MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Negotiations with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi are expected to take place in Moscow on December 22, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said at a briefing on Wednesday.
"Consultations with Rafael Grossi will be held in Moscow as early as tomorrow," he said.
According to Ulyanov, the negotiations will focus on the creation of a nuclear and physical security zone at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. "The process is halfheartedly underway but tomorrow, I think, it will be possible to clarify some points," the Russian envoy noted.
Ulyanov added that Russia would be represented by an inter-agency delegation of officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the Defense Ministry, the Russian National Guard and the Federal Service for the Supervision of Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management. "We’ll see how the consultations end," the envoy said.
The Zaporozhye nuclear plant, located in the city of Energodar, is the largest in Europe and has a capacity of about 6,000 MW. Russian troops took control of the facility in late February. Since then, the Ukrainian military has been shelling both Energodar’s residential areas and the premises of the Zaporozhye nuclear station, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers.
On December 2, Grossi said that an agreement on creating a safety zone around the Zaporozhye NPP could be reached in the near future. Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev noted that the safety model that was being discussed with Grossi required an end to any shelling of the power plant.