The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission of experts announced on Thursday that it would “stay” at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia power plant after inspecting it, a high-risk mission aimed at averting a nuclear disaster at the site. that the Russians, who occupy it, and the Ukrainians accuse each other of bombing.
“We accomplished something very important today. And the most important thing is that the IAEA stays here. Let the world know that the IAEA is staying in Zaporizhia,” its director general, Rafael Grossi, said after an inspection of the plant, according to a video published by Russian media RIA Novosti. However, he did not say how many people would stay or for how long.
The head of the organization, who personally leads the inspection mission of 14 people, announced Wednesday his intention to install a “permanent presence” on the site, which has been at the center of all concerns for weeks.
This option had not been publicly mentioned previously, in particular by Russia, which is in control.
During the inspection, “we were able to gather a lot of information. I saw the main things I needed to see,” Mr. Grossi told the Russian press.
“We made an initial assessment. We have seen the dedicated work of staff and management. Despite very, very difficult circumstances, they continue to work professionally,” he added.
According to the Russian news agency Interfax, four of the nine vehicles making up the convoy by which the IAEA had arrived Thursday afternoon at the plant left the scene in the early evening.
In kyiv, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross called for a halt to all military operations around the plant, warning that an attack would be “catastrophic”.
“It is high time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete action to protect this site,” Robert Mardini told reporters. “The slightest miscalculation could wreak havoc that we would regret for decades,” he warned.
A shut down reactor
The two belligerents have accused each other for weeks of endangering the security of this nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
One of the two reactors in operation has been stopped due to Russian bombing, the Ukrainian operator of the atomic power plants Energoatom announced Thursday that one of the six reactors continues to operate.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of carrying out artillery strikes on Energodar, the city where the Zaporijjia power plant is located, and on the road that the IAEA mission was to take to get there.
For its part, the Russian army accused Ukrainian troops of having sent “two groups of saboteurs” in the night.
The commandos are said to have “disembarked on board seven boats […] three kilometers northeast of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and attempted to take the plant,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
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 River, the left bank of which is controlled in this sector by Russian troops.
These statements were unverifiable from an independent source.
gas war
On the ground, the Ukrainian army is continuing its counter-offensive in the south of the country, in particular around Kherson, one of the few major Ukrainian cities conquered by Russia.
The Russian army, however, assured on Wednesday that it had repelled the Ukrainian offensives over the past two days, inflicting heavy losses on the Ukrainians.
In a report released Thursday, the NGO Human Rights Watch said Russian forces have been forcibly transferring Ukrainian civilians, including those fleeing hostilities, to areas under their control since the start of the Russian invasion.
In Paris, Emmanuel Macron advocated the continuation of dialogue with Russia, believing 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 Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, a strategy that has been criticized.
But Emmanuel Macron at the same time estimated, during a speech before the French ambassadors at the Élysée, that “the division of Europe is one of Russia’s war aims” in Ukraine.
In another parallel war, that of gas, the Russian giant Gazprom declared on Wednesday that it had “entirely” suspended its supply from Europe via the Nord Stream gas pipeline due to maintenance work expected to last three days.
As other European countries, notably Germany and France, work to reduce their dependence on Russian gas, Hungary announced on Wednesday an agreement with Gazprom to receive additional deliveries.
On the diplomatic field, the Foreign Ministers of the States of the European Union agreed on Wednesday to suspend a 2007 agreement with Russia facilitating the reciprocal issuance of short-stay visas.
“It’s a ridiculous decision that is part of a series of absurdities,” reacted the Kremlin on Thursday.