Russia stalls on UN access to shelled Ukraine nuclear plant

Bloomberg

Russia defied growing international pressure to grant United Nations inspectors immediate access to Europe’s largest nuclear plant amid fears of a catastrophe over shelling of the area in Ukraine occupied by Kremlin forces.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of a “real” risk of nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine because of repeated strikes near the facility in recent days. Russian invasion forces took over the power station in March, though it continues to be operated by Ukrainian workers. Each side in the war accuses the other of targeting it.
The Russian envoy to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said a mission to Zaporizhzhia led by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi can’t take place before the “end of August or early September,” in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published Friday.
Russia’s representative to the UN in New York, Vassily Nebenzia, also told the Security Council that no visit can go ahead unless Ukraine provides safety guarantees for international personnel.
The only way to remove the nuclear risk is to return the plant to the legitimate control of the government in Kyiv, Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s representative to the UN, told the meeting. “Despite their public declarations, the occupiers have resorted to manipulations and unjustified conditions for the site visit,” he said.
In a rare break with Moscow, China joined the US in urging that outside inspectors be allowed to enter the plant “without delay” at the Security Council. Russia rebuffed a call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw its armed forces from the power plant.
“I am calling for all military activities in the immediate vicinity of the plant to cease immediately and not to target its facilities or surroundings,” said Guterres. “I urge the parties to provide the IAEA mission with immediate, secure and unfettered access to the site.”
The IAEA has for four months requested permission to visit the plant, without success, according to Grossi, who’s described the situation at Zaporizhzhia as “very alarming.” Russia says it was close to allowing a mission to visit the plant in June but that the UN called it off for safety reasons.
While Ukrainian officials have previously resisted IAEA visits to Zaporizhzhia since it came under Russian occupation, Kyslytsya told the UN the government in Kyiv is ready to provide the mission “with all the requisite assistance and facilitate its travel through Ukrainian-controlled territory.”
The UK has accused Russia’s military of using the facility’s “protected status” to launch attacks on surrounding areas without fear of retaliation.
Russia appears to be using its control of the site “to play on Western fears of a nuclear disaster in Ukraine, likely in an effort to degrade Western will to provide military support to a Ukrainian counteroffensive,” analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War said in an August 3 report.