The surprise is that there is none. In the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the experts who visited the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia are alarmist about the situation in the south of the country and speak of an untenable situation.
“There is an urgent need to take action,” said the UN agency in its report released on Tuesday. “The bombardments on the site and in the surrounding area must stop immediately to avoid causing further damage to the installations”, she insisted, underlining “the extremely stressful conditions” in which the personnel of the factory work, under the control of the Russian military.
The two countries at war accuse each other of strikes on the enclosure, which makes a delicate conciliation. The publication of the conclusions of the report by the team led by General Manager Rafael Grossi comes the day after the disconnection of the last reactor in operation in this complex. Both sides welcomed the update of the text seeing in the different developments the matter justifying their mutual accusations. However, Russia was surprised by “a number of question marks” that the report would contain. “We have requested these clarifications from the Director General of the IAEA,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Russian agency Interfax on Wednesday morning.
“The IAEA has managed to produce a very comprehensive report in a short time”, welcomes Ludovic Dupin, information director of the French Nuclear Energy Company (SFEN), who returned for L’Express on the points highlights of the document. The agency’s experts were able to observe the presence of military vehicles in the enclosure, near the reactors, which is a major violation of nuclear safety rules because it promotes congestion. Management employees are understaffed. The breakdown of equipment supplies to the plant, on several occasions, is also worrying. So many elements that remind us that the situation is still critical.
Before winter, Kherson imposed itself as the center of attention of the staffs of the two armies engaged in a slow face-to-face and heavy in human losses, in the south of Ukraine. The war enters a complex but fundamental tactical phase for the future. The Ukrainian army launched a major counter-offensive at the end of August to retake the city in southern Ukraine, occupied in mid-March by the Kremlin army. Combat does not gain much ground for engaged soldiers.
Simultaneously, on the borders of the Donbass, the fighting in the East continues and the advances of each army are equally minimal. The status quo is in order. Soldiers dread winter, mud and cold.
Having moved from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to managing the country’s affairs, Liz Truss knows the Ukrainian file well. She is one of the architects of the British response to the entry into the war of the Russian army on Ukrainian soil. Shortly after taking office, the new British Prime Minister pledged her “full support” to Ukraine on Tuesday during a call to President Volodymyr Zelensky. “She reaffirmed that Ukraine can count on the UK’s long-term support,” said a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister. The Ukrainian head of state welcomed the coordination with his counterpart to “increase the pressure” on Russia, in the seventh month of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UK has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since the February 24 Russian invasion. As early as the spring, London funneled military equipment, funds and training resources to beleaguered Kyiv forces, which are currently fighting battles in the south and east of the country. Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement is rather in the direction of cooperation on the aspect of the judicialization of war crimes.