Japan Today
IAEA chief Grossi visits Ukraine
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi and Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko visit energy infrastructure facility which was damaged during Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko Image: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko
world

IAEA chief, in Kyiv, warns of nuclear risk from attacks on Ukraine grid

21 Comments

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday and inspected an electricity distribution substation, warning that attacks on Ukraine's power grid could pose a risk of a nuclear accident by disrupting supply.

"I’m at Kyivska electrical substation — an important part of Ukraine’s power grid essential for nuclear safety," Grossi wrote on X. "A nuclear accident can result from a direct attack on a plant, but also from power supply disruption."

Grossi posted pictures of him visiting the substation alongside Energy Minister German Galushchenko, and being shown what appeared to be defences against Russian strikes.

Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including substations, throughout its nearly three-year-old invasion, although it has avoided direct strikes on Ukraine's nuclear plants.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address, said he and Grossi discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, seized by Russia in the early weeks of Moscow's February 2022 invasion.

Zelenskyy said the IAEA should play an active role to "secure the release" of people he described as "hostages" living near the plant -- a probable reference to staff at the station obliged to work for Russian managers now running it.

He issued a fresh call for the plant to be returned to Ukrainian control. Each side routinely accuses the other of staging attacks on the station and risking a nuclear accident.

Zelenskyy said he and Grossi agreed the IAEA would expand its activity at Ukraine's nuclear facilities and other infrastructure sites.

Grossi said he would visit Russia later this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine and at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

"It's essential that I, in the discharge of my obligations, keep channels of communication constantly," Grossi told a news briefing.

Last week, the IAEA said in a statement that Grossi would visit Kyiv for high-level meetings to ensure nuclear safety in the war that Russia started in February 2022.

In September, Ukraine and the IAEA agreed that the agency's experts would monitor the situation at key Ukrainian substations in addition to monitoring nuclear plants.

More than half of the electricity consumed in Ukraine is generated by three nuclear plants. Russian missile and drone attacks on substations threaten the plants' stable operation, according to Ukraine's nuclear inspector's office.

The Kyivska substation allows excess capacity from Ukraine's west to be transferred to central regions thanks to the Rivne-Kyiv transmission line which extends for hundreds of km (miles), helping with power supply to Kyiv and the surrounding region.

"An increasingly fragile grid poses a growing risk to all NPPs", Grossi said on X, referring to nuclear power plants.

© Thomson Reuters 2025.

©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.


21 Comments

Comments have been disabled You can no longer respond to this thread.

This is nothing more than an exaggerated stunt. Moscow command knows full well how to tickle their energy grid.

They are getting desperate - they know they can safely put them into cold shutdown instead of irresponsibly running them to fuel the war industries but won't.

 Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was built by the USSR: surely they don't want a monument to the Soviets, what with their ongoing Derussification/DeSovietization campaigns, which it would run counter to.

Also built by the USSR (and like the USA/Panama Canal), Moscow has rights in how the facility and general zone are managed.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

An interesting proposal has come from Ukraine to use more nuclear power. Even the russian terrorists have the brain cells to realize that striking a nuclear power plant will cause problems their suicide charges can't compensate for.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

JJEToday  07:03 am JST

They are getting desperate - they know they can safely put them into cold shutdown instead of irresponsibly running them to fuel the war industries but won't.

I suppose you think Ukraine should just roll out the red carpet for the terrorists?

Also built by the USSR (and like the USA/Panama Canal), Moscow has rights in how the facility and general zone are managed.

Not according to any sort of international law.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Russian law supersedes international law (much like US law does), especially when it comes to existential threats, which means national security.

*Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including substations, throughout its nearly three-year-old invasion, although it has avoided direct strikes on Ukraine's nuclear plants.*

No nuclear plants have been struck by Russia - suggest you actually read the article, as the article even confirms this decent fact. Moreover, they are inspecting a substation in Kyiv (visible in the photo), which any reasonable person (especially also in the Pentagon) concedes is a 100% very legitimate target.

There is no nuclear plant even close to Kyiv, with two in the far west of the country and one in the far south.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

JJEToday  07:27 am JST

Russian law supersedes international law (much like US law does), especially when it comes to existential threats, which means national security.

There was no threat to russia prior to Feb. 24th, 2022. Rubber-stamp laws do not excuse war crimes.

Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including substations, throughout its nearly three-year-old invasion, although it has **avoided direct strikes on Ukraine's nuclear plants**.

No nuclear plants have been struck by Russia

That's why I said that even the terrorist understands that nuclear plants can't be targets for barbarism.

There is no nuclear plant even close to Kyiv, with two in the far west of the country and one in the far south.

And that is why there needs to be many more if possible and they should be used for the full extent of activities to expel the terrorist invader.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Putin has MELTDOWN as Kim DEFIES Russia in SHOCK move:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZlIj-ByqoY&ab_channel=BusinessBasics

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Oh, I see... certain quarters think these nuclear plants should be weaponized.

How convenient.

Attitudes like this that absolutely confirm the necessity and decency of all actions.

Russia has every right to protect the people of the south-east and itself from these imminent threats.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Russia doesn’t give a damn, even if causing a nuclear accident would be the same thing as pooping on itself. Mindless! Insane! Stupid! All of the above!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

BurgerlandToday 09:09 am JST

Good to see papa Trump working on bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table after the Biden warmongers were kicked out by the US voter.

Papa Trump just announced he wants to be in a shooting war with Hamas. How is that gaslighting campaign working out for ya?

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

JJEToday 07:44 am JST

Oh, I see... certain quarters think these nuclear plants should be weaponized.

Maybe don't try to wipe a free people off of the map next time.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

No people are being wiped off a map. The lines on the map are being adjusted.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

As we all know the main responsible for this full scale disaster is the big US industrial military complex, the same one that President Dwight Eisenhower warned against in 1961, still taking decision at the White House.

The same apparatus in Washington should find any means to stop the mass killings of the Ukrainians soldiers on the battlefield, who want peace negotiations to start soon as possible, even if that would certainly means less profits for the warlords in Wall Street.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Putin has MELTDOWN as Kim DEFIES Russia in SHOCK move:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZlIj-ByqoY&ab_channel=BusinessBasics

This pretty low level stuff, you believe this sis?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Russian way of thinking . . .

Crap on itself and its neighbors first, ignore any and all questions later.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

JJEToday 12:12 pm JST

No people are being wiped off a map. The lines on the map are being adjusted.

Uh huh, just like Israel, russia's equal in genocide.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

BurgerlandToday 12:15 pm JST

Nobody is trying to wipe anyone off the map, the copypasta was told many times.

The guy literally above you talks about a Ukrainian rump state all of the time.

If BoJo & co didn't sabotage Istanbul peace talks many lives would have been saved.

Switched to the old copypasta, huh? Easily disproved by:

russia was in shelling distance of Kharkiv at the time.

Animals like Putin don't just run away unless made to suffer.

Ukrainians feel no ill feelings about Boris Johnson because they are well familiar with the maskirovka.
-4 ( +1 / -5 )

BurgerlandToday 12:57 pm JST

"Papa Trump just announced he wants to be in a shooting war with Hamas. How is that gaslighting campaign working out for ya?"

This story is about Ukraine, Gaza projection attempt is irrelevant. On Ukraine Trump is pro peace, unlike the warmonger Biden admin. Did the keyboard warrior volunteer for the foreign legion yet btw, why not?

On the contrary: the Gaza developments have rendered the apologists gaslighting so weak he is reduced to just spinning the wheel now and seeing what might still stick.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

FosToday 12:27 pm JST

Still Putin's War

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites