"The situation is really volatile," declared Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York where a conference of 191 States signatories to the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Since the beginning of March, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been under Russian control.
The director of the IAEA intends to continue his efforts to send a mission on the spot.
“All safety principles have been violated in one way or another.
And we cannot allow this to continue,” he added.
At the opening of the meeting on Monday, he had already stressed that the situation was becoming "more and more dangerous day by day".
A reconnaissance mission, refused by Ukraine
"I try to set up a mission as quickly as possible," assured Rafael Grossi.
For weeks he has been campaigning to send a mission to inspect the plant.
But it has so far been refused by Ukraine, which considers that this would legitimize the Russian occupation of the site in the eyes of the international community.
"Going there is very complex because it requires the agreement and cooperation of a number of actors", in particular Ukraine and Russia, and the support of the United Nations, as it is an area of war, Rafael Grossi noted on Tuesday.
Shots from the central
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of using this plant, the largest in Europe, "as a military base to fire on the Ukrainians knowing that they cannot retaliate because they would risk hitting a nuclear reactor or highly radioactive waste”.
“It takes the notion of a human shield to a completely different and terrible level,” he added, insisting that the IAEA have access to the site.
In 2021, the plant supplied 20% of Ukraine's annual electricity production and 47% of that produced by the Ukrainian nuclear fleet.
