WASHINGTON (CI Ukraine) – [Update on June 1, 2026] In the escalating military conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the Argentine-Italian director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, became the world’s last diplomat though his work circumventing Armageddon at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the occupied city of Enerhodar.

[International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass regarding the catastrophic risk of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in occupied Ukraine at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on March 14, 2023, in Washington DC.]

Grossi — like his fellow Argentine-Italian counterpart Pope Francis originally hails from the Piedmont region of Italy – managed to have the warring leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky agree to a cease fire and deployment of IAEA inspectors at ZNPP.

In Washington for high-level meetings including with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm under President Biden, Grossi said he remains appalled by the level of complacency regarding the nuclear power plant and the risk it poses to the global community, the first time in history where an operating civilian nuclear plant has been targeted/involved in a military conflict.

Under the administration of President Donald J. Trump, Grossi was able to convince the administration to include Ukraine energy assets, especially nuclear power, to be part of US-Ukraine Investment fund spearheaded by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and carried out by Ben Black, the CEO of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

A nuclear accident or intentional strike on Zaporizhzhia would be roughly equivalent of more than six Chernobyl disasters, making much of Russia, Ukraine, and a good part of Western Europe barren for decades from radioactive fallout.

The Chernobyl disaster of April 26, 1986, proved to be the pinnacle of Soviet arrogance and the beginning of the end for Mikhail Gorbachev. The area nestled between in the border area between Ukraine and Belarus remains a no man’s land until Russian invaders illogically decided to invade and loot the site.

[CI Ukraine visits Chernobyl’s Pripyat Ferris wheel and Chernobyl on August 26, 2016]

Grossi said he is seeking a formal agreement between Russia and Ukraine over safety of all nuclear plants but is meeting resistance from Russian and Ukrainian military leadership.  He said for the first time in his career he has “green men,” military officers, sitting in talks with those responsible for nuclear safety and security.

However, Grossi said that he has been able to deploy IAEA safety and security officials to Ukraine’s other nuclear plants to further safeguard the plants from future attacks and operational accidents.

Former Ukraine Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said Russia made the destruction of Ukraine infrastructure one of its main objectives.

“All the missiles are hitting infrastructure and not military targets. They want to destroy the Ukraine economy,” Jaresko, who is also the US based strategic advisor to Ukraine Invest.

Nuclear energy is also another reason why Ukraine will undoubtedly become a significant economic engine when she becomes a full EU member following the eventual unambiguous defeat of Russian forces.

Before February 24, 2022, Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power plants provided more than 55% of the country’s energy needs and recently signed a $10 billion contract with Pittsburgh, PA-based Westinghouse to build two nuclear AP100 power plants at Khmelnitsky located some 250 kilometers east of Lviv.

[Southern Company President and CEO Christopher C. Womack speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using Glass on company’s activities developing nuclear power in Poland and work in Ukraine at The Hill newspaper event “All In: Building a Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive Energy Workforce” with House Assistant Democratic Leader US Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) at The Park at 14th Street in Washington DC on November 29, 2023]

The top nuclear power plant operator in the United States, the Southern Company [NYSE:SO] is currently working with Westinghouse and Arlington, Virginia-based Bechtel to build some six nuclear power plants by 2043, the company’s then Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning said in an interview with Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine.

The sovereign wealth fund of Italy, Casse Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), is also putting pressure on the Itaian state utility, ENEL, to beome proactive on the Ukrainian energy sector, considering that it operates nuclear power plants in Slovakia and Spain.

The CDP under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is seeking to be co-investor with the US DFC on international investments such as Ukraine where it can pair up Italian companies such ENEL and Italy’s municipal utility A2A with US giants such as Westinghouse and Southern.

ENEL CEO Falvio Cattaneo told this reporter at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) last July in Rome that the company is taking a wait and see approach to Ukraine while A2A CEO Renato Mazzoncini said he would like to work with Ukraine’s privately owned DTEK energy group.

[A2A CEO Renato Mazzoncini speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass on investing and working in the Ukraine following meetings with Ukraine’s DTEK and top Ukraine officials at the Assiom Forex annual convention in Venice, Italy]

ENEL’s Cattaneo raised eyebrows in the international energy circles for having stood up (bidone) IAEA DG Mariano Grossi at a historic signing of the first regional cooperation agreement ever signed by a region (Lombardy) by the IAEA with Lombardy governor Atillio Fontana in Milan on May 21, 2025.

The efficacy of Grossi’s efforts in getting two warring parties to agree to IAEA’s intervention — the only intergovernmental group to operating in the occupied regions — was confirmed in December when the IAEA voted by acclamation to reappoint Grossi to another four-year term.

When asked how he got the IAEA’s US representative Laura Holgate and Russia’s Mikhail Ulyanov to agree on his reappointment, Grossi quipped: “I guess no-one else wants the job.”

Rafael Mariano Grossi is now a leading candidate to replace  Antonio Guterres as the Secretary General of the United Nations.

 

By PK Semler in Washington, DC.  For information please call +1-202-549-3399 or email pks@capitolintelgroup.com