IAEA warns that attacks on a nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine put the world at risk

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan, March 12, 2024. (REUTERS)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan, March 12, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 16 April 2024
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IAEA warns that attacks on a nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine put the world at risk

IAEA warns that attacks on a nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine put the world at risk
  • Fears of a nuclear catastrophe have been at the forefront since Russian troops occupied the plant shortly after invading in February 2022

UNITED NATIONS: Russia and Ukraine on Monday traded blame before the United Nations Security Council for the attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said have put the world “dangerously close to a nuclear accident.”
Without attributing blame, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency has been able to confirm three attacks against the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant since April 7.
“These reckless attacks must cease immediately,” he told the Security Council. “Though, fortunately, they have not led to a radiological incident this time, they significantly increase the risk … where nuclear safety is already compromised.”
The remote-controlled nature of the drones that have attacked the plant means that it is impossible to definitively determine who launched them, Grossi told reporters after the meeting.
“In order to say something like that, we must have proof,” he said. “These attacks have been performed with a multitude of drones.”
Zaporizhzhia sits in Russian-controlled territory in southeastern Ukraine and has six nuclear reactors.
Fears of a nuclear catastrophe have been at the forefront since Russian troops occupied the plant shortly after invading in February 2022. Continued fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces — as well as the tense supply situation at the plant — have raised the specter of a disaster.
Ukraine and its allies on Monday again blamed Russia for dangers at the site, with the United States saying, “Russia does not care about these risks.”
“If it did, it would not continue to forcibly control the plant,” US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council, which met at the initiative of the US and Slovenia.
Russia, for its part, said Ukraine was to blame for the attacks.
“The IAEA’s report does not pinpoint which side is behind the attacks,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. “We know full well who it is.”
“Over the last few months, such attacks not only resumed,” Nebenzia said, “they significantly intensified.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, called the attacks “a well-planned false flag operation by the Russian Federation,” which he alleged Russia had designed to distract the world from its invasion of its neighbor.
The Zaporizhzhia facility is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world. Fighting in the southern part of Ukraine where it is located has raised the specter of a potential nuclear disaster like the one at Chernobyl in 1986, where a reactor exploded and blew deadly radiation across a vast area.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine in recent months has been able to make significant advances along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line crossing eastern and southern Ukraine. Drones, artillery and missiles have featured heavily in what has become a war of attrition.
Russia and Ukraine have frequently traded accusations over the Zaporizhzhia plant.
The most recent strikes did not compromise the facility, which is designed to withstand a commercial airliner crashing into it, the IAEA said.
The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.

 


President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing

President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing
Updated 19 sec ago
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President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing

President Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing
  • Incident killed 259 passengers and crew, 11 people on ground

LONDON: A prominent lawyer who represented the British victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has urged President Donald Trump to declassify US intelligence files related to the attack, Sky News reported on Friday.

Prof. Peter Watson, who served as secretary for the Lockerbie Disaster Group, has called on Trump to release the documents, arguing that the families of those killed “deserve transparency, truth and answers.”

Trump has previously moved to declassify files concerning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., and Watson said he believes Lockerbie should be next.

“Nearly four decades later, as new trials and investigations continue, the pursuit of truth and justice for the victims and their families endures,” he said.

“The families of the victims are entitled to know as much as possible about what happened on the night of the bombing, and we know there are documents held by the US and UK intelligence services that fill the vacuum of understanding that remains today.”

Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew on board, along with 11 people on the ground.

Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003 and compensated the families of the victims to the tune of £2.1 billion ($2.7 billion), but significant questions about the attack remain with no public inquiry into the bombing held to date.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was convicted for the bombing but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2012.

Libyan suspect Abu Agila Masud, who is alleged to have built the bomb, will stand trial in the US in May. He denies all charges.

Watson sent his declassification request in a letter to Matthew Palmer, the charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in London.

He wrote: “We have seen a move from President Trump to declassify a number of federal secrets, and we believe Lockerbie should be next.

“The families have waited far too long. They deserve transparency, truth and answers.”


European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates

European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates
Updated 6 min 40 sec ago
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European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates

European naval force helps free ship seized by pirates
  • Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported

DUBAI: A European naval force in the Middle East helped free a Yemeni fishing boat seized by suspected Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa, authorities said.
The naval force, EUNAVFOR Atalanta, said late on Thursday that the incident remained under investigation. It said the 12 mariners on board were safe and uninjured.
It said the attack that began last week targeted a dhow, a traditional ship that plies the waters of the Mideast off the town of Eyl in Somalia.
“The immediate presence of Atalanta forces in the area, especially the helicopter, was decisive in the fishing vessel liberation,” EUNAVFOR said.
“The crew confirmed that the alleged pirates abandoned the vessel after stealing personal objects and two skiffs belonging to the dhow.”
Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported.
Somali piracy in the region at the time cost the world’s economy some $7 billion — with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.
The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols.

 


Poland jails Russians over Wagner sticker ‘propaganda’

Poland jails Russians over Wagner sticker ‘propaganda’
Updated 21 min 48 sec ago
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Poland jails Russians over Wagner sticker ‘propaganda’

Poland jails Russians over Wagner sticker ‘propaganda’
  • Poland’s Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak wrote on X that the arrest was “a major blow for the Russian sabotage network in Europe“
  • The stickers posted by the two sentenced Russians bore the Wagner logo, a slogan in English saying “We are here. Join us“

WARSAW: A Polish court on Friday jailed two Russian men for more than five years each under espionage laws for distributing alleged propaganda for the now-disbanded Wagner mercenary group.
The pair, identified by Polish counter-intelligence as Alexei T. and Andrei G., were detained in August 2023 for distributing stickers in Warsaw and Krakow for Russia’s once-powerful mercenary group.
Also on Friday, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on X that a Russian suspected of sabotage against Poland and its allies had been arrested.
The Russian, “suspected of coordinating sabotage acts against Poland, the United States and other allies, and who was hiding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been deported to Poland and placed under arrest,” Tusk said.
Poland’s Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak wrote on X that the arrest was “a major blow for the Russian sabotage network in Europe.”
The stickers posted by the two sentenced Russians bore the Wagner logo, a slogan in English saying “We are here. Join us,” and a QR code directing people to a Russian website about the mercenary group.
Poland’s counter-intelligence agency said at the time: “The Russians had on them more than 3,000 propaganda leaflets promoting the Wagner group.”
“These activities were an element of the hybrid warfare aimed at our country,” judge Ewa Karp-Sieklucka said Friday, media in Krakow, where the trial was held, reported.
They were sentenced to five years and six months in jail.
While they did not deny distributing the stickers, they pleaded not guilty, arguing they had not been aware they were taking part in a recruitment campaign.
Poland’s historically strained relations with neighboring Russia have dipped to new lows over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Almost three years into the war, Poland remains a staunch ally of Kyiv. It has become a major logistics hub for military equipment the West has been transferring to the war-torn country.
Warsaw officials have frequently blamed Russia for orchestrating sabotage attempts on its soil, which they say are aimed at destabilising the EU member.
In one of its largest espionage trials, Poland in 2023 convicted 14 citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine of preparing sabotage on behalf of Moscow as part of a spy ring.
They were sentenced for preparing to derail trains carrying aid to Ukraine, and monitoring military facilities and critical infrastructure.
In October, Poland ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznan, western Poland, over “the hybrid war” it accused Moscow of waging.


