IAEA staff rotation at Zaporizhzhia cancelled due to military activity

Thursday, 13 February 2025

The agency's Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that despite assurances from both sides about the safety of the planned rotation it was judged too dangerous to continue.

In a statement issued by the IAEA, he said: "I deeply regret today's cancellation of the carefully prepared and agreed rotation of our staff, who are carrying out vital work in very challenging circumstances to help prevent a nuclear accident during the military conflict. It is completely unacceptable that the safety of our staff is jeopardised in this way.

"As a result of these extremely concerning events, I am in active consultation with both sides to guarantee the safety of our teams and to secure the continued presence of the IAEA at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to enable our staff to continue their indispensable mission, helping to maintain nuclear safety and security."

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located on the frontline of Russian and Ukrainian forces, with the IAEA experts having to cross the frontline when they travel to or from the plant. The six-unit site has been under Russian military control since early March 2022, and there have been IAEA experts stationed there since September 2022 as part of measures aimed at boosting its safety and security. The teams of experts, who generally spend just over a month at the plant, carry out inspections and help monitor compliance with the UN-backed principles that there should be no military firing at, or from, a nuclear power plant, and that a nuclear plant should not be used as a base for heavy military equipment.

Russian media has published a Russian Defence Ministry video appearing to show an explosion at the side of a road near a convoy which it says included the IAEA staff. Russia accused Ukraine of being behind the attack. Ukraine accuses Russia of being behind the attack as part of what it says is a strategy to try to "force the IAEA to violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and "legitimise the occupation" by not travelling to the plant through Ukraine.

The IAEA has not attributed blame to either side during the war, with Grossi explaining in a press conference at the United Nations in April last year "we are not commentators. We are not political speculators or analysts, we are an international agency of inspectors. And in order to say something like that, we must have proof, indisputable evidence, that an attack, or remnants of ammunition or any other weapon, is coming from a certain place. And in this case it is simply impossible".