Nuclear experts seek full access to Ukraine atomic plant amid security fears

International nuclear inspectors have said they need more access to a Russian-occupied atomic power plant in Ukraine to fully verify claims that Moscow’s troops could have mined it, as Kyiv and the Kremlin accused each other of risking a disaster at the facility.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that “Russian troops have placed objects resembling explosives on the roof of several power units of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Perhaps to simulate an attack on the plant. Perhaps they have some other scenario.

“The only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is Russia and no one else … It is the responsibility of everyone in the world to stop it, no one can stand aside, as radiation affects everyone,” he added, referring to the six-reactor site in southeastern Ukraine that is the biggest such facility in Europe.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded: “The situation is quite tense because there is indeed a great threat of sabotage by the Kyiv regime, which could be catastrophic in its consequences …Therefore, all measures are being taken to counter such a threat.”

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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has inspectors at the facility and has called in vain for the creation of a safety zone there, amid shelling that Russia and Ukraine blame on each other and which has repeatedly disrupted electricity supply to the site.

The IAEA said on Wednesday that its experts “have in recent days and weeks inspected parts of the facility — including some sections of the perimeter of the large cooling pond — and have also conducted regular walk-downs across the site, so far without observing any visible indications of mines or explosives.

“The IAEA experts have requested additional access that is necessary to confirm the absence of mines or explosives at the site … In particular, access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 is essential, as well as access to parts of the turbine halls and some parts of the cooling system at the plant,” the agency added.

IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said: “With military tension and activities increasing in the region where this major nuclear power plant is located, our experts must be able to verify the facts on the ground.”

Kyiv’s counteroffensive

Kyiv says Russian forces are prepared to cause a radiation leak at the plant to trigger an emergency that would prompt calls for Ukraine to halt its counteroffensive, which is aimed in part at liberating occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia province.

Ukraine accuses Moscow’s troops of destroying the Kakhovka dam last month to flood swathes of Kherson region and hamper the counteroffensive in that area. The Kremlin blames Kyiv’s forces for that disaster, but experts say it would have been almost impossible to cause such a catastrophic breach of the Russian-held dam from outside.

Heavy fighting continued along the front line on Wednesday, and Ukraine released footage of what it said was an enormous explosion at a Russian ammunition depot in the occupied town of Makiivka in the eastern Donetsk region. Russia claimed it was a strike on a residential area that killed one person and injured 38 others, without explaining what caused the scale of the blast and numerous secondary explosions.