UN nuclear watchdog’s board sets emergency meeting on Zaporizhzhia attacks

The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday at Ukraine and Russia’s request to discuss attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the notification to member states seen by Reuters said.

Drones attacked the Russian-held facility in southern Ukraine, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, on Sunday, hitting one reactor building, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said, adding that nuclear safety was unaffected.

Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused one another of targeting Zaporizhzhia; both sides deny doing so.

In a confidential note to member states on Tuesday, the Board’s chairperson said Ukraine and Russia had written to him on Monday requesting an extraordinary meeting.

“I hereby notify the Members of the Board that a meeting of the Board has been arranged as follows: 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Thursday, 11 April 2024,” the note said, hours after diplomats had told Reuters the meeting was due to be held that day.

The meeting is unlikely to bring clarity as to who was behind recent attacks. The Board has passed four resolutions since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 condemning Russian actions against Ukrainian nuclear facilities. The most recent was last month, calling on Russia to withdraw from Zaporizhzhia.

Only China has joined Russia in opposing those resolutions. Diplomats said they had not heard of a push for a resolution on Thursday, which would be more difficult at such short notice.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not assigned blame for the attacks but demanded that they stop.

“Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said after Sunday’s drone strikes.

The Russian and Ukrainian letters were attached to the chairperson’s note.

Russia said it wanted a meeting on “the recent attacks and provocations of the armed forces of Ukraine” against Zaporizhzhia. The Ukrainian statement said Kyiv wanted to discuss “the situation in Ukraine and the safety, security and safeguards implications”.

The meeting’s agenda, also attached, had only one item: “matters referred to” in the letters.

The rulesof the Board, the Vienna-based IAEA’s top decision-making body that meets several times a year, state that any country on it can call a meeting. Both Russia and Ukraine are on the Board this year.