UN atomic watchdog hoping to send some staff to Ukraine

The United Nations atomic watchdog agency is hoping to send some of its staff to Ukraine as concerns about the safety of its nuclear facilities rise. 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ​​chief Rafael Grossi met with U.S. lawmakers on Thursday in Vienna in a delegation led by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.).

Lynch discussed the agency’s plans in an interview with Reuters after the meeting.

“He wants to protect his people, so he wants a safety guarantee that he can put people on the ground there, maybe 15-20 people,” Lynch told Reuters.

“We had an opportunity to sit with him and his staff to try to formulate a joint effort to get him in there and his staff in there so that they can make a first-hand assessment of how those employees (at Russian-held nuclear facilities) are being treated, how are the operators are being handled,” he added.

Russia has taken over Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and Chernobyl nuclear waste facilities, with some workers stuck at Chernobyl for 600 hours after the invasion. 

Lynch told Reuters that Ukrainian staff at both nuclear sites are working under gunpoint.

Grossi met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to try to get an agreement to allow IAEA staff to go to the facilities safely, but Lynch said both sides seemed unwilling.

“If we were to somehow carve out an agreement where IAEA or the U.N. were to take control of those facilities, in the Ukrainian eyes that might legitimize the facts on the ground that Russian troops are now in control of those facilities within the territorial grounds of Ukraine, so there’s resistance there,” Lynch said.

Nuclear facilities have been a major concern throughout the war as Russia has targeted military and civilian structures. 

President Biden warned again this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin could begin using chemical weapons in the fighting, as he becomes frustrated with the lack of progress on the ground. 

The U.N. began an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the war how it will respond to enhanced Russian aggression.