MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s vow to guarantee security during the IAEA mission’s visit to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is tantamount to "confession", Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with students and teachers at the MGIMO University on Thursday.
"Let me remind you that Mr. Zelensky, while denying that the Ukrainian army was shelling the nuclear power plant, said that if the mission was agreed, there would be no hindrances from Ukraine for holding it in safe conditions. I believe that by and large this, his promise of safety, is a confession," Lavrov said.
He recalled that Kiev began to change the terms of the visit when everything was already settled.
"Our president after contacts with his Western counterparts said that security was most important to us, and if they (IAEA experts - TASS) wish to have it this way, they can enter from the territory Ukraine controls. Everything had been agreed. But at the very last moment there came another surprise. Mr. Grossi [IAEA Director-General] made a telephone call and said he was sorry but he was unable to come today, contrary to what was agreed on, and would arrive later, because he had been told to urgently go to Kiev. This had never been mentioned during the discussion of the mission’s parameters," Lavrov said.
Under the original agreements, Lavrov said, Grossi was to discuss the situation with Kiev and Moscow after the mission’s visit and then to make a report to the IAEA and the UN Security Council.
"But then there followed another trick by Ukraine: 'We’ll do as we please, though you may have agreed everything, we wish to see Mr. Grossi in Kiev.' These Napoleonic style whims look pitiful. They are an attempt to substitute serious work, in this particular case, in the field of nuclear security, with vaudeville-like stage effects. Absolutely irresponsible," Lavrov said.