The UN nuclear agency will monitor Ukraine’s main power substations, Kiev said, according to Reuters

By Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine and the U.N. nuclear agency IAEA have agreed that agency experts will monitor the situation at key Ukrainian substations in addition to nuclear power plants, Ukraine’s chief nuclear inspector said on Thursday.

More than half of the electricity consumed in the country is generated by three nuclear power plants, but Russian missile and drone attacks on the substations threaten the stable operation of the nuclear plants, Oleh Korikov said in a televised briefing.

“It was agreed that the IAEA will expand its functionality, its presence in Ukraine, and that power substations, which are important for the safety of nuclear power plants, will also be subject to international monitoring,” Korikov said.

The first visit of the monitoring mission to one of the substations will take place next week, he added.

Ukrainian authorities hope that the presence of inspectors will prevent attacks on substations.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, is now in Ukraine and visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was captured by Russian forces shortly after Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Moscow and Kiev have regularly accused each other of attacking the plant and risking a nuclear accident.

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has come under increased Russian missile and drone attacks in recent months, and officials have said the country has lost about half of its generating capacity and now relies mainly on nuclear power.

Moscow, which denies targeting civilians, says damaging Ukraine’s energy system is a legitimate military objective.

DISCONNECTED NUCLEAR POWER UNITS

Ukraine’s mission to the IAEA said last week that a Russian drone and missile attack in late August forced Ukraine to disconnect several nuclear units from the grid, posing a risk to the nuclear power sector.

He said that the attack aims to paralyze the operation of electrical installations.

“Russia, while not directly hitting nuclear power plants, threatens their safe operation through attacks on energy infrastructure,” Korikov said.

As a result of the August 26 attack, three out of four electrical units at the Rivne nuclear power plant in western Ukraine were disconnected from the grid, as was Unit 3 of the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom said this week that capacity had been reduced to one unit of its nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine after Russian attacks damaged the country’s Ukrenergo electricity transmission system.

It said production was reduced after “hostile bombing of Ukrenergo’s infrastructure” and “significant fluctuations in network parameters”.