Fighting blocks IAEA access to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

By Global Watch and AFP | 2025-02-13

The rotation of staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in southern Ukraine was blocked on February 12.

Moscow's troops seized the facility -- Europe's largest nuclear power station -- in the first days of its invasion of Ukraine, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site.

Staff from the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog have been based there since September 2022 to monitor nuclear safety.

Fighting meant the IAEA staff could not be swapped out as part of a planned rotation on February 12 -- the second such delay in a week -- both Kyiv and Moscow said, trading blame for the incident.

"Russia has once again deliberately disrupted the rotation of IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhia plant," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tykhy said in a statement.

Workers under fire

Inspectors spend around five weeks at the plant in stints before being swapped out in a complex procedure that involves traveling across the front line under supervision from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.

Tykhy accused Russia's army of opening fire near where the planned rotation was taking place, saying Moscow's goal was to force the IAEA team to travel through Russian-controlled territory and "violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian army blocked the IAEA team from traveling to an agreed meeting point and were attacking the area with drones -- at which point the Russian military withdrew its support team and returned to the station.

"On their return, the convoy carrying Russian military personnel and IAEA experts... came under attack by drone and mortar strikes," Zakharova said in a statement.

The IAEA staff members at the station were supposed to leave on February 5.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi was in both Ukraine and Russia last week, where he discussed the issue of rotations with officials from both countries.

In a statement, Grossi expressed his "deep regret" over the cancellation of the "carefully prepared and agreed rotation" due to excessive danger, calling the situation "completely unacceptable."

"As a result of these extremely concerning events, I am in active consultation with both sides to guarantee the safety of our teams," he said.

'Blackmailing the world'

Since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin has turned the plant into a military base, using it to store vehicles and deploy troops.

The Russian presence at the ZNPP represents a fundamental threat to the safety of Ukraine, all of Europe and the world, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Russia is blackmailing the world with the threat of a disaster at the ZNPP," he said in a Facebook post in August 2024.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog warned the Security Council in April 2024 that the "first-ever war to be fought amid the facilities of a major nuclear power program is bringing the prospect of nuclear accident "dangerously close."

"Let me put it plainly -- two years of war are weighing heavily on nuclear safety at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," said Grossi.

In August 2024, the IAEA said nuclear safety at the ZNPP, the largest nuclear power station in Europe, was deteriorating after a drone strike and fire near the plant.

Observers say Russia treats the plant as a button for unleashing nuclear terrorism.

"Nuclear extortion has been an integral part of their tactics since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war," said Petro Oleshchuk, a political scientist and analyst at the United Ukraine think tank.

"They do this in an attempt to have a psychological influence on Ukrainians and Ukraine's Western partners."