WASHINGTON, October 28. /TASS/. Progress in resolving the issue of creating a safe zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is slow, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said at the 2022 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington on Friday.

"Progress has been slow. I am very frustrated with that, because for me establishing a protection zone around [the Zaporozhye] nuclear power plant is as self-evident as anything can be. How can you shell a nuclear power plant for God sakes? And it is happening," said Grossi, adding that he did not know whether he would "succeed or not", but he would certainly "keep pushing."

The Zaporozhye NPP is Europe’s largest operating nuclear power plant. Russia took control of the NPP on February 28, the first days of the special military operation in Ukraine, but the plant has continued to operate as usual since then. In early September, the IAEA’s fact-finding mission led by Grossi visited the plant. After its departure, the agency’s two staff members stayed there as observers. Later the IAEA published a report calling for a safe zone to be established around the plant in order to prevent incidents that could be caused by hostilities.