Russia says the IAEA visit will determine responsibility for the Zaporizhia attacks

“The agency refrains from naming the perpetrators, due to the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) does not have representatives in Zaporizhia. The diplomat explained in an interview with TASS: Perhaps something will change for the better during the mission, because the organization’s experts and managers will be able to see what is really happening.

Ulyanov explained that the Russian side is providing the secretariat of the entity and the member states with information about the situation at the plant and the “dangerous and alarming moments” that occur there as a result of the actions of the Ukrainian side.

In this sense, he gave as an example that the atomic facility was attacked by kamikaze drones in July and missiles and heavy artillery in August. We have sent all this information to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He added that our information is taken into account in the Agency’s work, including in its educational messages. Similarly, the representative of Russia noted that the tone of the statements of the Agency’s Director General, Rafael Grossi, “has become alarming” in the context of recent events.

“Grossi regularly insists that attacks on the plant can cause serious emergencies,” he stressed.

On another point of the statements, the Russian diplomat added that so far the Security Department of the United Nations Secretariat could not clearly explain why it prevented at the last minute the visit of the IAEA delegation to the nuclear power plant scheduled for June.

On June 3, the Russian side and the agency’s leadership agreed on the course and timetable for the agency’s international mission to the atomic station, which would be headed by its chief director, however, the UN stopped the procedure, without explanation.

Since the beginning of August, the Ukrainian armed forces have launched several attacks on the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, located in the city of Energodar, the largest in Europe.

Since 1996, the facility has been an independent division of the Ukrainian-controlled national nuclear power generation company Energoatom. In March 2022, after the start of the Moscow military operation on Ukrainian territory, all areas of the plant came under the control of Russian troops.