The US think tank issued the warning in its latest report on the war in Ukraine, published on Tuesday night, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Wednesday.
The ISW wrote: “The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) September 6 report on the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) described numerous ways in which Russian occupation authorities and the Russian military are jeopardising the safe operation of the plant.”
The IAEA report on Zaporizhzhia nuclear station ‘a coded condemnation of Russia’
The US experts noted that the IAEA report “does not attempt to determine which party is responsible for the shelling that has damaged the facility and repeatedly calls on ‘all relevant parties’ to take measures to improve the situation.”
However, “The moderation and apparent neutrality of that language can overshadow the extremely clear articulation of the Russian activities undermining the plant’s safety and the fact that the report attributes no dangerous actions to Ukraine,” the ISW pointed out.
According to the US analysts, “The IAEA’s report is thus a coded condemnation of Russian moves that have created and are perpetuating the danger of nuclear disaster in Ukraine.”
Assessing the findings of the IAEA study, the ISW wrote that according to the UN agency, “The Russians have thus created conditions at the ZNPP that increase the risk that an emergency could occur and significantly increase the danger that the operating staff will be unable to respond efficiently and effectively in such an event.”
Putin may use fears over Zaporizhzhia plant to force 'de facto' recognition of Russian occupation of south Ukraine
The US think tank observed that “The IAEA cannot directly engage Russia regarding the plant’s operation without at least tacitly admitting that Russia has some right to be consulted.”
According to the ISW, Putin “could seek to use the fears that his actions are causing to coerce the IAEA and the international community into a de facto recognition of Russia’s right to be involved in the operation of the ZNPP, which he might seek to portray as de facto recognition of Russia’s occupation of southern Ukraine.”
Wednesday is day 196 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, understandingwar.org