“I am very concerned about yesterday’s bombings [sexta-feira] From the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which confirms the very real danger of a nuclear catastrophe threatening public health and the environment, both in Ukraine and abroad, Grossi warned in a statement issued in Vienna, considering that “we are playing with fire.”
Moscow and Kiev today accused each other of compromising the security of the Zaporya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
Grossi noted that, according to the Ukrainian authorities, there was no damage to the reactors or radioactive emission, but damage to other parts of the plant.
The head of the UN nuclear energy agency called putting the plant in danger “totally unacceptable” and said targeting it militarily was “playing with fire” and could have “potentially catastrophic consequences”.
“I strongly and urgently appeal to all parties to exercise maximum containment in the vicinity of this important nuclear facility, which includes six reactors,” he wrote.
Grossi again offered the IAEA’s willingness to undertake a field verification mission and “prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.”
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency in June expressed his desire to visit the Russian-controlled plant, but Ukraine strongly criticized the plans, claiming that the Argentine official’s trip to the United Nations could be understood as legitimizing the Russian occupation.
The diplomat insisted that the mission was “critical” to stabilizing the situation at the nuclear plant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia in a video message of “re-creating a very dangerous situation for the whole of Europe”: “they bombed the Zaporia nuclear power plant twice.”
Moscow, which has practically controlled this facility since the first days of its military campaign in Ukraine, rejected the statements and described Kyiv, for its part, as a promoter of “nuclear terrorism”.
“Ukraine’s attacks on nuclear facilities can be described under international law as acts of nuclear terrorism,” Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev said on the social network Telegram.
Pro-Russian authorities in the Zaporya region, partially occupied by the Russian army, yesterday accused Ukrainian forces of attacking the nuclear power plant with artillery and damaging electrical lines and industrial buildings at the plant.
The attack led to the shutdown of one of the nuclear blocs after a power outage.
