The IAEA Council Removed Resolution, Asking Russia To Leave PLTN Zaporizhia

IAEA team visit to PLTN Zaporizhia. (Wikimedia Commons/IAEA Imagebank)

JAKARTA - The United Nations Nuclear Supervisory Agency, consisting of 35 countries on Thursday, has issued a resolution demanding that Russia end its occupation of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.

The resolution is the second about Russia's invasion of Ukraine passed by the Council of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), its contents are very similar, although the first in March preceded Russian forces taking over Zaporizhia, Europe's largest PLTN.

Both resolutions were proposed by Canada and Poland on behalf of Ukraine, which is not included in the council, the main IAEA policymaker body that meets more than once a year.

The text, which said the council called for Russia to "immediately stop all measures against and at PLTN Zaporizhia and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine", was approved in 26 supportive votes, two opposed and seven abstained, diplomats said. who attended the closed meeting.

The text was then uploaded on the IAEA website.

Russia and China are the countries that voted against Egypt, South Africa, Senegal, Burundi, Vietnam, India and Pakistan abstain, diplomats said.

The Council "condolences for the Russian Federation's persistent acts of violence against nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including forcibly seizing control of nuclear facilities," reads the resolution's text.

Long before, Russia confiscated a radioactive waste facility in gas station, the world's worst nuclear disaster site, in 1986, at the start of the war but then withdrew.

It is known that Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of opening fire on Zaporizhia's generator in southern Ukraine.

Russia's mission to the IAEA calls the text anti-Russian, saying the "weakness of this resolution" is to say nothing about the "systematic shooting" of the generator.

"The reason is simple, this shooting was carried out by Ukraine, which is supported and protected by Western countries in any possible way," he said in a statement.

The resolution added that Russia's occupation of the plant significantly increased the risk of nuclear accidents.

Despite being occupied by Russian troops, Ukrainian staff continue to operate the plant under conditions the IAEA describes as endangering the safety of the site.

"This board raised this issue in March and adopted a resolution regretting Russia's violent acts, asking Russia to immediately stop all action against and at nuclear facilities in Ukraine, return their control to competent Ukrainian authorities," the US statement told the council.

"The next day, Russia rejected the call by seizing the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. Russia treats Ukraine's civil infrastructure as a military gift, seeking to lift control of Ukraine over its own energy resources and using the plant as a military base.