IAEA may have financed nuclear research in occupied Crimea, – investigation

Vadim Khlyudzinsky16:41, 21.10.24

Kyiv is strongly opposed to any international projects or other events in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) may have financed nuclear research in occupied Crimea . This is stated in an investigation by Radio Liberty .

The publication has obtained several internal IAEA documents related to two scientific projects that have received support from the agency. The first of these projects is the Study of Time Trends of Pollution in Coastal Russian Areas of the Black Sea Using Nuclear and Other Analytical Methods.

“The project agreement, … signed by the head of one of the IAEA administrative sections, briefly describes the project program: “study of time trends in inorganic and organic pollution in selected Russian coastal areas of the Black Sea (marine stations on the Taman Peninsula, in Anapa, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Sochi and Sevastopol),” the investigation says.

According to former member of the Board of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine Olga Kosharnaya, this is a violation because “the IAEA officially considers Sevastopol to be Ukrainian territory, as well as the Donetsk region, Luhansk region, Zaporizhia region and all occupied territories of Ukraine.”

It is noted that the project was implemented by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Moscow Region, and the leading researcher was Marina Frontasyeva, an employee of the Institute’s Laboratory of Neutron Physics. At the same time, one of the points mentions that the IAEA is the project’s sponsor.

According to investigators, another Russian scientific project used by the IAEA concerned the study of bird migration and the spread of avian influenza using isotope analysis. It was concluded in the spring of 2018 between the IAEA and the Russian Federal Center for Animal Health (FCAH):

According to the contract, the Federal Center for the Protection of the Environment was supposed to receive 60 thousand euros from the IAEA. In the report, the Russian side indicated that some of the samples of bird feathers were collected in Crimea. It is unknown whether this was initially agreed upon with the IAEA.

The publication also reports that a regional training course on brachytherapy physics is to open in Moscow on October 21. The event will be held within the framework of one of the IAEA technical cooperation programs and is financially supported by the agency. The total cost of the program is almost 2 million US dollars. The course participants include 22 people from Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Russia. All participants were selected by the IAEA Secretariat.

Koszarnaya notes that after the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian positions in the IAEA have not suffered – for example, the number of Russians in the agency’s secretariat has not decreased, and the Russian Federation continues to be a member of the organization’s Board of Directors. At the same time, Russian contributions to the IAEA budget in 2024 were relatively small – 1.8%, while the United States contributes 25%, China – almost 15%, and Germany – 6%.

At the same time, the IAEA stated that the agency continues to view Crimea as part of Ukraine, and the above-mentioned projects were “exclusively technical in nature.” In turn, the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna noted that Kyiv is resolutely opposed to any international projects or other events in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol: