops, international experts fear for safety there after a visit. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said in Vienna that his greatest concern remains that the nuclear power plant could be severely damaged by further shelling. Although damage is obvious and unacceptable, important safety elements such as the power plant’s power supply are working.
The cooperation between the Russian occupiers and the Ukrainian staff is also working to some extent on a professional level, Grossi said on Friday evening after his return from Ukraine at Vienna Airport. He expects a detailed analysis of the safety of the power plant by the experts who remain on site in the course of the next week. Six IAEA experts are still at the nuclear power plant. Four would return, with two staying on site until further notice.
He doesn’t have the impression that the Russian occupiers have hidden anything. “We saw everything I wanted to see,” said Grossi. A crucial difference to before is also that he now learns from his own sources what is happening on site.
The IAEA boss emphasized again that he sees his agency’s mission as permanent. “The IAEA is there to stay as long as necessary.” Ukraine and Russia currently agree to this. He knows things could change. What worries him most at the moment is that the war around the power plant is increasing in intensity, Grossi said.
The IAEA experts have been in the power station city of Enerhodar since Thursday. The Zaporizhia NPP came under Moscow control in early March, shortly after the Russian invasion. Repeated shelling of the power plant site and the neighboring town have raised international fears of a possible nuclear catastrophe. Russia and Ukraine repeatedly accuse each other of artillery shelling. With its six blocks and a net output of 5700 megawatts, the nuclear power plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Before the war began, more than 10,000 people worked there.
Zaporizhia NPP: Ukraine shells Russian artillery positions
According to Ukraine, it fired on Russian artillery positions not far from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. “It has been confirmed that our troops in the area of the towns of Cherson and Enerhodar destroyed three enemy artillery systems with precise hits,” the Ukrainian General Staff report said on Facebook on Friday evening. An ammunition depot and at least one company of the Russian army were also said to have been destroyed.
The Russian occupiers removed all military technology from the nuclear power plant site and relocated it to neighboring locations before the IAEA group of experts arrived. The information could not be independently verified. Russia had always maintained that it had no heavy weapons stationed at the power plant site.
Zelenskyi welcomes plans to cap Russian oil prices
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly accused Russia of nuclear terrorism in view of the situation around the nuclear power plant. Russia, on the other hand, rejects calls for the power plant to be returned to Ukraine’s control because Moscow believes that Kyiv cannot guarantee the safety of the plants in a war.