The current situation at Zaporizhia and Chornobyl nuclear power plants clearly contradicts one of the seven indispensable pillars namely that "the operating staff must be able to fulfill their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure," Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi has said.

According to the agency's website, in a telephone conversation on March 12, Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev confirmed to Grossi the Ukrainian Energoatom's information that Rosatom specialists had arrived at both ZNPP and the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, which were captured by Russian troops on March 4 and February 24, respectively.

Likhachev claims that the control and operation of the stations is carried out by operational personnel of Ukraine, and representatives of Rosatom allegedly provide them with only advisory assistance.

The IAEA report, citing the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, states that at Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the plant staff of 211 technical specialists and security guards still cannot be replaced, actually living there from the moment the plant was captured by Russian troops.

"Director General Grossi has repeatedly stressed the urgent need to ensure they can properly rest and rotate, saying this is also a vital element for safe and secure nuclear power operation," the IAEA said.

The agency indicated that the situation was aggravated by the fact that on March 10, communication between Chornobyl NPP and the regulatory body was lost, and the Ukrainian regulator maintains contact only with management outside the industrial site.

According to the IAEA, after recent meetings in Antalya (Turkey) with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Russia, Dmytro Kuleba and Sergei Lavrov, Grossi is preparing detailed technical proposals on how the IAEA can help improve the safety of ZNPP and Chornobyl NPP, closely coordinating its actions with all relevant parties.

"Director General Grossi said that the agreed framework must be concluded urgently and he added that in its absence no IAEA on-site assistance could be provided," the agency said.

In terms of safeguards, the agency confirmed that it was able to recover all Zaporizhia NPP data that could not be transferred to the IAEA headquarters for several days this week. There is no news on Chornobyl and Yuzhnoukrainsk sites.