Vienna/Washington/Moscow: The drone attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) for the third consecutive day today indicated a “major worsening of the nuclear safety and security situation at the site”, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today.
Grossi said he was informed about today’s drone attack on the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant by the IAEA team of experts stationed at the plant – who verified the impact of several such attacks on Sunday, April 7, 2024. They reported hearing bursts of rifle fire followed by a loud explosion at 11:05 am local time today, the same time that the ZNPP later said an incoming drone had detonated on the roof of the facility’s training centre.
The incident, at a training centre located just outside the site perimeter – around half a kilometre from reactor unit 1, added to deepening concern about the already highly precarious nuclear safety and security situation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which has been shelled several times since the conflict started in February 2022 and lost all off-site power eight times. It did not pose any threat to nuclear safety and security at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, whose six reactors have all been shut down for the past 20 months. However, there were ZNPP staff routinely present in the training centre. The IAEA team requested immediate access to the building to assess the possible impact but was informed that the military security situation did not allow it. The team will continue to seek such access, as they did and received on Sunday, April 7.
“Today’s reported incident – although outside the site perimeter – is an ominous development as it indicates an apparent readiness to continue these attacks, despite the grave dangers they pose to nuclear safety and security and our repeated calls for military restraint. Whoever is behind them, they are playing with fire. Attacking a nuclear power plant is extremely irresponsible and dangerous, and it must stop,” Director General Grossi said.
Sunday’s drone strikes signalled a serious new threat to plant safety as it was the first time since November 2022 that the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant was directly targeted in military action. It also represented the first clear violation of the five concrete principles for protecting the facility established by Director General Grossi at the United Nations Security Council in May last year.
In addition to the incidents on Sunday and today (Tuesday) – which were backed up by the observations of the IAEA team – the Agency experts were also informed by the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant about other similar events over the past few days. On Friday, the ZNPP said there had been a drone strike near the site’s oxygen and nitrogen production facility. On Sunday, the team heard explosions, in addition to those already reported, and were informed of two other alleged drone attacks outside the site perimeter, at the nearby port and at the training centre.
Yesterday, the ZNPP stated a drone had been shot down above the turbine hall building of reactor unit 6, without causing an explosion. In all cases, the IAEA team requested to visit these locations but was denied access due to security reasons.
Reflecting the recent days’ severe turn for the worse at the site, Director General Grossi said he plans to brief the United Nations Security Council about the situation next week. It will be the seventh time he addresses the 15-nation body on the situation in Ukraine in just over two years.
“I remain determined to do everything in my power to prevent a major nuclear accident during this tragic war. At this moment of great danger, I will underline the seriousness of the situation in my address to the Security Council, whose support is of paramount importance for the IAEA’s persistent efforts to help prevent a major nuclear accident, with potential consequences for people and the environment in Ukraine and beyond,” he said.
The IAEA experts have continued to hear the continuous sound of military activities near the plant over the past few days, including explosions, small arms fire as well as outgoing artillery fire from near the plant.
Meanwhile, the United States and Russia publicly accused each other of the attacks on the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. The IAEA has thus far refrained from naming the culprit. Washington, however, claimed it was continuing to monitor the conditions at the plant, including through official reporting from the IAEA. A US State Department Spokesperson accused Russia of playing a “very dangerous game” with its military seizure of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant.
“It’s dangerous that they’ve done that and we continue to call on Russia to withdraw its military and civilian personnel from the plant, to return full control of the plant to the competent Ukrainian authorities, and refrain from taking any actions that could result in a nuclear incident at the plant,” US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in Washington.
However, the Russian foreign ministry squarely blamed Ukraine for the attacks on ZNPP, which it claimed, Kyiv was doing with US support. “Having perpetrated these criminal actions, Ukraine, with the support of the United States and its Western satellites, has, in fact, made it clear that it had embarked on a path of nuclear terror. The international community and international organisations, primarily the IAEA, must render Kyiv unable to carry out terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities,” the Russian foreign office stated. It further pointed out that it was at the request of the IAEA Director General, that Russia agreed to have IAEA Secretariat experts stationed at the plant. They have been present on the premises on a rotating basis since September 1, 2022. “The only rationale for their presence at ZNPP was our expectation that the presence of IAEA Secretariat experts would stop Ukraine from attacking the plant, or the IAEA officials would, at least, publicly identify the Kyiv regime as the source of attacks on the ZNPP,” Moscow stated.
Russia also demanded the IAEA Director General to provide a “public and exhaustively truthful” response. It claimed that it was doing “everything necessary” to ensure the safety of the ZNPP in accordance with national legislation and international legal obligations. “We will identify and prosecute those who are responsible for launching the attacks on the Russian nuclear facilities regardless of where these individuals may be located, even if, after we achieve the goals of the special military operation, they manage to flee the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” the Russian foreign ministry stated.
– global bihari bureau
