Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has agreed to the parameters of a potential mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after repeated shelling of the complex raised
Speaking at a news conference in Lviv on Thursday following a trilateral meeting with the Turkish president and the UN secretary-general, Zelenskyy said “only absolute transparency and control of the situation” by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), among other bodies, could guarantee nuclear safety.
It was not immediately clear if Russia would agree to the parameters.
The Ukrainian leader also reiterated a call for Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine and stop all military activity in the area.
Concerns about the plant mounted on Thursday when Russian and Ukrainian authorities accused each other of plotting to attack the site and then blame the other side.
Kyiv and Moscow have about multiple recent incidents of shelling at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which Russian troops captured early in the war.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed worry about the flare-up of military activity in Zaporizhzhia. “We don’t want another Chernobyl,” he said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres also expressed grave concern about the situation at the plant and said it had to be demilitarised. “We must tell it like it is — any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” he said.
The secretary-general also called for the demilitarisation of the area around the vast nuclear power plant. “The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to reestablish Zaporizhzhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area,” he said.
IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi repeatedly called on both warring sides to cooperate in order to allow his agency to conduct a fact-finding mission and verify the plant’s safety.
