While Moscow views the nuclear agency’s inspection as “very positive”, Kiev shows its “disappointment” at not urging Russians to leave the factory
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky expressed his discomfort on Friday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose inspectors visited the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant on Thursday, has not demanded that the area in and around the plant be demilitarized. In Moscow, however, they rated the international organization’s mission as “very positive”.
Zelensky assured through his Telegram account that, before the trip to the Zaporizhia plant, he “agreed” with the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, who led the delegation of experts, that a “demilitarized” zone would be created around this Ukrainian nuclear complex, the largest in Europe with a total of six reactors.
Ukraine’s top leader said he was “disappointed” with the World Nuclear Agency. “And it’s a shame that we haven’t heard decent calls from the IAEA yet, although we discussed this with Mr Grossi at our meeting in Kiev.” Zelensky also regretted that the Russian authorities vetoed the presence of Ukrainian and international journalists during the visit to the factory and that the IAEA “failed to protect representatives of independent media”.
The day before, during his daily speech, the Ukrainian president lamented that the experts’ visit could only be covered by Russian journalists, whom he described as a “mass of propagandists.” Zelensky also believes that Russia “cheated” members of the IAEA mission, who he said received false testimony from residents of Energodar, a city that houses the nuclear power plant, after being intimidated.
“For more than three decades, five nuclear power plants have been managed by our specialists. The IAEA never had to comment on the activities of any of these facilities until Russia invaded our territory and brought its madness here,” he added. Zelensky also intervened via videoconference at the Ambrosetti International Economic Forum to address the alleged “radioactive blackmail.” of Russia”.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister, Germany’s Galushenko, for his part, asked the nuclear agency to declare the presence of Russian troops in Zaporizhia a “real threat”, while Vadim Denisenko, adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out that According to the published images, this visit was staged and had nothing to do with an inspection, which would lead one to think that the head of the IAEA is biased. “The mission report is expected to be released on September 6” , he added.
The Russian representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, has announced that Moscow will permanently give the Zaporizhia plant two inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Grossi’s team is currently split into two groups: one left the factory on Thursday and the other will remain there until Sunday, but after that there will be a permanent presence if there is no longer a serious threat to the complex as has already happened. Yesterday, Grossi assured that he could visit the entire factory and key departments. Now his team is analyzing the technicalities of what they observed.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says those who pose a “real threat” of a nuclear disaster are the “provocations” of the Ukrainian army, whose troops he blames for attacking the nuclear power plant. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, for his part, announced: “In general, we consider it very positive that the delegation has arrived and started work despite the difficulties. Most importantly, the mission stays there.
The Ukrainian army admitted on Friday that it bombed Russian military positions in Energodar the day after the inspectors’ visit, “destroying three enemy artillery systems, as well as an ammunition arsenal.”
Source: La Verdad
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