UN atomic watchdog to visit Moscow amid fears of nuclear fallout from Russian strikes on Ukraine
Head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog has said he will visit Moscow in the coming days to speak with officials about Russia's persistents attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure which threaten nuclear safety.
“I have from the very beginning of this war, insisted and managed to keep a very open channel of communication with, of course, with Kiev and with Moscow. I've met President Putin several times, Minister Lavrov and the CEO of Rosatom, the people from the military and the nuclear regulator. And I think this is essential,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told reporters.
He added that there were “a few occasions where we had close calls” with regard to Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia which is under Russian occupation.
Grossi did not condemn either side for attacks on the plant saying because it lay so close to the front line it was hard to determine responsibility.
More than half of Ukraine’s power is generated by three functioning nuclear plants and Russia has increasingly threatened their ability to function.
Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is not under Ukraine's control, in the southeast of the country, was occupied by Russia in the opening days of the full-scale invasion. It is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world.
Grossi visited an electrical substation in the Kyiv region of Ukraine on Tuesday and said that damage to such key power grid facilities during the war poses a threat to nuclear safety by potentially disrupting vital cooling procedures at atomic plants.
Addressing Grossi during his visit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "You saw the results of these regular missile attacks by the Russian Federation against our energy