VIENNA, July 12./TASS/. IAEA experts continue to inspect the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, having seen no mines or explosives as of yet, the agency said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

"International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have in recent days continued to inspect parts of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) - without seeing any mines or explosives - but are still waiting to gain the necessary access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 following recent reports that explosives may have been placed there," says the statement.

Experts have inspected the site’s perimeter and the sprinkler cooling ponds. They checked the main and emergency control rooms, the turbine hall of reactor unit 1 and unit 3, the unit 1 reactor hall as well as coolant pumps. "The experts reported that they had unrestricted access to these areas," the statement went on to say.

Ahead of a visit to Russia by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on June 23, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of plotting a terror attack on the Zaporozhye NPP. He said as much to the United States, Brazil, India, China, European, Middle East and African countries but provided no evidence to back up his allegation.

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov refuted these allegations as another lie. According to Karchaa, Zelensky’s statements may indicate that Kiev is plotting a terror attack or a strike on the ZNPP in a bid to drag NATO into the conflict.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on June 23 that Russia was alarmed over Kiev’s repeated allegations that Russian forces were mining the nuclear facility. He noted that the IAEA mission that had recently visited the facility could see the absurdity of such allegations.

Located in the city of Energodar, the Zaporozhye NPP is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and has six power units with an aggregate capacity of 6 GW. Russian forces took control of the facility in February 2022. Since then, Ukrainian troops have been periodically shelling both Energodar’s residential quarters and the plant’s territory, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.