The tone is firm, the words are strong.
"The hour is serious", launched, this Thursday, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the Security Council of the United Nations, demanding access to the nuclear power plant of Zaporijjia that Moscow and kyiv accuse each other of having bombed.
"The situation is serious and the IAEA must be authorized to carry out its mission in Zaporijjia as quickly as possible", declared Rafael Grossi, speaking on video during this emergency meeting of the Security Council.
"Time is running out," he insisted, as the IAEA has been trying for weeks to send a mission to inspect the plant.
The site of the Zaporijjia power plant, the largest in Europe, under Russian control since the beginning of March, was again bombed on Thursday.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of being behind the strikes that forced a reactor at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to shut down.
“Incidents that could lead to a catastrophe”
Spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, when asked about accusations pointing to UN responsibility for the delay in sending the IAEA mission there, again rejected this idea on Thursday.
“This is a nuclear power plant in the middle of a battlefield.
I think we can imagine at least two or three pages of obstacles,” noted Stéphane Dujarric.
To guarantee the security of the site and allow an inspection mission, Antonio Guterres and the United States called on Thursday for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the plant.
"Unfortunately, instead of a de-escalation, even more disturbing incidents have been reported in recent days, incidents which, if continued, could lead to a catastrophe," Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: why the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is a highly sensitive battlefield
"The whole world must react immediately to drive out the occupants of the Zaporizhia power plant", the largest in Europe located in southern Ukraine and occupied by Russian troops since March 4, said Thursday, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in his daily video address.
"Only the total withdrawal of the Russians and the resumption of full control of Ukraine over the plant would guarantee nuclear security for all of Europe", he added, denouncing "Russian nuclear blackmail".
Russian forces occupying the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia are preparing to connect it to Crimea annexed by Moscow in 2014, and are damaging it by carrying out this reorientation of electricity production, the Ukrainian operator, EnergoAtom, warned on Tuesday.
