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IAEA chief warns of nuclear risk from attacks on Ukraine grid

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi (R) and Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko (L) visit energy infrastructure facility, Ukraine.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi (R) and Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko (L) visit energy infrastructure facility, Ukraine.
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KYIV: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday 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.


Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including substations, throughout its three-year attack, 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 in February 2022. "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 km (miles), 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.


Meanwhile, 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, officials said on Tuesday. 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. "This brutality cannot be tolerated. Maximum pressure must be applied to Russia - through military force, sanctions, and diplomacy - to stop the terror and protect lives, " President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X. Rescuers continued to work at the site, he added.


Syniehubov said there were no military facilities in the area. The missile directly hit the administrative building and damaged another one, as well as residential blocks, he added. Izium was occupied by Russian forces at the start of Moscow's full-scale attack of Ukraine, now approaching its three-year anniversary, and sustained widespread destruction. After the town was liberated, Ukrainian officials said they found mass graves and accused Russia of war crimes, which Moscow denies.


Ukraine has brought home 12 children who were forcefully taken by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff said. "As part of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA, it was possible to return home 12 children who were under the pressure of the Russian occupation, " Andriy Yermak wrote on his Telegram messaging app. The Bring Kids Back UA programme under Zelensky says it is an initiative to return home all children forcefully deported from Ukraine. — Reuters


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