The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned yesterday of the risk of a “serious nuclear accident” at the Zaporizhia plant, which is under the occupation of Russian forces in Ukraine, due to the evacuation of residents of a neighboring town where the majority of workers live and the “possible dangerous” situation around the city.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, controlled by the Russian military since March 2022, is located on the banks of the Dnieper River, which in this area separates the two camps. It is the target of many plagues, which creates fears of destruction.

“The situation in the area near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” Rafael Grossi said in an IAEA statement.

“This large nuclear facility must be protected. I will continue to push for all parties to commit to this critical goal, and the IAEA will continue to do everything possible to help ensure the plant’s nuclear safety,” he said.

Towns around the plant are being evacuated

The agency’s experts, who are in the area, are closely monitoring the situation to “identify any possible impact on nuclear safety,” Grossi said.

A concern shared by Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, who reported on Telegram that the “evacuation” announced by the Russian authorities happened too quickly. Long queues had formed at the Tsongar checkpoint on the road linking Melitopolis with Crimea, he said.

Evacuation of workers from the Russian-held nuclear power plant, whose six reactors are out of service, is not currently planned, Yuriy Chernychuk, the plant’s director, appointed by the Russian authorities, said yesterday.

On Friday, Yevgeny Balitsky, a Moscow-appointed regional official, announced the partial evacuation of 18 Russian-held communities in the Zaporizhia region, mainly in Enerhodar.

These “temporary” evacuations, according to Balitsky, primarily concern children with their parents, the elderly and people with mobility problems, as well as hospital patients amid what he says is an escalation of Ukrainian shelling in recent days.

Russian authorities plan to evacuate around 70,000 people from communities in the Russian-held Zaporizhia region, according to another occupation administration official, Andrei Kozenko, quoted by the TASS news agency.