Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he would visit the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia due to safety risks associated with Ukraine's ongoing incursion, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Aug. 22.
Russia has already begun fortifying the nuclear plant, which is located roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of the Kyiv-held Russian town of Sudzha.
Grossi said that he is taking the risk that the atomic facility can be damaged during hostilities in Kursk Oblast very seriously. He noted that the Kursk plant is located "technically within artillery range" of Ukrainian positions.
"And since there is combat, I’m very concerned," he added.
The IAEA chief said he would visit the power station next week to gather information from its managers on whether it had already been targeted. Kyiv has rejected Russian accusations of planning to attack the nuclear plant.
Grossi added that he also wanted to assess the external power supply and routes to the plant.
Earlier, Russia claimed that Ukraine was planning to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, as well as the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, without providing evidence.
"We officially refute these false reports. Ukraine has neither the intention nor the ability to carry out any such actions. Russia must stop spreading dangerous lies," Heorhii Tykhyi, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, said on Aug. 16.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russia of using the plant for nuclear blackmail and endangering its safety.
Kyiv said on Aug. 11 that Russian forces set fire to "a large number of automobile tires in cooling towers" at the nuclear plant in an effort to "create panic in the settlements on the right bank of the former reservoir."
The IAEA said that nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia power plant had not been affected.
Oleg Sukhov
