The top UN nuclear energy official met President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday to discuss what he described as growing concerns about a war-scarred nuclear plant. fighting on the front lines of the war, almost seven months before his first visit to the factory.
The official, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, met Mr. Zelensky in the Ukrainian controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 35 miles northeast of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, where the nuclear power plants are located. Russian invasion forces occupied for many years. more than a year.
The plant on the Dnipro River was the first in the world to be submerged in a war zone, raising fears of catastrophic radiation. Artillery and shooting repeatedly damaged the plant and temporarily destroyed important support equipment. And reports that Ukraine is planning a major counterattack to retake southern territory including the factory have raised fears of a catastrophic attack, whether accidental or intentional.
Mr. Grossi issued a series of security warnings at the Zaporizhzhia plant, condemning international complacency and saying that one day the luck would run out. “The risks to nuclear safety and security are all too clear, as is the need to act now to prevent an accident that could have radioactive consequences for health and the environment,” he said. schools for people in Ukraine and beyond.” in a statement this weekend.
Hours after their meeting, Mr. Zelensky said in a statement, “Without the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and personnel from the ZNPP and neighboring territories, any initiative Any attempt to restore nuclear safety and security will fail.”
For many months, the heaviest fighting took place in the east, in the Donbas region, where Russian attacks to capture the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka made slow progress, at a heavy cost in lives and destruction.
On Monday, the senior Ukrainian official in Avdiivka, Vitaliy Barabash, ordered the evacuation of public utility workers who were restoring basic services and helping to rescue civilians following rocket and artillery attacks. soldiers, underscoring the severity of the situation there. Some 2,000 civilians were still outside the pre-war population of 30,000, and Mr. Barabash, the head of the city’s military administration, barred other civilians, including journalists and aid workers, from entering the country. into town.
“Avdiivka is becoming more and more like a post-apocalyptic movie location,” he said in a video posted Monday on social media. Mr. Barabash was wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest in a video showing rubble in the streets, crumbling apartment buildings and charred trees.
Since the start of the war 13 months ago, Russian forces have repeatedly tried to capture Avdiivka, near the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk. But they have redoubled their efforts to capture it in recent weeks, ramping up their bombardment of the city center and remote villages as part of a broader assault in the eastern Donbas region.
In Bakhmut, about 34 miles northeast of Avdiivka, “the most intense phase” of the protracted battle for the city is underway, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrsky, warned today. Monday.
“The situation is always difficult,” General Syrsky said, according to the military media center. “The enemy is suffering significant losses of manpower, weapons and military equipment, but continues to conduct offensive actions.”
Bakhmut and Avdiivka are two points along the front line stretching through the Donbas, where the capture of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has become his main goal. But Ukraine’s leaders have made no secret that they hope to shift the focus of the war with a major offensive as they have fresh troops in place and new Western-supplied heavy weapons.
While pouring billions of dollars into arming Ukraine, its supporters, led by the United States, increasingly isolate Russia economically and diplomatically, while strengthening the NATO alliance. That process continued on Monday, when the Hungarian Parliament approved NATO membership for Finland. Türkiye – whose approval is the last remaining hurdle for Finland – is expected to agree within the next few days.
Finland and Sweden, fearing a Russian invasion, canceled decades of official non-alignment and applied to join the alliance last year. Turkey and Hungary, which have the most friendly relations with Moscow among NATO members, have refused to approve and the Swedish application remains stalled.
Germany has delivered 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks as promised to Ukraine, German chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a press conference on Monday, a much-anticipated delivery of advanced equipment from the West ahead a spring attack is expected. Ukraine’s defense minister said British Challenger 2 tanks – 14 had been promised – have also begun to arrive. More tanks from other NATO countries, including the United States, are expected.
On the battlefield, some Western officials and military analysts have predicted that the Ukrainians will soon launch an attack not against the Donbas, but to try to recapture Russian-controlled areas in Russia. Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions further to the west, which could mean intensifying fighting around the Zaporizhia nuclear plant.
Nuclear experts are particularly concerned about damage to the cooling system that keeps the uranium-fuelled reactor core from melting or the power supply that keeps the cooling system running. That power was cut off several times, forcing the plant to rely on backup generators.
All six of the plant’s reactors have been shut down, but their radioactive reactor cores still need to be continuously cooled.
The Russian state nuclear company, Rosatom, took over the plant, but many pre-war Ukrainian employees still work there. Ukrainian officials have accused the Russians of abuse and intimidation workers, even intentionally worsening physical condition at the factory.
In his nightly video address on Monday, Mr Zelensky said Russia was using the plant “to blackmail the world with radiation”.
After months of lobbying and numerous false starts, Mr. Grossi convinced Russian officials to allow his agency, a branch of the United Nations, to send inspectors there in September. the last time he went to the factory. He has said he plans to go there again this week, which means a precarious ride across the front lines and through numerous military checkpoints.
Grossi’s proposal to create a demilitarized zone around the plant did not bear fruit. Ukrainian officials say that Moscow has rejected the plan on the grounds that it would mean withdrawing its forces from the facility, whose control of the facility has given them significant leverage over production. Ukraine’s energy production. The Ukrainians say the Russians shot at them from the factory grounds, knowing that the Ukrainians were reluctant to return fire for fear of hitting vital equipment – an allegation the Russians deny.
The Ukrainians held the western bank of the Dnipro, across the river from the factory, and the Russians regularly bombed the city of Nikopol and other targets west of the river from near the plant, as well as Ukrainian-held territory in North. The city of Zaporizhzhia has been bombed several times.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Monday that Russia had shelled 30 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region in the previous 24 hours.
Mr. Zelensky’s unannounced visit to the city of Zaporizhzhia is his latest visit uplifting trip to positions near the fighting. In a message posted on Telegram, Zelensky wrote that he was “honored to be here today, alongside our military.”
Steven Erlanger And Carly Olson contribution report.
