Russia: “The new Ukrainian government is delusional”

The envoys of the two neighboring countries engaged in a fierce verbal confrontation during the board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which contains 35 members, as revealed by diplomats attending the closed-door meeting. In a broader confrontation, Russia rejected the demand of Western countries to withdraw its military forces from the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea during a day of diplomatic contacts in Paris. The objective was defusing tension on the issue of Ukraine and avoiding an armed conflict.

At the meeting of the IAEA in Vienna, the Iran's nuclear program and other issues were also discussed, while the ambassador of the new authorities in Kiev talked about the safety of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, highlighting the potentially catastrophic environmental impacts in the event of a armed conflict. The Ukrainian Ambassador to IAEA, Ihor Prokopchuk, said that "physical protection" of 15 Ukrainian nuclear reactors "may be put at risk", according to a diplomat who was in the room. “The potential consequences of a military intervention could include the threat of radioactive contamination of Ukraine soil and neighboring countries", underlined Prokopchuk who added “a significant amount of spent fuel, which is stored at the premises of nuclear power plants, could raise even larger risks”.

For its part, Russia's ambassador to the IAEA, Grigory Berdennikov, reacted angrily claiming that the warnings were not “nothing but a challenge"and that Ukraine is trying to ruin the image of his country. “Ukraine has delusions of imaginary dangers from abroad" said the Russian ambassador, according to a diplomat who was present. A second diplomat confirmed the comment about delusions. At the same meeting, the representative of U.S.A., Joseph McManus, said that his country "is fully aware of the possible consequences that a sabotage or an attack on a nuclear power plant would cause”.