(United Nations) Several countries, including France, on Wednesday denounced the “militarization” by Russia of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijjia, which threatens nuclear security.
Posted at 5:23 p.m.
Updated at 8:03 p.m.
In a joint statement adopted after a meeting in New York, the foreign ministers of Germany, Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ukraine as well as representatives of the South Korea, the United States and Switzerland have “strongly emphasized that Russia’s seizure and militarization of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is the root cause of the current nuclear safety and security threats “.
“We recall that the increased risk of a nuclear accident will remain dangerously high as long as Russia is present at the Zaporizhia site,” they said.
The situation at the power station, the largest in Europe, “is still deteriorating”, for his part warned the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, adding that “we (could) not afford the luxury of waiting for something catastrophic to happen”.
He was speaking at the end of this meeting at the French representation to the UN, opened by President Emmanuel Macron.
The IAEA director said he had discussed it with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whom he met on Wednesday morning on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“As long as the shelling continues, the risks are enormous,” he added.
Mr. Grossi also spoke with the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba, he said shortly afterwards during a press conference, also expressing the hope “of being able to go to Kyiv soon and -to be later in Russia”.
No agreement was reached on the establishment of a protection zone around the plant, he agreed, specifying however that “the real negotiations on the parameters” of this zone were only “beginning” .
Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday accused Russia of having again bombed the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, while ensuring that the radiation rate in this installation did not exceed the norm.
“Even in the worst conditions, diplomacy should never stop […] It is our responsibility to do so with pragmatic and realistic proposals, and that is what we are trying to do,” commented Rafael Grossi.
At his side, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna specified that the objective was “a demilitarization of the plant within the framework of the sovereignty of Ukraine”.
By reporting new bombings, the public operator of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, Energoatom, called on Wednesday the AEIA for “more resolute acts” against Moscow.
The Zaporijjia plant, occupied by Russian troops since the first weeks of their invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, has been repeatedly targeted by bombardments in recent months. Kyiv and Moscow blame each other and accuse each other of nuclear blackmail.