The Russian leader warns of the risk of a catastrophe due to the Ukrainian offensive while his cabinet justifies having troops at the plant to avoid a “Chernobyl scenario”
Vladimir Putin is ready to accept an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhia NPP “as soon as possible.” This was transmitted yesterday by the Russian president to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, during a telephone conversation in which the head of the Kremlin expressed his apparent concern about the “risk of catastrophe” existing in the plant due to Ukrainian bombing, according to what he denounced. .
The expedition of the experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency does not yet have a date, but the Russian representative in Vienna, where the agency has its headquarters, considered that in a period of two weeks they could already travel and assess the secondary damage suffered by the facilities after several days of military confrontation. “The forecasts are not always fulfilled, but we can talk about the first days of September, unless factors unrelated to the objectives reappear,” the delegate, Mijail Ulianov, told the Tass agency.
Ulianov was referring to earlier attempts by the IAEA to inspect the site, ultimately unsuccessful. In March, after Russia took control, he already wanted to review compliance with security protocols ‘in situ’. In June it was Energoatom, the Ukrainian state company, which refused a visit because “it would be legitimizing the permanence of the occupants.” However, then Zaporizhia was not the sort of nuclear bomb that it has been turned into by both sides.
IAEA technicians describe as “very alarming” what happens in the facilities. And the uncertainty of the last 24 hours does not diminish that sensation at all: if this chronicle has not been outdated, it is because during the early morning hours the announcement by the Ukrainian military that the Russians were planning a “major attack” in the plant itself for the sole purpose of holding them responsible, nor the Kremlin’s forecast of a “large-scale” night counteroffensive by kyiv to recapture the facilities. Much of the alarm was caused by Moscow giving its nuclear technicians the day off. To the West, the messages from both armies, which sounded excessively like prior justification to exonerate themselves in the event of armed actions with unpredictable consequences, have kept it on edge.
The Elysee reported that the French president had communicated to his counterpart “concern about the risks posed by the situation at the nuclear power plant” and specified that the experts must carry out their examination “under conditions agreed by Ukraine and the United Nations.” For its part, the Kremlin stressed that the two leaders agreed to request an inspection “as soon as possible.” According to Putin, “the systematic bombing by the Ukrainian military creates the risk of a major catastrophe.”
Trucks next to the turbine
Yesterday was a turbulent day. The increase in atomic tension was joined by the dissemination of a video where several Russian military vehicles can be seen next to the turbine of one of the six reactors. The images are not dated, but they were enough for the Kiev government and several international institutions to denounce the presence of military equipment in a highly complex facility. The European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, criticized the “irresponsible” behavior of the Russian troops and added, on behalf of the European Commission, that this contingent “must leave and allow the Ukrainian authorities to work safely.”
The Kremlin’s response was immediate: the presence of the Army revealed in the video means a guarantee against a “Chernobyl scenario” -referring to the 1986 nuclear catastrophe- and the demilitarization of the area would only “lead to a future increase in threats” , assured the Russian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sergei Ryabkov.
For his part, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who visited Odessa yesterday, called on Moscow not to disconnect the nuclear plant from the Ukrainian power grid and demanded that the two warring governments end hostilities in Zaporizhia because they are headed “to suicide.”
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