MELITOPOL, May 26. /TASS/. Ukraine has once again derailed the rotation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) due to take place on Friday following a postponement, Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, told TASS on Friday.

"The rotation has once again been disrupted by Ukraine. No date has been appointed as of yet," he said.

The ninth team of IAEA experts was to arrive at the ZNPP on May 25. As Karchaa told TASS earlier, the rotation was postponed to May 26 at Ukraine’s initiative. However, in his words, Russia had received no notification about the postponement from the United Nations Department of Safety and Security. He said that he did not rule out that Ukraine was plotting a provocation to slow down the process, "as it has already done," and the rotation would be further postponed, to May 27.

The previous rotation of IAEA inspectors at the Zaporozhye NPP took place on April 27 without any issue. The eighth group made up of Australians and Slovakians is to be replaced by experts from Argentina, Ireland, and Morocco.

The permanent presence of IAEA experts at the ZNPP was instituted following the first visit by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to the facility in early September 2022. It was agreed back then that several IAEA specialists would remain at the station and would be rotated roughly every month. Since then, seven rotations have already taken place. Almost all of them happened on time, except for the rotation scheduled in February, which was postponed several times due to the fault of the UN Department of Safety and Security. As a result, the IAEA’s fifth mission had to remain at the power plant for almost two months until it was replaced by a fresh team of inspectors on March 2.