MELITOPOL, August 4. /TASS/. Experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who arrived at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) for a scheduled rotation on Thursday, found no mines on the roofs of the plant’s Units 3 and 4, a Russian nuclear official has told TASS.
Prior to that, Ukraine repeatedly claimed that facilities of the ZNPP have been rigged with mines. Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, dismissed these reports, describing them as an attempt to fuel a scandal around the nuclear facility.
"The new team received permission to access roofs of Units 3 and 4 from the Russian Defense Ministry. We took them there, and there were no mines," Karchaa told TASS.
He explained that Russia could not promptly issue permission for IAEA observers to examine rooftops, fearing provocations from the Ukrainian side.
On June 22, ahead of Grossi’s visit to Russia, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of plotting a terror attack on the Zaporozhye NPP. He said as much to the United States, Brazil, India, China, European, Middle East and African countries but provided no evidence to back up his allegation.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov refuted these allegations as yet another lie. According to Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the CEO of Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosenergoatom, Zelensky’s statements may indicate that Kiev is plotting a terror attack or a strike on the ZNPP in a bid to drag NATO into the conflict.
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, located in the city of Energodar, has a capacity of about 6 GW and is Europe’s largest. It has been controlled by Russian troops since late February 2022. Since then, Ukrainian army units have periodically shelled both residential areas in Energodar and the premises of the ZNPP itself, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).