WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2022) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi told Sputnik that during the trip to Ukraine the agency will concentrate on two sites in inspection for a potential nuclear material deviation, however, if something else transpired in the future they will conduct more.
Grossi announced earlier in the week that IAEA experts are preparing to visit two nuclear facilities in Ukraine in the coming days following Russian statements about alleged activities. This came on the heels of Moscow's allegation that Ukraine has created a dirty bomb. The IAEA also said he received a written request from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to carry out verification inspections at the two locations.
"Well, what we are doing is based on what transpired during the weekend on the basis of I believe some statements of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. And upon this, there was an invitation from the foreign minister of Ukraine to do this, so I don't know about other sites or activities on other sites, we are at the moment concentrating on these and if something happens in future, of course, you know, the IAEA is an impartial institution that inspects and tries to determine the facts, you know, so this is the effort that we are going to try to carry out," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, commenting on Grossi's plans to visit Ukraine amid "dirty bomb" reports that Russia is in a very constructive dialogue with the agency and plans to further maintain it.
IAEA will head to Kiev and Zhovti Vody in the coming days after Russia's warnings about Ukraine preparing a "dirty bomb," Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Tuesday.
As a rule, the preliminary results of these visits will be within about a week, and the final ones will not appear soon, the diplomat added.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who heads the Russian radiation, chemical and biological defense forces, said on Monday that the Russian Defense Ministry had well-sourced information about Kiev's plans to use a "dirty bomb" and blame Moscow for this. Foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States dismissed these claims in a joint statement later in the day.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had several calls with his foreign counterparts to discuss the dangers of the use of a "dirty bomb" by Kiev. Russia is also seeking to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council on the issue.
A dirty bomb is a radiological weapon in a form of a container with radioactive materials and an explosive charge. Such weapons disperse radioactive material over large areas when they explode, thus contaminating the environment and the population.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, if Ukraine detonates the dirty bomb, radioactive isotopes will spread in the atmosphere to a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) and can cover Poland.
