The UK will provide an additional 750,000 pounds (around $933,000) of funding to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to support its missions in Ukraine, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement Wednesday.
That brings UK's total support to nuclear safety in Ukraine since the start of the war to 5 million pounds (more than $6.2 million), according to FCDO.
“Russia’s barbaric attacks on Ukraine’s civil infrastructure and its illegal control of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant runs contrary to all international nuclear safety and security norms. It claims to uphold nuclear safety standards, but its actions say otherwise," said UK's Permanent Representative to the IAEA Corinne Kitsell, who attended a meeting of the agency's Board of Governors in Vienna on Wednesday.
"I commend the work of the IAEA’s staff in Ukraine and I am pleased that the UK’s additional funding will help to facilitate its vital work, particularly given the additional risk posed by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam," she said.
At the meeting, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi presented the latest report on Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguards in Ukraine, according to the statement. "The report outlined the state of nuclear safety at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, and in particular the deeply concerning situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which relies on water from the Kakhovka dam for its cooling pond," FCDO said.
"The UK also echoes Ukraine’s calls for an uninterrupted power supply from Ukraine to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and continues to call for the Russian Federation’s full withdrawal from the site, and for it to end its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine," FCDO added.
Some background: Zaporizhzhia NPP, with six reactors, is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. It was mostly built in the Soviet era and became Ukrainian property after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The power plant is located on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine. The area, and the nuclear complex, have been under Russian control since the beginning of the war, but the plant is still mostly operated by Ukrainian workers.
