Chris Lange, FISM News
Ukraine’s state nuclear power company on Friday accused Russian troops of preventing UN inspectors from entering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station’s crisis center. Energoatom said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to make an impartial assessment of the site is being made “difficult” by Russians occupying the plant while heavy fighting in the region continued into Friday, Reuters reported.
A team of 14 inspectors with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog group crossed the frontlines to reach the site Thursday amid ongoing shelling in the area in an attempt to assess and secure the site against a potentially catastrophic radiation leak.
IAEA Director Rafael Grossi told reporters Friday that the delegation is “not moving” from the plant, and vowed to maintain a “continued presence” of experts at the site, according to an Associated Press report.
Grossi said IAEA experts have managed to tour the site, including control rooms, emergency systems, and diesel generators, and had also held discussions with the plant’s staff. Ukrainian workers have remained at the site which has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the six-month conflict.
Grossi said it was “obvious that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times,” but said he could not determine whether this was accidental or deliberate.
“I will continue to be worried about the plant until we have a situation which is more stable,” he said.
The IAEA announced that Grossi will hold a press conference at the Vienna airport this evening after departing Ukraine, though the rest of the mission will stay behind to continue their assessment.
Russia and Ukraine, meanwhile, continued to trade accusations that the other side is trying to thwart the IAEA mission.
In a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin viewed “positively” the arrival of the mission, “despite all problems and difficulties caused by the Ukrainian side’s provocative actions.”
Zelenskyy pushes for Russian visa ban
Authorities said four people were killed and 10 injured over the last day in the Donetsk region in the east and reported Russian rocket attacks on Sloviansk destroyed a kindergarten while heavy fighting continues in the Kherson region to the south.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging the West to maintain tough sanctions against Russia, which the Kremlin this week cited as the reason behind state-run Gazprom’s decision to temporarily shut off the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Europe while also claiming the closure was necessary to perform routine maintenance.
A Friday statement from Ukraine’s presidential office stated that “partner countries have recently loosened their sanctions policy towards Russia.”
“Earlier the states helped as much as possible, but today this help has faced the ‘hummingbird effect,'” Zelenskyy said in the release. “We are standing still, the sanctions advance more slowly, the next packages are weaker,” he continued.
“Russian tourists go on a vacation in Italy, France, Spain, and then support the Russian invasion,” Zelenskyy added, alluding to the ongoing debate among European Union members over a proposal to block Russian visas.
“They cannot be treated the same way as other tourists, as other people who are citizens of democratic states that live in peace, according to the law and do not seize other territories, do not support the war with money,” the president said while emphasizing that Russia must continue to “feel the cost of war.”
“Ukraine’s strength is the way to a quick peace, as it will cause weakness in Russia. Strength on the battlefield and support for our security, our army, sanctions’ support, support for our business, and the exit of Western business from the territory of the Russian Federation,” Zelenskyy continued. “Do not support their budget today, do not support their economy, but exit (from the Russian market),” he said.