MELITOPOL, March 30. /TASS/. A respected Russian politician expressed doubt on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would issue an unbiased report following Wednesday’s visit to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by a delegation led by IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi.
"It’s hard for me to say what the IAEA report will look like, but from past experience I doubt it will be unbiased," Vladimir Rogov, who heads the We Stand With Russia movement, told TASS. However, he said, more and more countries are saying openly that things are not evolving how they should be, and "that’s encouraging."
According to Rogov, the idea of protecting the Zaporozhye nuke plant, a topic Grossi said he was planning to discuss with Russia and Ukraine during his visit, should be negotiated with Washington and London, rather than Kiev, "as it is all too obvious that Kiev is not impartial."
"If Grossi is brave, wise and determined enough to raise the issue, he should do so in a broader way, for we understand only too well that it is not [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky who does such things (shelling the territory around the ZNPP - TASS). This is happening because the West has been encouraging this," he said.
Protecting the ZNPP from any attacks is only possible with high-quality security being provided by the Russian Guard and Russia’s Armed Forces, Rogov maintained.
On Wednesday, Grossi visited the ZNPP and inspected the surrounding territory. He was shown around facilities that had been damaged in Ukrainian shelling. Grossi held meetings with ZNPP Director General Oleg Romanenko and Yury Chernichuk, First Deputy CEO of the JSC Operating Organization of the Zaporozhye NPP.
This was Grossi’s second visit to the nuclear facility in the past six months. He first visited the Zaporozhye nuke plant on September 1, 2022. Following that visit, the IAEA published a report calling for establishing a safety zone around the power plant to prevent a disaster amid the hostilities. The IAEA never specified from where the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was being fired at.