UN official calls on parties to work with IAEA to ensure safety of Ukraine's nuclear sites

UNITED NATIONS, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A senior UN official on Friday called on all parties to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure the safety of Ukraine's nuclear sites, voicing concern over Friday's fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

"It is vital that all parties work with the IAEA to establish an appropriate framework that will ensure the safe, secure and reliable operation of Ukraine's nuclear power plants," UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council in a briefing.

She added that urgent and safe passage should be granted to IAEA personnel should they need to travel to Ukraine to work with regulators.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has followed with great alarm reports of "heavy fighting around" the Zaporizhzhia plant, and "it is understood that the fire affected a training facility and not the cooling system or power center," said Dicarlo.

A fire which has been extinguished broke out on Friday in a training building outside the Zaporizhzhia plant. The mayor of the nearby town of Energodar said it was "a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units" of the plant, while the Russian Defense Ministry said the fire was the result of a provocation by Kiev aimed at accusing Russia of creating a hotbed of radioactive contamination.

"The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 stands as a lasting example of why it is vital to ensure all nuclear power plants have the highest standards of safety and security," Dicarlo said.

"The United Nations hopes that the reported agreement on the establishment of humanitarian corridors is implemented without delay and that a full and unconditional cease-fire is quickly agreed and enacted," she added.

On Thursday night, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, during the second round of peace talks, agreed on the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for the exit of civilians and on a temporary cessation of hostilities along the evacuation routes, said Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, also the head of the Russian delegation.

"Only diplomacy and negotiations can achieve a truly lasting solution to the current conflict. The fighting in Ukraine must stop. And it must stop now," Dicarlo said.