Ukrainian President Zelensky has promised he won't attack Zaporizhzhia plant, says IAEA chief Grossi

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised not to attack Europe's biggest nuclear plant as a part of its counteroffensive against Russia, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told the Guardian in an interview.

He said, "President Zelensky has personally assured me that they will not directly bomb or shell it." However, he added that the president told him "all other options are on the table," in terms of taking it back.

This means that Ukraine follows the new five nuclear safety principles, among which one is "do not attack a nuclear power plant"- initially outlined by Grossi at the UN Security Council in May.

Russia captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in March 2022, the first time any reactor has been captured in war, prompting fears of incidents in the same country when an explosion at Chornobyl in 1986 spread radioactivity across the continent.

Given the current military situation, Grossi said, "anything can happen at any time." "I'm often asked, is [the power station] safe now? No. It's in the middle of a war zone with a counteroffensive," he added. The plant is a base for 500-600 Russian troops.

Grossi said there were two main problems and the most significant one was "direct attack, hit" while the secondary concern was the maintenance of water cooling after the Nova Kakhovka dam downstream was blown in June, leaving its reserve cooling water pond exposed.

He added that he is particularly concerned by "a number of fragile points apart from the reactors themselves" including "the spent fuel area which is not fortified" as well as other storage areas holding fresh nuclear fuels.

Ukraine has been trying to regain its territories, but the progress has been slow. There are hopes that it will recapture the area around the nuclear plant.

Grossi said that the focus of the nuclear regulators in recent years focused on the risk of a terrorist or cyberattack, not a land war in Europe. "I’ve had to cross the frontline three times, and as a diplomat, I was not expecting to do that in my career. I’ve been in places where they see each other. We are walking in the middle," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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