MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. The Security Department of the UN Secretariat has failed to provide clear explanations for its decision to block a visit to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) by a delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this year, a high-ranking Russian diplomat has told TASS.
Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said: "In this case, the only UN role is that the security department of its Secretariat should give a green light to a mission visiting a troubled region. The rest is the IAEA’s prerogative, its zone of responsibility."
"We worked intensely with the international agency in May and June to prepare the visit, but the UN Secretariat blocked it at the very last moment, without providing any clear explanation about its reasons to do so."
By June 3, Russia and senior officials of the IAEA Secretariat have fully agreed on the mission’s route and schedule. The mission, comprising prominent experts from a number of countries, was to be led by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the planned visit had been disrupted by the Department of Security of the UN Secretariat.
The Zaporozhye NPP is now under the control of the Russian army. Over the last few days, the Kiev regime has delivered several strikes against the station’s territory, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. In most cases, the attacks were repelled by Russian air defense systems. However, some rockets hit the NPP’s infrastructural facilities, including nuclear waste storage sites.
The Zaporozhye NPP is the largest in Europe. It consists of six power units and has a capacity of about 6,000 MW. It used to generate a quarter of all electric power in Ukraine.