International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi warned of an uptick in attacks on the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine during a visit to Moscow on Feb. 7.
Grossi said that Russia’s systematic attack on Ukraine’ energy infrastructure, which Amnesty International said may amount to war crimes, further risk nuclear catastrophe in other parts of the country.
On Feb. 11, however, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, called out the IAEA for not placing the potential of a nuclear crisis squarely on Ukraine’s shoulders.
“Ukraine remains the only source of security threats to the ZNPP as it routinely targets the nuclear facility and its critical infrastructure, as well as the satellite city of Energodar, home to ZNPP employees and their families, and even attacked a convoy [facilitating the rotation of] IAEA inspectors in December 2024,” Polyansky said.
Those claims are false.
Russia’s occupation and placement of military assets on the grounds of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, along with systematic attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, lay at the heart of the brewing nuclear crisis.
Russia has bulked up its efforts to use the nuclear facility as a military launch pad, Britain’s McKenzie Intelligence Services commissioned by Greenpeace Ukraine reported in December 2024.
Satellite intelligence published in that report revealed the firing positions of Russian Multiple Rocket Launch Systems (MLRS) near the facility. The report also revealed Russia’s construction of military trenches and fortifications at the ZNPP cooling pond.
Earlier analysis from McKenzie Intelligence Services published in July 2024 found that apart from digging over a kilometer of trenches, Russian forces were also constructing fortifications that could be used for the deployment of heavy military firepower.
Greenpeace Ukraine said that Russia’s militarization of the cooling pond area could signal Russia’s plans to restart the six reactors at the facility, which were taken offline in 2022.
“The Russian armed forces continue to militarize Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, violating nuclear safety standards by building over 1,000 meters of trenches and fortifications on its cooling pond. Firing heavy MLRS from near the ZNPP endangers Ukrainian lives and communities and also increases nuclear risks. Russia’s occupation of the ZNPP must be ended,” Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine, said in December.
While visiting an electricity distribution substation in Ukraine last week, Grossi warned that attacks on Ukraine’s power grid could spark a nuclear accident by disrupting the energy supply.
That sentiment was echoed by independent United Nations experts who warned in November 2024, that repeated Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s electricity system have “led to further significant damage to electric substations that are essential to the operation of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.”
A special report from the IAEA published in September 2024 reached similar conclusions.
“Recent attacks underscored the risks to supply from Ukraine’s other nuclear plants, as damage to nearby substations can prevent these plants feeding the grid or endanger the backup supply that keeps the reactors safe,” the report said.
The IAEA said that Russia’s occupation of nearly half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity, including the ZNPP, and systematic attacks on the power grid in non-occupied territory had “left Ukraine with only around one-third of its pre-war capacity.”
Meantime, Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of attacking the ZNPP and nearby settlements and infrastructure.
That also includes the Dec. 10 attack on a convoy of IAEA inspectors traveling on a road near the nuclear power plant, which Russia’s Polyansky pinned on Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in turn said it was Russia that deliberately targeted the IAEA vehicle.
While Polyansky accused Ukraine of carrying out drone attacks on the nearby city of Energodar, Grossi said it was impossible to determine who was launching those strikes based on the available evidence.
On Feb. 11, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy also alleged that Russian shelling damaged one of the two power lines supplying the ZNPP.
