© Gleb Garanich / Reuters A containment shelter for the damaged fourth reactor (L) and the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure (R) at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine
"There are problems related to Ukraine's payments," he said, adding that the first shipment of nuclear waste for disposal has been postponed.
Kryukov affirmed the agency plans to continue disposing of nuclear waste already in Russia for processing.
"We have a contract with Ukraine on storing spent nuclear fuel and its recycling. We are going to continue with the contract, although the Ukrainian side plans to build its own warehouse for spent fuel without recycling," he said on the sidelines of the Atomexpo-2016 forum.
Under the agreement signed between two countries in 1993, Russia supplies reactor fuel to Ukraine and takes spent fuel rods for storage and reprocessing.
A year ago, Ukraine said it planned to invest $25 million in a centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Kiev is currently trying to attract Western investors to kick-start the project.
Comment: Really goes to show just how mixed up the Kiev junta's priorities are that they would rather not pay Russia as agreed than properly dispose of radioactive material. When taken together with what's happened recently with the release of Nadezhda Savchenko it appears Ukraine has become radioactive in more ways than one.