International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has arrived in Kyiv and inspected an electricity distribution substation, warning that attacks on Ukraine’s power grid could pose a risk of nuclear accident by disrupting supply.
“I’m at Kyivska electrical substation – an important part of Ukraine’s power grid essential for nuclear safety,” Grossi wrote on X.
“A nuclear accident can result from a direct attack on a plant, but also from power supply disruption.”
Grossi posted pictures of him visiting the substation alongside Energy Minister German Galushchenko, and being showed what appeared to be defences against Russian strikes.
Russia has regularly bombarded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including substations, throughout its three-year invasion although it has avoided direct strikes on Ukraine’s nuclear plants.
Grossi said he would visit Russia later this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Russia captured the plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear power station, soon after its forces went into Ukraine almost three years ago.
“It’s essential that I, in the discharge of my obligations keep channels of communication constantly,” Grossi told a news briefing.
Last week, the IAEA said in a statement that Grossi would visit Kyiv for high-level meetings to ensure nuclear safety in the war that Russia started in February 2022.
In September, Ukraine and the IAEA agreed that the agency’s experts would monitor the situation at key Ukrainian substations in addition to monitoring nuclear plants.
More than half of the electricity consumed in Ukraine is generated by three nuclear power plants.
Russian missile and drone attacks on substations threaten the plants’ stable operation, according to Ukraine’s nuclear inspector’s office.
The Kyivska substation allows excess capacity from Ukraine’s west to be transferred to central regions thanks to the Rivne-Kyiv transmission line which extends for hundreds of kilometres, helping with power supply to Kyiv and the surrounding region.
“An increasingly fragile grid poses a growing risk to all NPPs”, Grossi said on X, referring to nuclear power plants.
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday a Russian strike killed five civilians and injured more than 30 in the town of Izium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, partially destroying the city council building.
Russian forces hit the town’s central district using a ballistic missile, governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram, citing preliminary information.
A 15-year-old girl was among the injured and three people were undergoing surgery after the strike, he added.
Russian occupation authorities said six people, including five children, were injured by a Ukrainian drone in the Zaporizhzhia region.
A school bus was shot at in the district of Vasylivka, near the front line, Yevgeny Balitsky, the region’s Russian-appointed governor, said on Tuesday.
“At the moment we know that the bus driver has been seriously injured,” he wrote on Telegram.
In addition, five children had suffered minor shrapnel injuries.
Russian authorities characterised the incident as a targeted attack on children.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused international aid organisations of wanting to cover up the case.
The district of Vasylivka, where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located, is right on the front line and is being fought over by the two sides.
with DPA
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