MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russia treats the safety of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) as its priority unlike the Kiev authorities and its Western curators, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
"For Russia, the safety of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe [ZNPP] is undoubtedly a priority unlike for the ones, who are ready to sacrifice it for the sake of their political ambitions," she said addressing a news briefing.
According to Zakharova, Russia’s stance on this issue completely differs from the stance of its opponents in the West.
She said that because Kiev authorities keep using the ZNPP as its tool for blackmail and encouragement on behalf of the West, Russia is not supporting the idea of Western states about the formation of some kind of a demilitarized zone around the station that envisages the pullout of Russian troops and the handover of control over the station to Ukraine.
On the morning of September 1, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian troops attempted to disembark at 07:00 at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, near the Vodyanoe village. The attempted raid was thwarted by Russia’s Armed Forces, when they sank two self-propelled barges carrying saboteurs that departed from Nikopol.
Also, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, at 06:20 Moscow time, the Kiev regime carried out a landing by two Ukrainian sabotage groups with a total number of up to 60 people on seven speedboats on the coast of the Kakhovka reservoir, three kilometers north-east of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. The Defense Ministry reported that the Ukrainian servicemen were hemmed in by units of the Russian National Guard and the Russian Armed Forces.
Zaporozhye NPP
On September 1, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) 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.
On September 6, the IAEA summarized the inspection of Ukrainian nuclear sites and the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in particular. In its report published on Tuesday, the agency called to establish a protection zone around the power plant in order to prevent nuclear accidents.
Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting Tuesday, IAEA Director General Grossi underscored that he would present the sides with proposals on ensuring the ZNPP’s security.
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.