MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. The establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant will require serious mechanisms to monitor the situation at the site, Russia’s envoy to the international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Wednesday.

"If a protection zone around the ZNPP is established, it will be needed, as part of it, to provide for something more serious in terms of compliance with the agreement to stop [the shelling] and monitor the situation," he said at a news conference.

According to the diplomat, the possible implementation of the IAEA proposal for the presence of the organization's experts at Ukrainian nuclear power plants will not harm Russia's interests in any way.

Ulyanov also said that the international organization "understands, but cannot say so" that it’s the Ukrainian forces that bear the responsibility for the shelling of the ZNPP. The diplomat said IAEA representatives refuse to name the side responsible for the shelling because "the function of attribution [establishing the responsibility of certain actors] is not part of the organization’s mandate."

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, located in the city of Energodar, has the capacity of about 6 GW and is Europe’s largest. It has been controlled by Russian troops since the end of February. Since then, Ukrainian army units sometimes shell both residential areas of Energodar and the nuclear power plant area, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.