Russia asked yesterday that the issue be raised at tomorrow’s meeting of the Security Council in New York.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss the artillery shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine.
Russia asked on Tuesday that the issue be raised at the SA meeting tomorrow Thursday in New York.
The agency’s 15-member top body will be briefed by Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on the situation at the station.
The factory — the largest of its kind in Europe — in the Enerhodar region was repeatedly bombed over the weekend and damaged, but its critical infrastructure is believed to be intact. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the attacks on the station, which has been in the hands of Russian troops since March.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the region’s pro-Russian authorities, said air defenses around the plant would be strengthened, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. According to the same source, the facilities are operating normally and damaged cables have been restored.
The head of Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear power company, Petro Kotin, warned yesterday that there was a “very high” risk at the plant, which Kyiv wants to bring under its control before winter.
Mr Kotin claimed last week during an interview with the Reuters news agency that Russia wants to disconnect the station from the Ukrainian power grid and connect it to its own.
The plant, which has six reactors, contributed 20-21% of Ukraine’s energy mix before the war. It urgently needs repairs, according to Mr Kotin. “We urgently need to get the Russians out of there,” he added.
About 500 Russian military personnel with heavy vehicles are at the facility, using the station as a base, he said. He characterized the best solution as the withdrawal of the military and heavy weapons and the handing over of the station to the control of Kiev. He also said that blue-collar workers could be deployed there to guarantee the safety of the factory.
He warned, however, that there are no security guarantees if IAEA inspectors decide to go to Zaporizhia to inspect the facilities. The responsibility for any such visit must rest with the UN, he said.
Shells fell near spent nuclear fuel storage tanks — there are 174 of them, with highly radioactive material, Mr. Kotin said. If they are hit, disaster threatens. “We will have a radioactive cloud and then the weather will decide (…) where it will go,” he said. “The risk is too high.”
RES-EMP
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