The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday it had been informed by Ukrainian authorities that artillery shells had damaged a nuclear research facility in Ukraine’s second largest besieged city, Kharkiv, but without “radiological consequences”.
According to the international body, part of the Vienna-based United Nations system, Ukrainian authorities said the attack took place on Sunday, adding that there had been no increase in the level of radioactivity at the facility.
According to the same sources, part of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, which produces radiological material for medical and industrial use, was affected.
However, “the stock of radioactive materials in the facility is very low”, added the IAEA, which assured that “the damage (…) reported had no radiological consequences”.
“We have been informed of various incidents that have endangered the safety of Ukrainian nuclear facilities,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, the organisation’s director general.
In recent days, Kharkiv has been under intense artillery and missile bombardment as Russian forces increase pressure on Ukraine to surrender.
The Russian military has been occupying the nuclear plant in Zaporizhia (southeast) since Friday, where Russian artillery shells, according to Ukrainians, caused a fire. Moscow denies the Ukrainian version of events and says its forces did not cause the fire.
Only two of the plant’s six reactors, the largest in Ukraine and Europe, are in operation.
The IAEA director general said Friday that he was prepared to go to Chernobyl, where one of the worst nuclear accidents in history took place in 1986. The site of the damaged nuclear plant was occupied by Russian troops on the first day of the invasion, February 24.
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