The chief of the Kremlin signed a decree on Wednesday, aimed at formally appropriating the site, occupied since March 4 by his troops.
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After seven months of occupation, Russia formally appropriated, on Wednesday, September 5, the Zaporijia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The administrative management of the site, taken on March 4 by the Russian soldiers, was transferred to Moscow. “The government will have to ensure that the nuclear installations of the power station (…) are accepted as federal property,” said the decree signed by Vladimir Putin.
Shortly after this announcement, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Rafael Grossi, who had planned to go to kyiv and Moscow this week, announced his departure to the Ukrainian capital in order to to discuss the establishment of a security and protection area around the power station, deemed “more urgent than ever” to prevent any nuclear accident.
The AIEA called for the establishment of this security zone from September 6 in a report published at the end of its first visit on site since the start of the occupation. “The current situation is untenable”, “it is urgent to take provisional measures” and “the bombings on the site and in the surroundings must stop immediately to avoid causing new damage to the installations”, wrote the instance UN UN in this text of fifty-two pages.
The AIEA said on Wednesday that one of the six reactors – currently all at the end – must restart at reduced power. “The goal is the production of steam and heat for the needs of the power plant. It will take a while to finish all the preparations before the reactor can work again,” says the UN agency.
Moscow and kyiv have accused each other of bombing on the site for several months. These strikes fear a major nuclear disaster similar to that of Chernobyl in 1986. The Zaporijia power station, the largest in Europe, is located in one of the Ukrainian territories officially annexed by Russia. It is also not far from the line of demarcation between the territories controlled by kyiv and those occupied by Moscow.
After the announcement of the Russian decree, the Ukrainian nuclear operator, Energoatom, described it as “null and not avenue, absurd and inappropriate”. Moscow’s decision to transfer the power plant under Russian control shows “the agony of the crazy imaginary world of the aggressive country”, said the company, which ensures that “the Zaporijia power station will continue to operate in Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian law , in the Ukrainian energy system, in Energoatom “. For its part, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on its Western partners to urgently impose sanctions against the Russian atomic agency Rosatom, of which engineers are deployed on the site.
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