Inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said they found no evidence of undeclared activity at Ukrainian sites after Russia alleged Kyiv was plotting to provoke Moscow with a radioactive weapon.
“Over the past few days, the inspectors were able to carry out all activities that the IAEA had planned to conduct and were given unfettered access to the locations. Based on the evaluation of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the Agency did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the locations,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a release on Thursday.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba later wrote that “IAEA has checked 3 Ukrainian facilities in focus of Russian disinfo and found no evidence of any ‘dirty bombs’… Russia has confirmed its status of the world’s top liar.”
He also thanked the IAEA for helping to “counter Russian falsehoods.”
Ukraine’s nuclear regulation body last week invited the IAEA to visit three locations included in Russia’s allegations in order to disprove the Russian claims, which caused concern that Russia was hoping to sow a pretext for its own escalation.
IAEA inspectors visited the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody, and the Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro.
“Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three locations,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on Thursday, noting that additional reports on environmental sampling results from the locations will soon be released.
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