Russia supports the proposal by Rafael Grossi, chief executive of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to discuss the safety of nuclear installations in Ukraine with all parties concerned.

 

“Russia supports Grossi’s idea for a meeting with the three parties, and we expect Ukraine to cooperate,” Moscow’s envoy to the IAEA, Mikhail Ulyanov, told reporters on Monday. Grossi said on Friday that Russia and Ukraine were considering his offer to talk to the agency.

However, the envoy said the Russians do not want the conversation to take place at Chernobyl. Last week, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986, some 100 kilometres north of Kyiv, and came under Russian control. “I don’t think Chernobyl is the best location for such a gathering. The world has many capitals,” Ulyanov said.

Last week, the Russians also seized Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Although no damage was caused to the reactors during the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces, a building near the nuclear complex was hit by a projectile. Grossi previously said he suspects that the Russians are responsible for this.