Live blog: Too dangerous for IAEA to visit Zaporizhzhia plant — Russia

 

UN says it assessed it has the logistics and security capabilities to support any IAEA mission to Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant from Kiev as the conflict enters 174 day.

UN said that it had the logistics and security capacity to be able to support any IAEA mission from Kiev to reach the NPP. (AP)

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Russia warns IAEA against visiting Zaporizhzhia via Kiev

Any mission undertaken by the UN's nuclear agency to inspect Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant cannot pass through Kiev as it is too dangerous, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted by news agencies as saying. 

"This is a huge risk, given that Ukraine's armed forces are not all made up in the same way," Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy head of the foreign ministry's nuclear proliferation and arms control department, said.

However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday in New York that the UN Secretary had assessed that it had the logistics and security capacity to be able to support any IAEA mission from Kiev.

Vishnevetsky was quoted saying any such mission had no mandate to address the "demilitarisation" of the plant as it could only deal with "fulfilment of IAEA guarantees". 

'Catastrophe' at Zaporizhzhia threatens whole of Europe  

A "catastrophe" at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine would threaten the whole of Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky has warned.

"Under the cover of the plant, the occupiers are shelling nearby cities and communities," Zelenskky said. "Any radiation incident at the Zaporizhzhia NPP can affect the countries of the European Union, Türkiye, Georgia and countries from more distant regions. Everything depends solely on the direction and speed of the wind," he said.

The plant, Europe's biggest nuclear facility, was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of March, not long after Moscow launched its incursion into Ukraine.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies 

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(With input from news agency language)

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