MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Ukrainian army continues to terrorize the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and Energodar, while Russia is committed to ensuring the security of the experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stationed at the plant, the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"Ukrainian troops continue to terrorize the plant itself and the adjacent city of Energodar," the diplomat noted. "Russia is doing everything in its power to ensure the safe presence of the agency’s secretariat’s specialists at the ZNPP."
The spokeswoman emphasized that "the IAEA Secretariat’s experts have seen at first hand that Russia never conducted any ‘attacks’ from the area of the ZNPP or stationed any heavy weapons there, while doing everything necessary to maintain the security and integrity of the plant." The agency’s specialists "confirm that the ZNPP is operating normally and note the high level of professionalism and work of the plant’s employees," she added.
"Unfortunately, the most important thing that has not been achieved yet is the cessation of Ukrainian provocations against the ZNPP," Zakharova said.
She expressed gratitude to the IAEA experts for "maintaining their presence there despite the constant threat of Ukrainian attacks, significantly contributing to the common efforts with Russia to ensure the security of the ZNPP and to mitigate any possible consequences of Ukrainian attacks."
"Russia will continue to cooperate with the IAEA Secretariat to ensure the safety of the agency's representatives’ presence and work at the plant," the diplomat stated.
IAEA experts’ rotation
On February 12, Zakharova said that a routine rotation of the IAEA Secretariat’s experts, which had previously been postponed from February 5 because of Ukraine, was once again blocked. According to her, this situation stems from the provocative actions by Ukrainians who refused to let the experts "who had been waiting for a possibility to replace their colleagues at the plant since early February" pass.
Yevgenia Yashina, the plant’s spokeswoman, told TASS that the agency’s experts who were forced to return to the ZNPP would continue to observe and assess the safety of the Zaporozhye NPP until the rotation resumes.
On February 7, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated after a meeting with Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation chief Alexey Likhachev that expert rotations at the ZNPP would resume in the coming days.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that a routine rotation of the international organization’s observers had been postponed allegedly due to Russia’s failure to provide security guarantees. Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov reiterated that Ukraine was distorting facts when it spoke about a lack of security guarantees from Russia for the IAEA expert rotation at the Zaporozhye NPP. He clarified that Kiev had tried to impose new requirements that went beyond established practices.