Photo: Social Media
British newspaper Financial Times deliberately distorts the statement of the Russian side about the possible visit of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi to the Zaporozhye NPP (ZNPP), said the permanent representative of Russia to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.
Earlier, in an interview with Izvestia, Ulyanov, commenting on the future visit of the head of the IAEA to ZNPP, noted that even Grossi himself could not answer this question precisely, and suggested that the visit could take place at the end of August. – start of September. The Financial Times in turn, following his comments, published an article under the headline “Russia rejects calls to allow access to Ukrainian nuclear power plant”, attributing to Ulyanov that Grossi's visit to ZNPP was impossible before the end of August. – the beginning of September.
Ulyanov said that in an interview with Izvestia he only expressed his opinion about the possible timing of Grossi's visit and suggested that the head of the IAEA himself could propose the period he announced.
Ulyanov also noted that the shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP by the Ukrainian army is the main obstacle to the visit of the IAEA delegation to the station. The diplomat called on Kyiv to stop the attacks on ZNPP and provide security guarantees to the IAEA delegation. He noted that when discussing the visit in the UN Security Council on August 11, none of the parties spoke against the visit, but there may be difficulties in its practical implementation. Ulyanov also said that the UN did not give a clear explanation of what was the reason for the decision to block the June visit of the IAEA delegation to the ZNPP.
In March, Russian armed forces established control over ZNPP. Yevhen Balitskiy, the head of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye region, said on Thursday that Ukrainian nationalists continue to shell the ZNPP, at least 3 Ukrainian rockets landed in the area of the storage of radioactive isotopes. At the same time, according to Balitský, despite the fall of missiles, the radioactive background in the ZNPP area does not exceed normative indicators and no radioactive contamination is recorded. Balitsky also accused Ukraine of trying to achieve the effect of a “dirty bomb”, i.e. radioactive emissions, by striking at ZNPP. According to him, the Ukrainian neo-Nazis are deliberately trying to get into the ZNPP nuclear waste repository, and their successful provocation of a radioactive leak will make the surrounding area uninhabitable.
Previously, the official representative of the ZNPP, UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarric, said that the IAEA delegation should visit the Zaporozhye NPP (ZNPP) as soon as possible, and is already discussing the details of the visit with all interested parties, and the UN is ready to support this initiative. by any means possible.” Dujarric said the importance of visits to the IAEA by IAEA experts is growing every day.