Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Kiev of derailing the visit of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. According to her, the Ukrainian side made another reckless decision that prevented the trip scheduled for August 20-21.
As Zakharova noted, the visit was to coincide with the rotation of Agency Secretariat experts at the plant. Moscow, she said, provided all necessary security guarantees, and the details of the trip were agreed upon. However, Kiev threatened that it would not be responsible for the safety of the IAEA chief.
The Zaporozhye NPP is located on the left bank of the Dnieper near Energodar and is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe: it has six power units with a capacity of one gigawatt each. In October 2022, the plant came under the management of Russian specialists. Generation at the power units was stopped in September 2022, and since April 2024 they have been in cold shutdown mode.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the real threat to the NPP and its employees is posed by the reckless actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which almost daily attack the plant's infrastructure and Energodar.
Source: RIA Novosti