MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. There are no combat army units and heavy weapons and there have not been any at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, told TASS in an interview.
"There have been and are no combat army units or heavy weapons at the plant," he pointed out.
"[There are] only Russian National Guard security units, Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops responsible for radiological safety, and 10 Rosatom employees present at the station. Their presence there is absolutely necessary to ensure nuclear and physical nuclear safety at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant," the Russian envoy added.
The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is located in Energodar, is under Russian troops’ control. An IAEA mission led by Grossi visited the plant in early September. After the mission left the plant, two of its employees remained at the site as observers. Later, the IAEA published a report calling for the creation of a safety zone around the plant to prevent accidents caused by military operations.
Ukrainian forces regularly shell Energodar with heavy artillery. As Alexander Volga, head of the city's military-civilian administration earlier stated, shelling is aimed at infrastructure facilities servicing the plant, as well as the coastline and the city's industrial zones. According to his assessment, the shelling is aimed "exclusively against the civilian population".