PARIS, April 7. /TASS/. China and France stand against armed attacks on civilian nuclear facilities in the context of the Ukrainian conflict and support the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure their security, according to a joint statement released by the Elysee Palace after talks between Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Emmanuel Macron on France.
Both sides oppose armed attacks on nuclear power plants and other civilian nuclear facilities, and support the IAEA in its effort to play a constructive role in ensuring security of civilian nuclear facilities, including the security of the Zaporozhye NPP, the document reads.
Grossi visited the Zaporozhye NPP on March 29. He inspected plant facilities that had been damaged in shelling attacks by Ukrainian troops. In particular, he could see the site between the coolant reservoirs at the fourth power unit that had been hit by a Ukrainian rocket. It was Grossi’s second visit to the ZNPP in the past six months (his first visit took place on September 1, 2022).
Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, told TASS earlier that Ukraine is seeking to create nuclear security problems for Russia by means of destabilizing the situation in Ukraine. Vladimir Rogov, leader of the We Are Together With Russia movement, said on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone of Polish make had been downed by Russian forces several hundred meters from the Zaporozhye NPP. The drone was reportedly targeting a facility on the plant’s territory.