While Moscow sees the inspection of the nuclear agency as “very positive”, kyiv shows its “disappointment” because it did not urge the Russians to leave the plant
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, expressed his discomfort on Friday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose inspectors visited the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Thursday, has not demanded the demilitarization of the area in and around the plant. In Moscow, however, they have assessed the mission of the international organization 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 headed the delegation of experts, that a “demilitarized” zone should be created around this Ukrainian nuclear complex, the largest in Europe with a total of six reactors.
The top Ukrainian leader said he was “disappointed” with the world nuclear agency. “And it is bad that we have not yet heard proper calls from the IAEA, although we discussed this with Mr Grossi at our meeting in kyiv.” Zelensky also deplored that the Russian authorities vetoed the presence of Ukrainian and international journalists during the visit to the plant and 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 be covered only by Russian journalists, whom he described as a “mass of propagandists.” Zelensky also believes that Russia has “deceived” the members of the IAEA mission, who, according to him, received false testimonies from the residents of Energodar, a town that houses the nuclear plant, having been intimidated.
“For more than three decades, five nuclear power plants have been under the management of 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. Zelenski also intervened by videoconference at the Ambrosetti International Economic Forum to denounce the alleged “radioactive blackmail of Russia.”
The Ukrainian Minister of Energy, German Galushenko, for his part, asked the nuclear agency to declare the presence of Russian forces in Zaporizhia as a “real threat”, while Vadim Denisenko, adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out that, “judging by According to the published images, this visit was staged and had nothing to do with an inspection, which leads one to think that the IAEA head is biased. As he added, “the mission report is scheduled to be released on September 6.”
permanent presence
Russia’s representative to international organizations based in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, announced that Moscow will allow the Zaporizhia plant to have two inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency on a permanent basis. Grossi’s team is currently divided into two groups: one left the plant on Thursday and the other will remain there until Sunday, but after that there will be a permanent presence if no serious threat to the complex arises again as has already happened. Yesterday Grossi assured that he was able to tour the entire plant and its key departments. Now his team is analyzing the technical aspects of what they observed.
The Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, maintains that those who constitute a “real threat” of nuclear catastrophe are the “provocations” of the Ukrainian Army, whose troops he accuses of the attacks directed against the atomic plant. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, announced for his part that, “Overall, we consider it very positive that the delegation has arrived and begun to work despite the difficulties. The most important thing is that the mission remains there.
The Ukrainian Army admitted this 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.”
#Zelensky #criticizes #IAEA #demanding #demilitarization #Zaporizhia