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Kiev continues attempts to destabilize situation near ZNPP — Deputy Foreign Minister

Sergey Ryabkov urged the IAEA to register facts of drone attacks on the power plant and the satellite city of Energodar

ST. PETERSBURG, October 4. /TASS/. The situation around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is complicated, Kiev continues attempts to destabilize the situation there, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS.

The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that the timeframe of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s Director General has not been negotiated yet.

"Frankly speaking, I can’t say that we have an agenda for such a meeting fully prepared. He [Grossi] had contacts with Rosatom management and our delegation to the recent IAEA General Conference that took place in Vienna," Ryabkov noted. "We will continue to exchange assessments and approaches to the current situation [regarding the IAEA]; the situation remains complicated, because Kiev’s attempts to destabilize the situation at the ZNPP won’t stop."

The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that IAEA personnel operates at the ZNPP.

"Another rotation of this personnel has happened just recently. We urge the agency not only to register facts of attacks on the power plant and the satellite city of Energodar via drones or otherwise, but to register who is responsible for that. So far, we have achieved no necessary progress in this direction from the IAEA. But we will continue to work persistently in order achieve this exact and the only possible reflection of the ongoing events in the agency’s reports," he underscored.

Previously, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian armed forces registered unexploded foreign-made Ukrainian artillery shells in direct proximity of the power plant. When asked if this information is being forwarded to IAEA experts as proof of Ukrainian shelling of the power plant and if they register that, Ryabkov said that IAEA experts are able to collect information about what is happening there "online, effectively."

"They interact with our security detail at the power plant, provided by the National Guard. They interact, of course, with the power plant’s management, with our staff working there. They see everything, but, due to political reasons, they avoid naming the responsible party unequivocally time and time again," the diplomat underscored.