The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on 12 December condemning attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure but omitted naming Russia as the perpetrator, Reuters reports.
Russia continues its deliberate daily air attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure. In its press release on the afternoon of 28 November, the IAEA failed to mention Russia, even though it was Russian troops that launched the explosive drones and missiles targeting Ukraine’s power grid. Moreover, it wasn’t the first Russian attack on the substations of the NPPs. Since October 2022, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with extensive missile and drone assaults, aiming to disrupt civilian life, particularly during the winter months.
The emergency meeting was called by Ukraine to address Russia’s 28 November attacks that struck electricity sub-stations connected to three nuclear power plants, threatening their ability to maintain crucial cooling systems for nuclear fuel.
According to Reuters citing diplomats, at the closed-door meeting in Vienna, 22 countries supported the resolution, while 10 abstained, and Russia and China voted against it. Unlike previous resolutions since February 2022, this one did not explicitly name Russia.
Likewise, the IAEA director’s regular updates on Ukraine rarely mention Russia, even when describing the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, occupied by Russian forces since 2022. Even after the 28 November Russian strikes that forced three Ukrainian nuclear power plants to reduce electricity output and prompted yesterday’s IAEA Board meeting, the IAEA director’s original statement did not mention Russia at all.
The IAEA Board’s resolution emphasized that “attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure critical for the off-site power supply of nuclear power plants represent a direct threat to nuclear safety and security.“
The resolution follows a July board decision that condemned a military strike on a Kyiv children’s hospital and explicitly blamed Russia. Ukrainian officials view such resolutions as a means of applying international pressure on Moscow, though the texts are often modified to secure broader support.
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