IAEA chief, in Kyiv, warns of nuclear risk from attacks on Ukraine grid

Reuters: KYIV (Reuters) - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday and inspected an electricity distribution substation, warning that attacks on Ukraine's power grid could pose a risk of a nuclear accident by disrupting supply.

"I’m at Kyivska electrical substation — an important part of Ukraine’s power grid essential for nuclear safety," Grossi wrote on X. "A nuclear accident can result from a direct attack on a plant, but also from power supply disruption."

Grossi posted pictures of him visiting the substation alongside Energy Minister German Galushchenko, and being shown what appeared to be defences against Russian strikes.

Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including substations, throughout its nearly three-year-old invasion, although it has avoided direct strikes on Ukraine's nuclear plants.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said he and Grossi discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, seized by Russia in the early weeks of Moscow's February 2022 invasion.

Zelenskiy said the IAEA should play an active role to "secure the release" of people he described as "hostages" living near the plant -- a probable reference to staff at the station obliged to work for Russian managers now running it.

He issued a fresh call for the plant to be returned to Ukrainian control. Each side routinely accuses the other of staging attacks on the station and risking a nuclear accident.

Zelenskiy said he and Grossi agreed the IAEA would expand its activity at Ukraine's nuclear facilities and other infrastructure sites.

Grossi said he would visit Russia later this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine and at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

"It's essential that I, in the discharge of my obligations, keep channels of communication constantly," Grossi told a news briefing.

Last week, the IAEA said in a statement that Grossi would visit Kyiv for high-level meetings to ensure nuclear safety in the war that Russia started in February 2022.

In September, Ukraine and the IAEA agreed that the agency's experts would monitor the situation at key Ukrainian substations in addition to monitoring nuclear plants.

More than half of the electricity consumed in Ukraine is generated by three nuclear plants. Russian missile and drone attacks on substations threaten the plants' stable operation, according to Ukraine's nuclear inspector's office.

The Kyivska substation allows excess capacity from Ukraine's west to be transferred to central regions thanks to the Rivne-Kyiv transmission line which extends for hundreds of km (miles), helping with power supply to Kyiv and the surrounding region.

"An increasingly fragile grid poses a growing risk to all NPPs", Grossi said on X, referring to nuclear power plants.