Russia: U.N. monitors fail to take up duties

The latest rotating team of experts from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has failed to take up its duties at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, a senior Russian official told TASS on Thursday. Russia has accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of disrupting the latest rotation of staff at the plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors. The facility was occupied by Russian troops in the early days of their invasion of Ukraine and remains near the front line, with each side accusing the other of shelling it and risking a nuclear accident. “It is true that the rotation of specialists which is planned for once a month, has been excessively delayed,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s representative to the IAEA in Vienna, told Russia’s TASS news agency. “It was supposed to occur on Feb. 7, but hasn’t yet happened, through no fault of our own. We expect the changeover of experts to take place very soon, in the next few days,” he said. IAEA mon
itors have been posted at the station since last September. Other IAEA teams have since been put in place in Ukraine’s three other nuclear plants. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Monday he hoped the changeover would take place this week, the agency said in a statement. He also said the agency’s teams had reported more explosions near the plant, which on several occasions have caused it to lose its only remaining back-up power line.