IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called Wednesday meetings with high-ranking representatives of the Ukrainian government at the South Ukrainian NPP (SUNPP) very productive and announced the imminent arrival of experts at Ukrainian nuclear facilities.
“Teams of experts and additional safety equipment will arrive at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities very soon,” he tweeted at the end of the day.
The daily report of the organization indicates that at meetings with the Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko, the heads of the nuclear regulator of Ukraine SNRIU Oleg Korikov and NNEGC “Energoatom” Petr Kotin, as well as the director of the South Ukraine NPP Igor Polovich, specific steps were considered to provide urgent assistance to Ukraine in protecting its nuclear facilities.
As reported, on March 30, Grossi visited South Ukraine NPP, where he met with representatives of the Ukrainian side. At a meeting with plant workers, he noted that the issue of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhya NPPs “needs to be considered at different levels,” and it depends on the ceasefire agreements.
Ukraine insists that a special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should establish round-the-clock control and analysis of the situation at all domestic nuclear facilities, in particular, Chornobyl and Zaporizhia, as well as other Ukrainian operating nuclear power plants.
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine on Sunday, this is stated in a joint appeal of Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko and heads of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate Oleh Korikov and the state-owned enterprise Energoatom Petro Kotin dated March 5, sent to OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid.
According to Haluschenko, the letter contains detailed information about the criminal and threatening actions of the Russian army near and at the nuclear facilities of Ukraine themselves. This refers primarily to the seizure of Chornobyl and Zaporizhia nuclear power plants and, at the same time, the terror of personnel and residents near the cities.
The authors of the appeal called on the OSCE to immediately begin work to establish and document all the facts of the crimes of the Russian troops that threaten the safe operation of nuclear facilities and could lead to an environmental catastrophe on a global scale, the report says.
