IAEA To Hold Emergency Meet On Ukraine On Wed
Vienna, Feb 27: The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing diplomats.
According to one diplomat, quoted by the news agency, the agenda item of the meeting will be “the safety, security and safeguards implications of the situation in Ukraine.”
Another diplomat told Reuters that the meeting was convened by Canada and Poland at the request of Kiev, which is not a member of the IAEA board. On Friday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources informed the IAEA about the loss of control over nuclear and radiation facilities in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In turn, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called on both Russian and Ukrainian forces to refrain from actions that threaten the safety of the plant’s nuclear reactors. Earlier that day, units of the Russian airborne forces took full control over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) in northern Ukraine.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian troops and Ukrainian soldiers of the NPP guard battalion reached an agreement to jointly secure power units and sarcophagus of the plant to ensure that nationalist formations or other terrorist organizations will not be able to take advantage of the current situation in Ukraine to ignite a nuclear provocation.
On Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.
