Russia rejects report over Crimea

 VIENNA – Russia has refused to accept the annual report of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog because it asserts that a nuclear reactor in the city of Sevastopol is in Ukraine. Russia’s envoy to the United Nations in Vienna confirmed on June 8 that Moscow will dispute the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Diplomat Vladimir Voronkov said the report “contradicts reality.” Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March 2014, a move that has not been recognized by most of the international community. A Western diplomat told Reuters that it was unlikely, however, that Moscow will block the report. Ukraine’s state EnergoAtom agency has informed the IAEA that it cannot accept responsibility for nuclear facilities in Crimea because it has had no access to them since the annexation. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and ITAR-TASS.)