Ukraine: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, has urged increased access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. This request comes amidst allegations between Moscow and Kyiv, each accusing the other of plotting acts of sabotage at Europe’s largest nuclear power facility.

The IAEA has expressed the need for increased access to the Zaporizhzhia plant in order to “confirm the absence of mines or explosives at the site.”

“With military tension and activities increasing in the region where this major nuclear power plant is located, our experts must be able to verify the facts on the ground,” IAEA Director General Mr. Rafael Grossi noted in a statement.

According to Mr. Grossi, recent inspections at the site by IAEA staff had not found “any visible indications of mines or explosives”, but additional access “would help clarify the current situation at the site” at a time when “unconfirmed allegations and counter-allegations” were circulating.

“In particular, access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 is essential, as is access to parts of the turbine halls and some parts of the cooling system at the plant,” the IAEA chief added in the statement.

Ukraine and Russia recently accused each other of planning to attack the Zaporizhzhia plant, though neither side provided evidence to support their claims of an imminent threat to the facility, which has been under Russian control since the beginning of March 2022, shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Citing intelligence reports, Ukrainian President Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously alleged that Russian forces had placed “objects resembling explosives” on top of several of the plant’s power units to “simulate” an attack from the outside.

On Wednesday evening, Zelenskyy once again accused Russia of planning to stage an incident at the nuclear plant similar to the destruction last month of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Mr. Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Russia’s state nuclear company Rosenergoatom, which controls the Zaporizhzhia plant, said there was “no basis” for Zelenskyy’s claims of a plot by Moscow to simulate an explosion at the facility.

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