IAEA chief warns that Russian attacks affect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: ‘One day our luck will turn’

The director of the international atomic energy agency (IAEA), Raphael Grossiwarned on Thursday of the risk around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhiawhich runs on backup generators after a Russian attack.

“Every time we play with fire and if we let this situation continue, one day our luck will change,” he warned Thursday before the board of governors of this body of the HIM not Vienna.

Grossi called on “everyone to commit to protecting the security” of the Russian-occupied factory in southern Ukraine by creating a special zone.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europelost power on Thursday and is running on diesel generators, Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom said.

The outage came amid a new wave of Russian attacks in Ukraine that killed at least nine people and led to power outages across the country.

During the attack, the Russian forces used hypersonic missiles among the 81 rockets launched during Thursday’s offensive against Ukraine, as confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, while the Ukrainian military authorities admitted that their forces could not effectively stop this type of arsenal .

Air raid sirens blared over the capital for seven hours as Ukrainian air defenses brought down drones and all manner of cruise missiles, although preliminary reports said a hypersonic missile hit its target.

“Long range air, sea and land precision weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missile systemhit key parts of Ukraine’s military infrastructure, enterprises of the military-industrial complex, as well as electrical installations that supply them with energy,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“Unfortunately, a Kinzhal-type missile hit an infrastructure objectsaid Serhi Popko, head of the Kyiv region military authority.

The Kinzhal (“dagger” in Russian) missiles are part of a suite of new hypersonic weapons that President Vladimir Putin unveiled in 2018 in a belligerent speech in which he said that they could reach almost anywhere in the world and evade a US-developed missile shield.

“The last line of power between the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant occupied and the Ukrainian electricity system was cut off as a result of rocket attacks,” Energoatom said.

The operator said it was the sixth time the facility had been disconnected from the power grid since Russian forces captured the plant last year.

The plant is powered by diesel generators, which can supply the facility’s electricity needs for 10 days, he added. Energoatom.

“The countdown has started. If it is impossible to renew the station’s external power supply during this period, an accident with radiological consequences for the whole world may occur,” Energoatom said.

The Russian authorities who control the plant have declared that the generators diesel they had ignited after a “short circuit” in the power lines, without providing details.

“There are sufficient fuel reserves to ensure the generators will operate,” they said in a statement, adding that all safety issues at the plant were in order.

the troops of Moscow seized the factory on March 4, 2022, a few days after invading Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of having bombed Zaporizhiathe largest nuclear facility in Europe.

The nuclear agency THE UN, OF COURSE it deployed observers to the plant in September and is seeking to negotiate a demilitarized zone near the facility, but talks appear to have stalled.

At least five people died on Thursday in western Ukraine, victims of the massive bombings carried out by Russiaas announced by the regional governor, Maksym Kozytsky,

According to the authorities, one of the Russian missiles destroyed three houses in a residential area of ​​the Zolochiv district. “There may be more people under the rubble,” he added via his Telegram account.

President, Volodimir Zelenskyqualified as “miserable tactics” Russians, the attack that was carried out in the early morning.

“The enemy threw 81 missiles again try to intimidate Ukrainians, returning to his miserable tactic,” the president said on Telegram. The attacks hit kyiv and nine other regions in the center, south and west of the country, he added.

(With information from AFP)

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