A minimal compromise in the face of a growing military risk: the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia on Wednesday in search of a solution acceptable to Kiev and Moscow in order to secure the site.
The idea of a demilitarized zone around this site in south-eastern Ukraine occupied since March by the Russians seems to have died after months of fruitless exchanges.
Rafael Grossi, who spent a few hours there before returning to the territories under Ukrainian control, therefore now wants to work on "principles" capable of minimizing the risk of a nuclear "catastrophe".
"I try to prepare and propose realistic measures that will be approved by all parties," he told reporters during this visit, which AFP was able to participate in as part of an organized press trip. by the Russian authorities.
"The idea is to agree on certain principles, certain commitments, including not attacking the plant," Grossi then told AFP, once again asking Moscow not to store military equipment there.
"Military activity is on the rise throughout this region" with in particular a "significant increase in the number of soldiers", he had previously regretted.
For this second visit, after that of September 2022, Mr. Grossi arrived in an armored Russian army vehicle, flanked by soldiers in combat gear, according to an AFP journalist.
IAEA employees were also present, including three inspectors responsible for relieving colleagues working on the site.
The head of the IAEA has been consulting for months to protect the plant and the surrounding area, regularly hit by strikes that lead to repeated power cuts, raising fears of a nuclear accident.
Even before his visit, the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough had been ruled out by an adviser to the management of the Russian operator Rosenergoatom.
"We are far from having the illusion that Grossi's visit could radically change things," Renat Kartchaa told the Tass news agency.
kyiv and Moscow accused each other of having bombed the plant. Russian soldiers stationed at the plant site during Mr. Grossi's visit on Wednesday told AFP they were preparing for a possible Ukrainian attack.
Their main task is "to prevent an armed takeover" of the site by Ukrainian "saboteurs", one of the soldiers told reporters. kyiv denies having such plans.
Ukraine believes that only a Russian withdrawal from the Zaporizhia power plant would guarantee nuclear security. As for Russia, which refuses any departure from a territory of which it claims the annexation, it accuses kyiv of wanting to take back this site by force, in defiance of the risk incurred.
On March 22, Mr. Grossi warned that the plant was in a "precarious state" because, according to the IAEA, the "last emergency power line", damaged on March 1, remains "disconnected and under repair". However, electricity is essential to run the pumps ensuring the circulation of water in order to cool the fuel and avoid an accident like that of Fukushima, Japan, in 2011.
On March 9, the gigantic power plant was cut off from the Ukrainian electricity grid for 11 hours after a Russian strike. Emergency diesel generators had been switched on to provide minimal power to the safety systems.
"We are playing with fire," warned Mr. Grossi.
The head of diplomacy of the European Union Josep Borrell had accused Russia of endangering the security of the entire European continent.
Russia claims the annexation of the region of Zaporijjia, where the plant is located and occupies part of it. For several days, it has accused Ukraine of increasing strikes and attacks there.
On Wednesday, Russian authorities reported shelling in Melitopol, the capital of the occupied region. According to them, a locomotive depot was hit but there were no casualties.
These strikes would have been carried out using Himars, a high-precision American mobile rocket launcher system, this city being located more than 65 kilometers from the front.
In the Ukrainian region of Donetksk (east), the fighting has been concentrated in recent months at the level of the city of Bakhmout, kyiv saying that it is resisting within the urban center and exhausting the Russian forces.
General Mark Milley of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told Washington that Russia had made "no progress" around Bakhmout in the past three weeks.
"It's carnage for the Russians," he added.
For several weeks, conjectures have been rife as to a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive in the direction of Melitopol, because its capture would cut the land corridor conquered by Russia to connect its territory to Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014.
In order to be able to inflict further defeats on Russia, however, Ukraine requires ammunition longer range than the 80 km it has had so far for the Himars to destroy Russian supply routes.
The United States has promised ammunition capable of hitting a target 150 km away and Moscow claims that it has already been delivered. kyiv has not confirmed this and claims to need much more Western armaments. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov judges in this respect that Americans and Europeans are "de facto fighting" alongside kyiv.
30/03/2023 01:25:59 - Enerhodar (Ukraine) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
