The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, IAEA) sounded the alarm again today after a Russian strike on the Ukrainian nuclear power plant of Zaporizhia (southern Ukraine), which is now operating only with backup generators.

“Each time we are playing with fire and if we allow this situation to continue, one day our fortunes will change”, warned Rafael Grossi today before the governing board of the UN agency in Vienna.

The head of the IAEA, who has been holding unsuccessful consultations with Kiev and Moscow for months to establish a buffer zone around the nuclear plant, called on the international community to react.

“We have to commit to protect station security and we have to commit to it now”, he emphasized, expressing his “surprise” at the passivity that prevails today. “What do we do to prevent” an accident at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, he asked.

The IAEA has a team of experts at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which has been seized by the Russian military and is regularly targeted for bombing.

Power to the station was cut “around 05:00 in the morning” for the first time since November and the sixth since the start of the war, due to, according to Kiev, Russian missile strikes, the IAEA said.

The 20 emergency generators were activated and their reserves allow them to operate for about 15 days.

Electricity is necessary to operate the pumps that ensure the circulation of water, as the fuel in the reactor cores must be constantly cooled, as well as the water in the storage pools, to avoid a fusion accident and the release of radioactivity into the environment .