Kyiv calls for intl. mission, civilian exodus at nuclear plant

Kyiv on Wednesday called for an international mission to be set up in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and called for the population to evacuate the area amid fears of a nuclear disaster.

The Zaporizhzhia power plant was occupied by Russian troops in March and has been shelled in recent weeks, with Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for the attacks, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.

"We propose to create an international mission with the participation of the EU, the UN, and other organisations. This would facilitate the withdrawal of Russian troops from the plant and the thirty-kilometres around it," Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said during a government meeting on Wednesday.

This comes a day after the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report following a mission at the plant that Shmygal said "did not bring tangible results."

In this report, the IAEA called for "the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone" around the plant facing an "untenable" situation.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk asked for "a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of the civilian population from the temporarily occupied territory adjacent to the nuclear power plant" on Wednesday.

"Evacuate! Find a way to get to territories controlled (by Kyiv)" Vereshchuk told people living in the area on Telegram.

An accident at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant would impact not only Ukraine, but also its neighbours, the Ukrainian nuclear agency warned on Wednesday.

Damage to the active zone of the reactor would "have consequences not only in Ukraine, but also definitely beyond its borders," head of the Ukrainian nuclear security agency, Oleg Korikov, said during a press conference.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is using internal power supplies since being disconnected from the grid on Monday.

The plant may have to use "diesel power plants to provide electricity to its security systems" according to Korikov, who warned that "it is very difficult to replenish diesel fuel in wartime conditions."

The main risk would then lie in "running out of diesel, and this can lead to an accident damaging the active zone of the reactor and to the release of radioactive elements in the environment", Korikov said.

Ukraine shares a land border with Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus and Russia.