(Kyiv) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has come out in favor of setting up a “safety zone” to prevent a nuclear accident at the Ukrainian power plant in Zaporizhia, which has been occupied for six months by the Russians and where she considers the situation “untenable” because of the bombardments.
Updated yesterday at 5:22 p.m.
“It is urgent to take measures”, estimated the UN agency in a report made public on Tuesday, advocating “the establishment of a nuclear security and protection zone” of this complex in southern Ukraine.
“The bombardments on the site and in the surrounding area must stop immediately to avoid causing further damage to the installations”, she insisted, underlining “the extremely stressful conditions” in which the Ukrainian personnel also work, under control of the Russian military.
“The current situation is untenable,” summarized the IAEA, the site of the plant having been hit in recent weeks by multiple strikes of which Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other.
” A good thing ”
In his daily message, posted online every evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the fact that the report mentions the presence of Russian military equipment inside the plant.
“The report mentions the presence of Russian military equipment inside the nuclear power plant, the pressure exerted on our employees there, and clearly alludes to the Russian military occupation. It’s a good thing,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky was more dubious about the report’s proposal to create a security zone at the plant.
“If the content of this proposal is to demilitarize the territory of the nuclear power plant […] then we can support such a demilitarized protection zone,” he said.
The Ukrainian head of state also assured that he had “coordinated” with the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss to “increase the pressure” on Russia.
“The goal is to end the aggression and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on Twitter, claiming to be the first foreign leader to speak with Mr.me Truss after she was confirmed in her new role.
For his part, the Russian ambassador to the UN regretted during a meeting of the Security Council that the IAEA report does not point to the responsibility of Ukraine, which Moscow accuses of bombing the plant.
“We regret that in your report […] the source of these bombings is not directly named”, declared Vassili Nebenzia, considering that this report presented remotely by the head of the IAEA before the Council was a “confirmation” that the “only threat” against the site came from the “bombing and sabotage by the Ukrainian armed forces”.
security Council
The IAEA’s report stems from its recent mission to the Zaporijjia power plant and whose director general Rafael Grossi “will report to the UN Security Council”.
The publication of its conclusions comes the day after the disconnection of the last reactor in operation in this complex.
A power line, connected to a nearby thermal power station, has indeed “been deliberately disconnected in order to extinguish a fire”, explained the IAEA in a press release.
According to the Ukrainian operator Energoatom, the fire “started because of the bombardments”.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for civilians wishing to leave the area around the plant.
After many negotiations, an IAEA delegation was able to inspect its site last Thursday.
Mr. Grossi then told the press that he had found that the “physical integrity” of these infrastructures had been “violated on several occasions”.
Most of the international team left the plant on Friday. Of the six experts who remained on site, four left on Monday and two others are expected to stay there permanently.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region (center), in Kryvy Rig, the hometown of Mr. Zelensky, a “major fire” occurred the same day in an oil depot following a Russian attack, informed his Governor Valentin Reznichenko.
The disaster is now “limited”, said another senior official in the afternoon.
In the south-east, the head of the administration installed by the Russians in the port of Berdiansk was seriously injured in the explosion of his car by “Ukrainian terrorists”, according to local authorities.
In the morning on Tuesday, a new Russian bombardment hit an apartment building in the center of this city, the second in Ukraine, deplored its mayor Igor Terekhov.
North Korean ammunition
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin went to the Far East on Tuesday to attend large-scale military maneuvers carried out with several countries, including China.
The same day, the American Pentagon accused Russia of buying, in possible violation of UN resolutions, from North Korea munitions that it is unable to produce in sufficient quantities.
Moscow has garnered 158 billion euros in revenue from fossil fuel exports in six months of war, taking advantage of high prices, according to a report by an independent research center released on Tuesday, which calls for more effective sanctions.