United Nations investigators are calling for a security zone to be placed around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after two near-catastrophic events where the complex was disconnected from the power grid.
The situation comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council and said that shelling around the power plant should be "stopped immediately."
Security Zone Around Zaporizhzhia Plant
International monitors said that they were "gravely concerned" because of the shelling around the Zaporizhzhia plant. The warning comes as the IAEA said that fighting has not triggered a nuclear emergency at the plant.
The agency's monitors, including Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant last week amid continuing shelling of the area. In a report of its findings, the agency said that the shelling nearby should be stopped immediately and noted that it was prepared to start consultations with Russia and Ukraine in the conflict over security at the plant, as per the New York Times.
Fighting around the facility has, for weeks, raising fears of a nuclear accident due to the loss of power. Last month, a dry spent fuel storage facility was damaged and there has been a fire in recent days.
Renewed shelling on Monday caused another fire that once again led to the plant being disconnected from Ukraine's national power grid, which the country's energy minister said placed critical cooling systems at risk of relying solely on emergency backup power.
According to Reuters, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been under Russian control since March but is still operated by Ukrainian staff. Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for firing missiles at the power station, prompting fears of a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster.
Potentially Catastrophic Events
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow required more information about the IAEA's findings and had sent a request to provide extra information. The official said that there were a number of issues in the report, refusing to list them at the moment.
On the other hand, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West of putting pressure on the IAEA mission to the plant. She was quoted as saying that Russia had provided full data on the source of shelling to the IAEA and was questioning why the organization did not name Ukraine as the source of attacks on the nuclear power plant in its report.
Zakharova also said that Ukraine was coordinating its attacks on the facility with the assistance of the United States and other Western states. However, Kyiv has continued to deny the accusations that it attacked the plant, arguing instead that Moscow was to blame for storing heavy weapons at the nuclear power station.
The IAEA added that its team saw first-hand the damage that shelling has caused to the facility and "noted with concern that the shelling have impacted safety-related structures, systems, and components, and could have caused safety significant impacts, loss of lives, and personnel injuries."
The agency said that in addition to the danger of the continued fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, staff at the complex and other nuclear plants in Ukraine "have continued to show endurance and resilience in keeping the sites running in a safe and secure way amid the conflict," CNN reported.
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