UN nuclear agency funded Russian research in occupied Crimea, RFE/RL reports

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has funded Russian state scientific research in occupied Crimea since the illegal conquest of the peninsula in 2014, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on 21 October, citing documents obtained.

According to internal agency documents, the IAEA has signed at least two agreements with Russian research institutes to conduct research including field work in Crimea. The agreements were signed between 2016 and 2019, and the first was reportedly extended to summer 2019.

The outlet described the projects as limited in size and scope.

The IAEA has repeatedly publicly declared its commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, urging Russia to withdraw from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, under Russian occupation since March 2022.

In a statement to RFE/RL, the IAEA said the agency continues to recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine. She described her studies on the occupied territory as “purely technical in nature” and said they “do not constitute any change in the agency’s position on the status of Crimea.”

The IAEA representative also called the equivalent of one of the projects, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), an international research center based in Moscow Oblast, “not a Russian organization but an international intergovernmental scientific research organization located in Russia.

Ukraine’s permanent diplomatic mission in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, told RFE/RL that none of the IAEA’s research projects in Crimea have been approved by the Ukrainian government.

Previously, Ukrainian authorities had criticized the agency for “its ambivalent position” and “retransmission of Russian propaganda”.

Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has visited kyiv and Moscow since the start of the all-out war, as well as the Russian-occupied part of Zaporozhye Oblast .

Monitoring teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been based at the facility on a rotating basis since September 2022, but Russian authorities still deny IAEA inspectors full access to the plant.