The International Atomic Energy Agency has been trying, for weeks, to send a mission to inspect the power station.
Le Monde with AFP
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Rafael Grossi, claimed on Thursday August 11, before the UN Security Council, access to the Zaporijia nuclear power plant that Moscow and kyiv accuse each other for having bombed.
“The time is serious and the AIEA must be authorized to carry out its mission to Zaporijia as quickly as possible,” said Rafael Grossi, intervening on this emergency meeting of the Security Council. “Time is in a hurry,” he insisted, while the AIEA has been trying, for weeks, to send a mission to inspect the power station.
The site of the Zaporijia power station, the largest in Europe, under Russian control since early March, was again bombed on Thursday, kyiv and Moscow accused of being responsible again. The allies of Ukraine, stressing the need for the IEA mission, have pointed out, before the Security Council, Russian responsibility.
kyiv and Moscow accuse in turn
“The solution for what is happening in Zaporijia is simple. The United States calls on the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory,” US US under-secretary Jenkins said in disarmament.
Unsurprisingly, the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, rejected responsibility on kyiv and his allies. “We call states supporting the kyiv regime to (…) force it to put an end once and for all to the attacks against the Zaporijia power plant”, and the UN and the IEA to tell the Ukrainian authorities that their actions are “Unacceptable,” he said.
“The real scale of a nuclear disaster at the power plant is difficult to imagine. The full responsibility would be back to Western support from kyiv”, insisted the Russian ambassador, calling “surrealist”, “cynical and absurd “The accusations against Moscow.
While Russia accused the UN services of having prevented the mission of the IAEA, the spokesman for secretary general Antonio Guterres again rejected this idea on Thursday. “It is a nuclear power plant in the middle of a battlefield. I think we can imagine at least two or three pages of obstacles,” noted Stéphane Dujarric.
To guarantee the safety of the site and allow an inspection mission, Antonio Guterres and the United States called, Thursday, to the establishment of a demilitarized area around the power plant. “Unfortunately, instead of a de -escalation, even more worrying incidents have been reported in recent days, incidents that, if they continue, could lead to a disaster,” said Antonio Guterres in a statement.
“The whole world must react immediately to chase the occupants of the Zaporijia power station”, for his part, hammered the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in its daily video message . “Only the total withdrawal of the Russians and the resumption of total control of Ukraine from the power plant would guarantee nuclear security for all of Europe,” he continued, denouncing “Russian nuclear blackmail”.