Sweden jails man for joining Daesh, in first under new legislation

Policemen stand guard in Stockholm. (AFP file photo)
Policemen stand guard in Stockholm. (AFP file photo)
Updated 36 min 11 sec ago
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Sweden jails man for joining Daesh, in first under new legislation

Policemen stand guard in Stockholm. (AFP file photo)
  • The case is the first conviction for “participation in a terrorist organization” under a law adopted by parliament in 2023

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court on Friday sentenced a man to three years in jail for joining Daesh, the country’s first conviction since new legislation was introduced banning participation in a terrorist group.
The 22-year-old man was convicted of “participation in a terrorist organization,” as well as financing terrorism and three counts of foreign travel for terrorism purposes, the court said in a statement.
According to the court, all charges concerned Daesh, and the three trips were all to Somalia.

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Sweden has been adopting stricter anti-terror laws since 2017, after an Uzbek asylum seeker drove a truck down a busy shopping street in Stockholm, killing five people.

His sentence was set to three years and three months in prison.
The case is the first conviction for “participation in a terrorist organization” under a law adopted by parliament in 2023.
Sweden had been adopting stricter anti-terror laws since 2017, after an Uzbek asylum seeker — who had sworn allegiance to Daesh — drove a truck down a busy shopping street in Stockholm, killing five people.
However, the legislation on participation in a terrorist group required the country first to amend its constitution as it was deemed to infringe on Sweden’s freedom of association laws.
The adoption of the bill also came as Turkiye was holding up Sweden’s bid to join NATO — with Ankara demanding that Sweden crack down on extremist groups.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden ended two centuries of military non-alignment and applied to join the alliance in May 2022 — eventually joining in March 2024.

 


Congo rebels seize 2 more towns as president seeks support abroad

Congo rebels seize 2 more towns as president seeks support abroad
Updated 44 min 33 sec ago
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Congo rebels seize 2 more towns as president seeks support abroad

Congo rebels seize 2 more towns as president seeks support abroad
  • On the ground, rebels seized the town of Katana on Friday morning, according to an M23 source, a resident and a civil society leader
  • A UN source said M23 had advanced beyond Katana to just 5 km from the airport in Kavumu

ADDIS ABABA: Rwandan-backed M23 rebels fighting in eastern Congo seized two towns on their march toward a provincial capital, residents and the rebels said on Friday, as the president seeks international support to end the crisis.
The rebels have been trying to push south toward Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, since they seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, at the end of last month.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi will not attend the African Union summit focusing on efforts to halt the conflict, his spokesperson Tina Salama said.
Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka will instead represent Congo at the event, Salama said on Friday.

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The UN refugee agency voiced concern at the ‘rapidly deteriorating’ situation, saying the war had left around 350,000 displaced people with no roof over their heads.

The conflict will be high on the agenda at the annual two-day meeting in the Ethiopian capital.
The UN refugee agency voiced concern on Friday at the “rapidly deteriorating” situation, saying the war had left around 350,000 displaced people with no roof over their heads.
On the ground, rebels seized the town of Katana on Friday morning, according to an M23 source, a resident and a civil society leader.
The commercial center lies 11 km from the strategic town of Kavumu, where Bukavu’s airport is located.
A video taken by the resident showed armed men in fatigues walking through Katana.
“M23 soldiers are blocking the road and are heading toward Kavumu — they already have control of Katana,” the resident said.
The town of Kabamba, north of Katana, was taken on Thursday, according to the same M23 source, civil society leader, and a resident who said that cellular networks were down there.
A UN source said M23 had advanced beyond Katana to just 5 km from the airport in Kavumu.
Two people who work at the airport said it had been emptied and effectively closed, with Congolese forces removing equipment, including an aircraft.
The M23 source said Congo’s army had abandoned Kavumu.
Rebel leader Corneille Nangaa said the rebels had been attacked and were defending themselves.
A reporter said that as the fighting rages in the east, a heavier military presence has also been visible throughout the country’s capital, Kinshasa, some 1,600 km west of Goma, over the past week.
After the fall of Goma, protesters in Kinshasa attacked a UN compound and embassies, including those of Rwanda, France, and the US, expressing anger at what they said was foreign interference.
Looters ransacked the embassy of Kenya.