UN nuclear watchdog to inspect Ukrainian sites
The UN’s nuclear watchdog says it will send a team to inspect two sites in Ukraine at the government’s request.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will examine the sites for signs of “undeclared nuclear activities”, officials said.
The location of the facilities was not announced, but Director-General Rafael Grossi said that one of them was inspected last month.
It comes amid Russian accusations that Kyiv is preparing to use dirty bombs.
The devices contain radioactive material, such as uranium, which is scattered through the air when its conventional explosive detonates. They don’t need to contain highly refined radioactive material, as is used in a nuclear bomb, which makes them cheaper and easier to maneuver.
The IAEA said it received an invitation from the Ukrainian government to carry out “verification activities” at two unspecified locations, adding that the agency’s inspectors already visit both sites regularly.
Grossi said the IAEA “inspected one of these locations one month ago and all our findings were consistent with Ukraine’s safeguards declarations.”
“No undeclared nuclear activities or material were found there,” he said.
Ukraine’s invitation to visit the sites appeared to be in response to Russia’s recent allegations that two institutes in Ukraine were involved in preparations to produce a dirty bomb. Moscow has not offered any evidence for the claim.
Russia’s state-run news agency said it had identified two sites – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv – as the locations central to the alleged Ukrainian operation.
Moscow is expected to repeat the allegation during a meeting of the UN’s Security Council on Tuesday. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Russian representative to the council, Vassily Nebenzia, said his country would “regard the use of the dirty bomb by the Kyiv regime as an act of nuclear terrorism”.
“Our Ministry of Defence has also received information that this provocation can be carried out with the support of Western countries,” Nebenzia wrote in his letter.
Moscow’s allegations have been rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies. In a joint statement on Monday, the US, UK, and French foreign ministers condemned the claims as “transparently false” and said the “world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian allegations were clear signs that it was planning its own attack.
Agencies