Radio Svoboda: IAEA funded Russian nuclear research in occupied Crimea

IAEA funded research by Russian scientists in Crimea even after the annexation of the peninsula in 2014 and after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine — despite the fact that the agency officially recognizes Crimea as Ukrainian.

This is stated in the investigation of the Radio Svoboda journalists.

The IAEA research in Crimea after 2014

Radio Svoboda has several internal IAEA documents related to two scientific projects supported by the agency.

The first of these projects is a study of temporal trends in pollution in the Russian Black Sea coastal areas using nuclear and other analytical methods. This project was launched in the fall of 2016 and became part of a wider program of IAEA, within the framework of which similar studies were conducted, in addition to Russia, in several other countries of the world: Australia, Italy, Vietnam, Kuwait, etc.

The project agreement, signed by the head of one of the administrative sections of IAEA, briefly describes the project program: the study of temporal trends of inorganic and organic pollution in certain Russian coastal areas of the Black Sea. In particular, itʼs about research at the Russian naval station in occupied Sevastopol.

The executor of the project was the United Institute of Nuclear Research (OIAD) from Dubna near Moscow (the director of OIAD signed the agreement), the leading researcher of the project was Maryna Frontasyeva, an employee of the instituteʼs neutron physics laboratory. The agreement stipulated that the project would last until September 2019 with the possibility of extension.

The text of the agreement does not describe the financial side, but one of the clauses mentions that IAEA is sponsoring the project.

Another document related to this project that Radio Svoboda received is a grant application addressed to IAEA, prepared by OIAD a few months before the signing of the agreement in 2016. It also repeatedly mentions plans to take samples in Sevastopol.

In addition, the list of relevant studies mentions the joint work of OIAD with the O. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of the Russian Academy of Sciences (created on the basis of the Sevastopol Biological Station). Before the Russian annexation of Crimea, this institute belonged to the structure of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (under the same name). His page is still available on the website of the Ukrainian Academy.

The application also describes the estimated project budget for three years: €165 000, including €120 000 for equipment. The institute asked IAEA for a grant in the amount of €15 000, and planned to cover the rest from its own funds.

According to the list of scientific papers attached to the IAEA grant application, in 2014-2015 Frontasyeva published three articles based on the analysis of samples taken near the coast of Crimea. They were carried out together with scientists of the Institute of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol, and in the articles of 2014 it is indicated as Ukrainian, in 2015 — already as Russian.

Despite the fact that sampling in the annexed Crimea was approved in the agreement signed by the IAEA, the final article about the project published in 2019 does not mention Sevastopol and Crimea; it is only about taking samples within the limits of the Black Sea coast of the Russian Krasnodar Territory. Radio Liberty was unable to establish whether samples from Crimea were investigated within the IAEA-supported project, as planned from the beginning, and they were not mentioned in public publications.

The IAEA study that continued beyond 2022

Another Russian scientific project used by IAEA concerned the study of bird migration and the spread of avian influenza using isotopic analysis. Radio Svoboda has obtained access to two documents related to this project: this is a contract (The IAEA Research Contract No: 22555) concluded in the spring of 2018 between the IAEA and the Russian executor, the Federal Center for Animal Health Protection (FCAHP); as well as a report on the project that the Russian scientific organization sent to IAEA in September 2023.

According to the contract, FCAHP was supposed to receive a total of €60 000 from IAEA. In the report, the Russian side indicated that part of the bird feather samples were collected in Crimea. It is not known whether this was initially agreed with IAEA.

A seminar in Moscow with the participation of representatives of the Russian Federation working in Donetsk

In addition, a regional training course on the physics of brachytherapy should open in Moscow on October 21 of this year. The course will be held within one of the IAEA technical cooperation programs and with the financial support of the agency. The total cost of the program is almost $2 million.

Radio Svoboda received a list of course participants, including 22 people from Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Russia. According to the diplomatic source of "Radio Liberty" from Vienna, all participants were selected by the IAEA secretariat. Two of the participants, who are noted in the internal system of IAEA and who represent the Russian Federation, actually work in the Russian-occupied Donetsk, in the Republican Oncology Center named after Bondar. On the screenshot from the internal information system of IAEA, obtained by Radio Liberty, it can be seen that the place of work of the seminar participants from Donetsk is marked as Regional Antitumor Centre, Donetsk, Russian Federation.

What IAEA says

In response to RFE/RLʼs request, IAEA stated that the agency continues to consider Crimea as part of Ukraine. The representative of the agency added that the scientific projects supported by IAEA with the participation of OIAD and the Federal Center for Animal Health Protection were "exclusively technical in nature" and do not express a change in the agencyʼs position regarding the status of Crimea.

"The considered actions fall under the mandate of IAEA to "facilitate the exchange of scientific and technical information on the peaceful use of atomic energy", were of an exclusively technical nature and do not constitute a change in the Agencyʼs position regarding the status of Crimea. The same applies to counterparty reports on such research agreements. The views of counterparties expressed in their reports are their own and do not reflect the position of IAEA or its member states," the agency said.

IAEA did not respond to a clarifying question about why, in such a case, the official representative of IAEA signed a document in which Sevastopol is listed as part of Russia.

Also, the agency did not comment on the Moscow training with the participation of employees of medical institutions from Donetsk.

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