MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Recommendations stated in a report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calling in particular to stop the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, should have been addressed directly to the Kiev authorities, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday.
The IAEA published an official report earlier in the day on the results of its inspection visit to nuclear power facilities in Ukraine, including the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
"The IAEA published a report on the Zaporozhye NPP urging to stop shelling the plant and set up a safety and security zone around it," Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky said on his Telegram channel.
"Precise words, especially about the shelling," Slutsky said. "I completely agree with all of the report’s provisions. However, this report should have been more specific. All calls to stop the fire should have been addressed to Kiev only."
The lawmaker stressed that Ukrainian forces continued delivering strikes in the course of the recent IAEA mission, led by its Director General Rafael Grossi, to the nuclear power facility.
Slutsky added that the Ukrainian military was the party posing a threat of a possible nuclear accident.
"Western masters of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky should finally realize the whole scope of their responsibility for inciting and supplying with weapons the terrorism regime of Kiev," he added.
On September 1, the IAEA mission led by the agency’s Director General Rafael Grossi entered the liberated part of the Zaporozhye Region via Ukraine-controlled territory in order to inspect the Zaporozhye nuclear facility. The mission was supposed to assess the physical damage and the plant’s safety and security systems.
Grossi told journalists that the IAEA experts conducted a primary assessment, managed to get key data and were planning to continue working at the nuclear station. Local residents whom Grossi talked to before leaving handed him a petition signed by over 20,000 people calling for an end to Ukrainian provocations against the nuclear plant.
On Tuesday, the IAEA has summed up the results of its inspection visit to the nuclear power facilities in Ukraine, including the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP), and published a corresponding report. The IAEA urged in its report to immediately set up a security zone around the ZNPP. The agency stated its readiness to immediately launch consultations on this issue because such step will help to prevent a nuclear incident that may be possibly provoked by military actions.
"Pending the end of the conflict and re-establishment of stable conditions there is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident arising from physical damage caused by military means. This can be achieved by the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone," the IAEA said in its report in particular.
Energodar, which is the site of the Zaporozhye plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, has been the target of shelling attacks by the Ukrainian military over the past few weeks. When carrying out its strikes against the nuclear power plant, the Kiev regime is using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. In most cases, the attacks are repelled by Russian air defense systems. However, some rockets hit the NPP’s infrastructural facilities, including nuclear waste storage sites.