The eyes of the whole world are once again riveted on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The situation is “extremely serious”, according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was bombed this weekend and Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of being the author of these shots.
The head of the agency explained on Sunday that damage was inflicted in places ” quite delicate of the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, located in southern Ukraine. According to him, ” a good dozen » of keystrokes took place over the weekend, but the reactors were not affected. ” The radiation level remains within the standard “says for its part Russia, who controls the territory of the plant.
The Agency condemns strikes deliberate, targeted without attributing responsibility to Russian or Ukrainian forces. The two belligerents accuse each other of having bombarded the site.
Moscow accuses the Ukrainian army of having fired more than one twenty large caliber shells “. And kyiv, through the Ukrainian nuclear agency, accuses Russia of organizing ” once again nuclear blackmail » and to put « the whole world in danger “.
The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, has been trying in vain for weeks to obtain the establishment of a security zone around the plant. Exasperated, he made a final appeal on Sunday: Whoever it is, stop this madness! “. Inspectors from the atomic energy police should, in theory, inspect the plant on Monday. Two inspectors are on site. They could not go out on Sunday because the situation was too dangerous, explains the IAEA.
“In the event of a nuclear accident, we wouldn’t even know where to hide”
And the population, too, is worried. As the Ukrainian counter-offensive bears fruit, they are all the more wary of Russian reactions, reports our correspondent in southern Ukraine, Maurine Mercier.
Yuri, in his forties, soldier, is about to go back to the trenches. But with the bad news coming from Zaporijjia, he fears more than ever the reaction of the injured animal: ” They don’t want to understand that they are screwed! Yes, of course nuclear power scares us. Take the example of Chernobyl. I don’t know what the Russians are thinking. They are nuts. In reality, I’ll tell you, it’s a bunch of morons! “.
At his side, his wife, Genia and their two children, 13 and 12, are worried. The whole family has lived since the beginning of the war in a shelter. But ” in the event of a nuclear accident, we wouldn’t even know where to hide, testifies the mother. Our radiation shelter would be useless.”
If Genia is reckless and regularly goes to the front lines to feed her husband and his companions, she fears, much more than the bombs, a nuclear catastrophe. And the mother is all the more worried about her children. ” During a war, we worry even more about our children. At least we have lived a little. But our children, they haven’t experienced anything yet,” she says with tears in her eyes.
► To read also: Ukraine: the specter of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant