MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Moscow hopes that the visit to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by IAEA inspectors will finally take place, despite Kiev;s destructive influence, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.
"We are convinced that it (an IAEA inspection - TASS) is to take place, despite the destructive influence on this process by the Kiev regime and all those who are backing it and those who are using the nuclear facility as a mere instrument of not even blackmailing but terrorism," she said in an interview with the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
"Because what the Kiev regime is doing around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is nuclear terrorism. Obviously, it can be done not only by those who possess nuclear weapons or dirty bombs, but also the way we see now," she stressed.
She called for not believing the West’s fakes that Russia has allegedly been pressed for giving access to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant for IAEA inspectors. "I want to all on everyone to ignore reports and fake coming from the West that they have allegedly managed to press <…> the Russian side to agree to the inspection, that they have allegedly used all their diplomatic skills to persuade us to organize such an inspection," she said. "It is not true. It is a lie. We have already seen attempts at presenting the situation this way, so I just want to warn that the information campaign will be unfolding this very way."
Zakharova stressed that it was Moscow who was insisting on such an inspection. "It has been calling for such an inspection, requesting it. Moreover, it has received full understanding from the IAEA, from its director general and for months has been sparing no effort to organize this visit. I remember how Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with the IAEA director general several months ago. I remember numerous contacts, telephone calls and personal meetings held by our representatives to this organization. Diplomatic efforts were focused on organizing the inspection," she said.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that the IAEA has formed a mission, which is expected to visit the Zaporozhye NPP next week.
Located in the city of Energodar, the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is controlled by Russian troops. In recent days, Ukrainian forces delivered several strikes at its territory using unmanned aerial vehicles, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launch systems. It most cases, such attacks were repelled by air defense systems but several shells hit infrastructure facilities and the vicinity of the nuclear waste storage.