The “physical integrity” of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhya, occupied by the Russians, “has been repeatedly violated”, denounced Thursday the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the have inspected.
“We have no elements to assess this”, but “it is something that cannot continue to happen”, added Rafael Grossi, who is also at the head of an expert mission, many of whom will remain until “Sunday or Monday” on site, he said.
They will “continue the assessment” of the situation in these installations that the Russians and the Ukrainians accuse each other of having bombed on numerous occasions, raising fears of a nuclear disaster, he continued in front of the media. in Novooleksandrivka, a locality in the Zaporizhia region controlled by kyiv, on his return from the power plant, the largest in Europe.
“We have a lot of work here to analyze certain technical aspects,” said Mr. Grossi.
According to the Russian news agency Interfax, four of the nine vehicles making up the convoy by which the IAEA team had arrived at the plant on Thursday afternoon had left in the early evening.
The Agency also then intends to “establish a continuous presence” on the site, repeated its chief, an option which had not been publicly mentioned before the dispatch of this mission.
A “difficult situation”
Rafael Grossi said he saw “a lot” during the “four or five hours” spent at the scene.
“We were able to visit the whole site. I was in the units [de réacteurs]I saw the emergency system and other parts, the control rooms, ”he listed, while praising the Ukrainian staff who have continued to work at the plant since it fell in March in the hands of Russian soldiers.
“Of course, they are in a difficult situation, but they have an incredible degree of professionalism,” argued the head of the IAEA.
In Kyiv, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for the halting of all military operations around these installations, warning that an attack would be “catastrophic”.
“The slightest miscalculation could cause havoc that we would regret for decades,” warned Robert Mardini.
One of the two reactors in operation at the plant was stopped in this regard due to Russian strikes, the Ukrainian operator Energoatom regretted on Thursday.
On the same day, the Ukrainian authorities assured that Russia was carrying out artillery fire on Energodar, the city where the Zaporizhia atomic complex is located, and on the road that the IAEA inspectors had to take to get there. .
For their part, the Russians claimed that the Ukrainians had sent “two groups of saboteurs” there during the night.
The commandos “landed in seven boats […] three kilometers northeast of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and attempted to take it,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
He specified that the Russian army had taken “measures to annihilate the enemy, in particular by making use of the air force”.
The plant is located along the Dnieper, a river whose left bank is occupied, in this sector, by the Russians.
These statements were unverifiable from an independent source.
The “division of Europe”
In its evening report, the Ukrainian army general staff mentioned “massive shelling” in the vicinity of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, located in the northeast, Zaporizhia, in the south , as well as Kramatorsk, Bakhmout and Sloviansk in the east.
On the other hand, it did not provide any information on the Ukrainian counter-offensive launched on Monday in certain southern areas, in particular around Kherson, one of the few large cities conquered by Russia.
The Russian army had assured on Wednesday that it had repelled the Ukrainian attacks there the two previous days, inflicting heavy losses on them.
In a report released Thursday, the NGO Human Rights Watch said Russian troops forcibly transferred Ukrainian civilians, including those fleeing hostilities, to areas under their control since the start of the invasion.
In Paris, Emmanuel Macron advocated the continuation of dialogue with Russia, judging that it was necessary “to assume that we can always continue to speak to everyone”, “especially those with whom we do not agree”.
The French president is one of the few European leaders to have spoken with President Vladimir Putin after the outbreak on February 24 of the Russian attack against Ukraine, a strategy that has been criticized.
But Mr. Macron at the same time considered that “the division of Europe” was “one of Russia’s war aims”.