UN watchdog says landmines are placed around Ukrainian nuke plant occupied by Russia

The U.N. atomic watchdog says its staff at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant report seeing anti-personnel mines around the site as Kyiv pursues a counteroffensive against the Kremlin’s entrenched forces after 17 months of war.

“Having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement late Monday.

However, any detonation of the mines, located between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers, “should not affect the site’s nuclear safety and security systems,” the statement said.